Posted on 11/08/2010 7:39:06 AM PST by Immerito
How to Raise Boys Who Read Hint: Not with gross-out books and video-game bribes.
By THOMAS SPENCE
When I was a young boy, America's elite schools and universities were almost entirely reserved for males. That seems incredible now, in an era when headlines suggest that boys are largely unfit for the classroom. In particular, they can't read.
According to a recent report from the Center on Education Policy, for example, substantially more boys than girls score below the proficiency level on the annual National Assessment of Educational Progress reading test. This disparity goes back to 1992, and in some states the percentage of boys proficient in reading is now more than ten points below that of girls. The male-female reading gap is found in every socio-economic and ethnic category, including the children of white, college-educated parents.
The good news is that influential people have noticed this problem. The bad news is that many of them have perfectly awful ideas for solving it.
Everyone agrees that if boys don't read well, it's because they don't read enough. But why don't they read? A considerable number of teachers and librarians believe that boys are simply bored by the "stuffy" literature they encounter in school. According to a revealing Associated Press story in July these experts insist that we must "meet them where they are"—that is, pander to boys' untutored tastes.
For elementary- and middle-school boys, that means "books that exploit [their] love of bodily functions and gross-out humor." AP reported that one school librarian treats her pupils to "grossology" parties. "Just get 'em reading," she counsels cheerily. "Worry about what they're reading later."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Homeschool him.
Like I always tell my wife, “Reading is for sissies.”
/ONLY kidding
Mike
very well written article. The solution he gives (of minimizing or eliminating electronic media like video games from the house) is very, very apt and correct.
We keep our 10YO son reading by getting him his own magazine subscription. He informed us he is too old for "baby magazines" so he now gets Sporting News in the mail. He loves sports so this enourages his reading - and he's reading on a bit higher level.
Yes, homeschool him and then make available the Great Literature — Homer, Dickens, Shakespeare. Read aloud as a family, too. That way they can grasp vocabulary beyond their years.
I did!
What have you got, another six weeks of WSJ issues stacked up, still to plow through?
Read what, exactly? When liberals talk about reading they mean liberal tripe. When I was a kid of about 10 years old and got into Ayn Rand I was discouraged doing so by the librarian, my teachers, and even my siblings (Yes, they are horribly liberal). I read the books anyway and learned far more about the world than my sisters reading Nancy Drew.
My son always had his nose in a book , but then he was always grounded and reading was pretty much the only thing he could do .
I loved Bradbury and Ellison and a bunch of authors I don't remember.
I'm not sure you can technique your way into a boy's mind and develope a desire to read.
I think there is some genetics involved with the ability to "see" with words and to have an imagination that allows that sight or vision to be transformed into a thought pattern.
Donning double layer tinfoil now and my kitties are all around me for protection.
Give him a set of Heinlein’s juvenile SF novels and a bunch of Louis L’Amour and step aside. If he can resist rocket ships, he probably can’t resist cowboys, so you’re covered.
I let mine stay up as long as they liked ...if they were reading
Read what, exactly?
That is a private matter between the parents of the child and the child-—the child to discover his/her reading preferences, and the parents to set boundaries, as needed, by which the child may indulge those preferences and to encourage the child to broaden his literary horizons the same way they broaden his culinary horizons.
Sounds like a good plan. Are they still voracious readers today?
For some reason, I just do not see sports magazines equated with higher level reading...
Yes. I am proud to say all three are.
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