Can we get boys to read?

Children and young adults aren't reading the way they used to, and males are reading less.

From 1992 to 2002, the gender gap in reading by young adults widened considerably. In overall book reading, young women slipped from 63 percent to 59 percent, while young men plummeted from 55 percent to 43 percent.

and...

...the K-12 literature curriculum may in fact be contributing to the problem. ...there are strong differences between boys and girls in their literary preferences. ...boys prefer adventure tales, war, sports and historical nonfiction, while girls prefer stories about personal relationships and fantasy. Moreover, when given choices, boys do not choose stories that feature girls, while girls frequently select stories that appeal to boys.

Nowadays, the "progressive" belief is that any differences between boys and girls are purely cultural. Furthermore, any and all such differences must be eliminated in the name of equality. Indeed, I've talked with some people, mostly the product of our colleges and universities, who become quite upset at the notion that there might be any inherent differences between males and females. (Except for plumbing, of course – or as it's disparagingly called, "the shape of one's skin".)

Children of either sex must be forced to read the kinds of things the other sex prefers. They will learn to like it. And furthermore, what has disappeared has been just the sort of fiction that does appeal to boys.

the textbooks and literature assigned in the elementary grades do not reflect the dispositions of male students. Few strong and active male role models can be found as lead characters. Gone are the inspiring biographies of the most important American presidents, inventors, scientists and entrepreneurs. No military valor, no high adventure. On the other hand, stories about adventurous and brave women abound. Publishers seem to be more interested in avoiding "masculine" perspectives or "stereotypes" than in getting boys to like what they are assigned to read.

Indeed, some topics are obvious candidates for banishment from school libraries. We can't be exposing impressional young minds to stories of military valor. Adventure, so often including either violence or the threat of violence, is another problem area. Those disappear right away. The campaign against "sexism" and "stereotypes" knocks out most of the rest.

At the middle school level, the kind of quality literature that might appeal to boys has been replaced by Young Adult Literature, that is, easy-to-read, short novels about teenagers and problems such as drug addiction, teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, domestic violence, divorced parents and bullying. Older literary fare has also been replaced by something called "culturally relevant" literature -- texts that appeal to students' ethnic group identification on the assumption that sharing the leading character's ethnicity will motivate them to read.

How many boys want to read about the kind of stuff that's happening around them? I know I read to escape into another world. If I wanted to deal with real life, I wouldn't be reading.

There is no evidence whatsoever that either of these types of reading fare has turned boys into lifelong readers or learners. On the contrary, the evidence is accumulating that by the time they go on to high school, boys have lost their interest in reading about the fictional lives, thoughts and feelings of mature individuals in works written in high-quality prose, and they are no longer motivated by an exciting plot to persist in the struggle they will have with the vocabulary that goes with it. Last year the National Assessment Governing Board approved a special study of gender differences in reading as part of its research agenda over the next five years. The study will examine how differences in theme, the leading character's gender, and genre, among other factors, bear upon the relative reading performance of boys and girls. With its focus on the content of reading rather than process, this study will, one hopes, give us some ideas on what needs to be done to get boys reading again.

Oh, goody. A study.

I have a suggestion: Why not try what worked before? If you use the techniques that were in vogue when reading rates were higher, you may not do any better, but at least you shouldn't do any worse.