WHAT WILL HE LIKE? Will Scudder reads in his school library at the all-boys Haverford School. Some teachers say it takes effort to connect boys and books.
SABINA LOUISE PIERCE/SPECIAL TO THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
Posted on 05/26/2005 1:41:14 AM PDT by bd476
Edited on 05/26/2005 1:48:46 AM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
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WHAT WILL HE LIKE? Will Scudder reads in his school library at the all-boys Haverford School. Some teachers say it takes effort to connect boys and books. SABINA LOUISE PIERCE/SPECIAL TO THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR |
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Matching boys with books
| Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
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If you want to get boys to read, assign F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." So say students at the all-boys Haverford School in suburban Philadelphia.
The reasons the boys give the novel high marks? It's short. Its characters and scenes move fast. The prose is terse, the style vivid and lively. Several male characters are "at sea," so to speak, despite lives which at first glance appear glamorous and successful. What's more, it's a tale that sparks questions about values and meaning at an age when boys themselves are searching.
"Everybody loves 'The Great Gatsby,' " says Robert Peck, who since 1973 has taught English at the 1,000-student K-12 private school.
But the vast majority of assigned-reading novels are not such a slam-dunk with boy readers. Getting boys to read is an exercise that stumps many an educator.
Not only do boys consistently test lower than girls on reading, but they are well known to be reluctant readers. Some teachers suggest that the problem is only getting worse - that boys today have more distractions, particularly electronic ones - and are even less likely to come to class ready to get excited about a book.
Researchers and educators blame the gap between books and boys on everything from a built-in fidgetiness to low expectations to a lifelong association of reading with their mothers, teachers, librarians - all female role models.
But now more are suggesting that the problem may not lie entirely within the boys themselves. Some educators believe that the way schools teach reading tends to favor girls, both in terms of teaching style and reading materials chosen. It's a concern that has pushed teachers to work harder to both find materials that boys like to read, and to find more "boy-friendly" ways to present that material.
"Boys have a more tactile, 'hands-on' learning style," and they favor subject matter which reflects that, says Linda Milliken, reading specialist at Chester County Intermediate Unit near Philadelphia. "They like lots of nature topics - bugs, dinosaurs, how things work," she explains. "They like to identify with a character who has his life in control."
What they may not like is the problem-focused reading popular with many teachers today - stories about divorce, abuse, single-parenthood, addiction, and such.
Girl readers are generally drawn to narratives that focus on relationships between people, while boys tend to prefer adventure, science fiction, war stories, history, and, of course, sports. Research also suggests that, given the choice, boys will often prefer non-fiction, magazines and newspapers, how-to reading, and biographies - reading material that some teachers say is not serious enough for class assignments.
Differing sensibilities
The question of innate learning differences between boys and girls is a sensitive one, as Harvard University President Lawrence Summers learned when he touched off a firestorm by speculating that girls may have less natural affinity for math and science than do boys.
| Summer books for boys |
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High school boys looking for a good summer read might consider the following titles, recommended by seniors at the all-boys Haverford School.
For an overall enjoyable read: Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey Fifth Business, by Robertson Davies Lord of the Flies, by William Gerald Golding The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald This Boy's Life, by Tobias Wolff Harry Potter books, by J.K. Rowling Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissinger I Am Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain Feeling lazy? Try John Grisham's Rainmaker, Dan Brown's DaVinci Code, novels by Stephen King and Agatha Christie, and autobiographies of athletes. Feeling ambitious? Haverford literary favorites include some of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, or John Milton's Paradise Lost. Other individual favorites: Travel books by Paul Theroux The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, by Ray Kurzweil E=MC2: a Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation, by David Bodanis, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, by Thomas Friedman, on globalization Darwin's Radio, by Greg Bear, a popular summer reading assignment from the science department |
But differing sensibilities are evident even in art class, says Christopher Wadsworth, executive director of the International Boys' Schools Coalition. When left to their own devices, he says, girls tend to draw "nouns" (people and faces), while boys are drawn to "verbs" (action shots and bombs going off).
Boys may actually read more than people think they do, says Mr. Wadsworth - but it's not material assigned in school. For boys, he recommends topics like "baseball, butterflies, collecting stamps."
