The Boy Problem
Across the entire world, boys do not read as well as girls, nor to they read as much as girls do. According to PISA testing of 16-year-olds, boys at the end of high school often have a very poor attitude towards books and reading. But that is simply the culmination of problems that begin earlier.
Most parents are aware that young boys do not listen as attentively as girls during nightly reading time, nor do they cuddle the way young girls do. Nonetheless, boys and girls develop their reading skills at about the same level from Kindergarten until the end of second grade. By third grade, however, girls begin to outperform boys on standardized reading tests. By fourth grade the difference is significant. By high school the problem is chronic.
What happens in third and fourth grade
At this crucial point, a number of factors hinder boy reading:
- Books loose their pictures – kids are expected to read chapter books and novels
- Reading requires more sustained attention and a greater variety of reading skills
- Boys will often no longer read books which have girls as central characters
- Many of the books and stories offered in schools no longer appeal to boys
- Male role models (including dads) are often absent
- Unsupervised play time cuts into available reading time
- Boys spend five times as many hours playing videogames as girls – and current videogames do little to develop reading skills.
The first key to a solution: the right books
One way to keep boys as engaged readers is to make sure they have access to books which appeal to them. Boys are often very picky readers – some will read only sports books, some only fantasy, some only non-fiction. The key to good reading, of course, is balance.
Paul Kropp suggests that parents offer boy readers more non-fiction and more magazines. These correspond to what adult men read (males purchase only 17% of fiction sold in bookstores – but spend the same amount of money as women). Non-fiction and magazine articles also fit the somewhat shorter attention span of many boy readers.
For choosing fiction, Kropp has developed the BEAR model:
• B oys and young men as central characters
• E pisodic plot structure
• A ction more important than lovely language or emotional reflection
• R ebellious or anti-social behavior by the hero…and others
The second key: making reading active and social
Unfortunately, adult reading is a quiet and mostly solitary activity. Parents can help their boys continue to be engaged in reading by making it more active and social. Reading aloud together, telling stories and talking about books all take the private act of reading and make it social. The reading choices of boys who are 10 to 12 years old are very much affected by peer pressure. Parents have to accept that whatever “the guys” are reading is what their son will want to read. These peer reading choices often come in waves – Captain Underpants, Goosebumps, Harry Potter … and whatever comes next. Your son will need his own books to read and become part of the group.
Home support is vital during the middle grades because much school literature features female characters and sensitive themes that do not appeal to boys. By encouraging alternative reading at home, parents can help get over the reading slump that frequently precedes high school.
A little good news – boys who reach grade 11 and 12 can recover from their reading slump as the school curriculum shifts to more “male” themes in literature study and the boys, themselves, develop enough personal security to discuss literary issues.
