Last summer, the National Endowment for the Arts released "Reading at Risk: A survey of literary reading in America," which, according to a Washington Post op-ed from Sandra Stotsky (author of our own State of State English Standards 2005) and Mark Bauerlein, showed that "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." Stotsky and Bauerlein note that, while the boy-girl reading gap has existed since the spread of mass publishing in the mid-19th century, for it to grow so wide so fast "suggests that what was formerly a moderate difference is fast becoming a marker of gender identity: Girls read; boys don't." The authors blame schools in part for exacerbating this particular gap by assigning politically correct books that "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 vigor, no high adventure. . . . Publishers seem to be more interested in avoiding 'masculine' perspectives or 'stereotypes' than in getting boys to like what they are assigned to read." What's worse, according to Stotsky's recent appraisal of state English standards (see The State of State English Standards), most high school literature standards are woeful, seldom expecting young people to read the kinds of books that they would be most apt to find interesting and challenging, if not always "culturally relevant."
"Why Johnny won't read," by Mark Bauerlein and Sandra Stotsky, Washington Post, January 25, 2005