To jump-start boy readers he suggests nonfiction. "Biographies of people whose lives would excite boys - adventures, anyone who's done something with a sense of challenge - would be a good start."
But it's not just the books, some insist. The classroom experience needs to be far more interactive, says Ray Johnson, a consultant who previously worked as a teacher and principal in the Detroit public schools. Boys are naturally drawn to action and movement, he points out, and teachers need to find ways of integrating their energy into the reading process.
When he works with early readers, Mr. Johnson shortens the material and sets up give-and-take question-and-answer sessions both before and after the kids do their reading. He also encourages them to move around the classroom physically, taking a break at the end of the chapter.
"We found that boys were more interested in the text" with such an approach, Johnson reports. Minus the "baby stuff," he recommends the same techniques in the upper grades.
At Haverford, Mr. Peck tells parents who ask what their sons should read, "Any kind of reading is good."
But he also notes that boys today may not be able to tackle the harder material their fathers picked up at the same age.
Today's student tends to be a less sophisticated reader, he says.
"We just can't assign as much reading as we could 25 years ago. There aren't many boys who do much reading," says Peck. "There will always be that one-third who can handle long and complex titles." But the rest of the class falters. So he tends to opt for shorter books, short stories, poetry, and plays.
Typically, ninth- and tenth-grade reading succeeds when it hooks the students in on a personal level. In "The Catcher in the Rye," J.D. Salinger's phony adults, messed-up teachers, and cynical, emotionally chaotic Holden Caulfield continue to engage students. "What's not to like for a teenager?" Peck asks. They also see themselves in the rivalries in John Knowles's classic "A Separate Peace," and, often, in the father-son conflict in Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman."
For older students, he says, he chooses from a variety of "the powerless fight back" titles, aiming to provoke a more sophisticated response.
"What always matters most is - is this a book that touches me?" he says. "How do [the characters] respond when they are under great emotional pressure by the demands life places on them?"
What college men like to read
Such is the case even for male college students, says Robert Wilkinson, professor of English at Villanova University. "Red Badge of Courage," Stephen Crane's classic story of testing, failure, and opportunity for redemption in battle, is a favorite of the men in his American literature classes, prompting the classic response, "What would I do under the same circumstances?" he explains.
Faculty at Haverford School have cut back on some classic authors whose ideas are important but whose style is difficult, according to Peck. "We do less Emerson, less Thoreau - these are very demanding texts," he says, adding that a semester's reading now moves more quickly through shorter books. Sometimes a title once assigned in an earlier grade is now taught in a later grade, when today's students are more ready for it.
Boys do well when they choose what they read, says Ms. Milliken. "I'd suggest the teachers not say 'Read these three books,' but 'Here are five books, choose three." And a so-so reader should start with simple, interesting material, saving the complex until he has gained confidence, she adds.
What elements will make for a sure-fire boys' beach book this summer?
"Is there an exciting physical challenge?" Peck asks. "Is the character responding with courage? With male competence?"
In other words, he says, think Robert Ludlum - not Danielle Steel.
WHAT TO READ: A display in the library at the
all-boys Haverford School is an effort to entice boys
to read by sharing the books most favored
by members of the senior class.
SABINA LOUISE PIERCE/SPECIAL TO THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
Amen to that. My kids were heavy on Asimov, The Foundation books, Greg Bear, Ben Bova. They also liked CS Lewis.
Mention Arthur Miller and their eyes glaze.
The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle; Peanuts; The Hobbit; Encyclopedia Brown; Robinson Crusoe; Kidnapped; Treasure Island; Alice in Wonderland....
*snip*
"They like lots of nature topics - bugs, dinosaurs, how things work," she explains. "They like to identify with a character who has his life in control." What they may not like is the problem-focused reading popular with many teachers today - stories about divorce, abuse, single-parenthood, addiction, and such.
Anybody else see some inconsistency here?
Like with everyone. People read what they are interested in. Boys like frogs, dinosaurs, snakes, trucks, cars, things like that.
