N2P reader and math guru Mike McKeown mentioned this WaPo article to me, entitled, "Why Johnny Won't Read." That's Johnny, as opposed to Jane; between 1992 and 2002, the gender gap in reading by young adults widened from a 8% difference to a 16% gulf:
Placed in historical perspective, these findings fit with a gap that has existed in the United States since the spread of mass publishing in the mid-19th century. But for the gap to have grown so much in so short a time suggests that what was formerly a moderate difference is fast becoming a decided marker of gender identity: Girls read; boys don't...
Although one might expect the schools to be trying hard to make reading appealing to boys, the K-12 literature curriculum may in fact be contributing to the problem. It has long been known that there are strong differences between boys and girls in their literary preferences. According to reading interest surveys...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.
Ooo, yeah, I can see where this is going. War? Sports? Historical non-fiction? Stories that do not feature girls? Something tells me those types of books aren't considered appropriate reading material for the more PC types of educrats.
...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.
The "girls rule, boys drool" type of social engineering does seem to be the prevailing theory in education today. Given the antipathy with which educators regard the "masculine" (horrors!) perspective, is it any wonder that boys refuse to read?
...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.
When will educators get the picture? You'd think even the gynocentric ones would notice that the overall reading rates for young adult women have also slipped, which suggests that the overbearing focus on sob story books aren't doing much for the girls, either.
I think if I had been forced in middle school to read "short novels about teenagers and problems such as drug addiction, teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, domestic violence, divorced parents and bullying," as opposed to the classic novels, biographies, and sci-fi that I devoured, I too would have lost my taste for reading.
I feel for the young man who could benefit from The Hobbit or Old Yeller but instead is forced to deal with books chosen from, for example, this list. And then there's this list of suggestions, ostensibly from the American Library Association. Does anything on there look the least bit challenging, or any different from an after-school special?
Posted by kswygert at January 25, 2005 08:45 PM