This month Center on Education Policy came out with a report on achievement gaps between boys and girls (see Janie's review of it here). Good news is that girls' performance in math is up to speed with boys' (may this diminish irritating gender stereotypes about girls in math), but the bad news is that boys are underperforming girls in reading ? ?in every grade level and in every state with measurable data.? In Ohio, the gap reaches seven and six percentage points for middle school and high school boys, respectively.
Yesterday the Cincinnati Enquirer ran a piece highlighting educators' opinions on how to lift boys' reading skills. Several suggestions are worth highlighting:
? Give boys more choices [in what they read]
? Get parents to push reading at home
? Limit video game time
In terms of explanations for the academic lag among boys, the ?males play more video games? theory sounds plausible. The Enquirer points out a study indicating that six to nine year-old boys who played Sony PlayStation games spent less time on academics at home and had flatter reading scores. Makes sense.
However, a few quotes from educators and community members in the article reflect less than satisfying theories for why boys lag ?(code for I'm channeling Betty Friedan now):
?It's easier to get a girl interested in different styles of content than boys?A boy's going to look at content and think every little piddling story is stupid.?
And
?Think about the power of Oprah; she created book groups for women? Where are the male book groups??
And
?Boys don't like to share their feelings about what they read, especially when they're in a group of female.? A lot of times a teacher asks them how to feel about something in a story and they clam up? Boys normally like more nonfiction ? [because] it doesn't have to deal with how they feel.?
These theories give me reason to squirm?because they seem too fatalistic and don't place the onus of responsibility on educators and parents to implement pragmatic strategies to improve boys' reading levels.
Really? These theories give me reason to squirm ? never mind that they are annoyingly gendered portraits of boys, and that later I will complain profusely to my psychotherapist, musician husband who loves to cook ? because they seem too fatalistic and don't place the onus of responsibility on educators and parents to implement pragmatic strategies to improve boys' reading levels. Instead, people resign to the idea that ?Boys will be boys? and that being a boy somehow means not liking reading. How about, as my colleague Emmy who has a three year-old son theorizes, boys will love books if you expose them to print early and often? Or, show me the research (as one Ohio Gadfly reader asked for) on the biological differences that cause boys to behave differently, have shorter attention spans in school, develop linguistic skills slower, etc.?anything to help shed light on what types of programs/interventions will close widening gender gaps. Those findings or theories would be more useful than the equivalent of a male Oprah. Flypaper readers, what do you think?
-Jamie Davies? O'Leary