Most of the "classics" are not appropriate for anyone under 40. I (female) also went to one of these hoity-toity prep schools where teachers tried to make us read "demanding texts" and "aimed to provoke a more serious response". Most students read the Cliff Notes instead -- and ended up better able to "discuss" the books in class than students who actually slogged through the books.
Even the smartest and best educated adolescents have no life experience with which to put this stuff in meaningful perspective, and forcing them to slog through it is a colossal waste of time. A lot of it is probably a waste of time at any age. In an era when we can communicate instantly with people from all walks of life, on all topics, trying to broaden one's understanding of life through reading dense fictional "classics" featuring atypical and or unrealistic characters for the places and times where the stories are set, is a questionable use of time. When I have children, I will make sure they are never required to read this stuff.
also anything by Mark Twain
Mine liked The Hunchback of Notre Dame -- the comment was "Why didn't Disney make THIS into a movie?" Some early Heinlein got their interest too, although they laughed at the quaintness they liked "Tunnel in the Sky" which is a survival story really. The two Robot detective novels of Asimov, too. But short stories got their attention early.
We read a lot of those books in elementary school that they are recommending for university. Are modern students really that dumb and incapable? Steven liked Kipling's "Just So Stories" and the Uncle Remus tales because of the flow of language, even before he could read. He loved to repeat "The great, gray-green, greasy Limpopo River" and "There was a Parsee from whose hat the rays of the sun were reflected with more than Oriental splendor", befure he knew what that really meant. And when I read to school classes, they love "How the Camel got his Hump".
I don't think school has to be dumbed down and made to cater to the modern Short Attention Span Theatre lifestyle. When Junior gets into a job where he's going to spend 12 hours a day preparing for a major trial, he's going to need to know how to sit down and concentrate, not how to have work spoon fed with lots of time to jump up and down in between paragraphs. The two most important rules you learn in school are Sit Down and Shut Up.
Or maybe if they don't do the work they should fail - but then I suppose those bad grades would hurt their itty bitty feewings.
Our son loves to read. He always has. He has shelves and shelves of books and he likes to read some of them over an over. He is 14 now and heavily into WWII books.
Definately dinos! When my son was in the first grade that was all that he read about. Dinosaurs. The big thick dinosaur books. He also watched the documentaries on them. In the second grade he continued to read about dinosaurs. The teacher had asked us to not get him anymore books about dinosaurs. Said he was obsessed about dinos. Well, he was also obsessed about reading about dinos. We kept buying him dinosaur books. I figured that eventually he would branch out into other areas and he did. The Titanic was his next great love.
The same thing happened to Marylin Monroe
Sloth what may appear to be inconsistencies are simply different viewpoints, different theories presented by various educators within the article.
The recommendation for boys to read "The Great Gatsby" comes from a teacher at an all-boys school, Haverford School in suburban Philadelphia.
A reading specialist at Chester County Intermediate Unit said: "They like lots of nature topics - bugs, dinosaurs, how things work," she explains. "They like to identify with a character who has his life in control."
Finally the executive director of the International Boys' Schools says:
"Boys may actually read more than people think they do, says Mr. Wadsworth - but it's not material assigned in school. For boys, he recommends topics like 'baseball, butterflies, collecting stamps.'"
Any theory about what boys will read is dependent upon the individual. Everyone develops at their own speed. Access to reading material is secondary but also important.
For example, I know a family who does not have one single book in their home, other than the phone directory, but they do own the latest electronic tv game systems, several computers and a few of the handheld electronic game systems.
The Father complains about his son's lack of interest in school work. He says that his son is not interested in reading.
History, especially the old sort focused on political matters. Military history. Biography of men of action. Classic mystery is OK. Political theory. The left doesn't know what to assign because these are conservative themed genres and they are trying to brainwash the little critters, above all.
I thought they did.
so instead of bringing the class UP to a standard.... they'd rather just lower the standard...
Makes sense to me. I'd like to thank all teachers who do that to their students. Just make it as easy as possible.... that way my kids will learn, work harder and be their bosses.
Some truths are universal...
“There is no need to suppose that human beings differ very much from one another, But it is true that the ones who come out on top are the ones who have been trained in the hardest schools”
Thucydides ; Peloponnesian War 1,1.84.4
And space! Went hand in hand with the inventions (technology in general).
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