Is improvement needed?

The excerpts below are from ‘How to Raise Boys Who Read’ by Thomas Spence in the 9/24/10 Wall Street Journal. I have some comments and suggestions at the end.

‘Everyone agrees that if boys don’t read well. It’s because they don’t read enough. But why don’t they read enough? A considerable number of teachers and librarians believe that boys are simply bored by the ‘stuffy’ literature they encounter in school. According to a revealing Associated Press story in July these experts insist that we must ‘meet them where they are’ – that is, pander to boys’ untutored tastes.’

‘AP reported that one school librarian treats her pupils to ‘grossology’ parties. For elementary- and middle-school boys, that means ‘books that exploit [their] love of bodily functions and gross-out humor.’ ’Just get ‘em reading’, she comments cheerily. ‘Worry about what they are reading later’.

There certainly is no shortage of publishers ready to meet boys where they are.

‘If you keep meeting a boy where he is, he doesn’t go very far’.

‘The secret to raising boys who read, I submit, is pretty simple – keep electronic media, especially video games at home and recreational internet, under control (that is to say, almost completely absent). Then fill your shelves with good books.’

‘Most importantly, a boy raised on great literature is more likely to grow up to think, to speak and to write like a civilized man.’

‘I offer a final piece of evidence that is perhaps unanswerable: ‘There is no literacy gap between home schooled boys and girls.’

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It’s not that boys don’t want to learn or can't learn it’s just that they have been exposed to a newer way of learning and communicating (electronically) and they like it.

That boys can learn and excel at video games tells a lot. It tells that they are capable of learning in a fast paced environment. This is an environment that many or most schools don't offer. So why not change the learning environment, the methods and the content?

Why not update the (stuffy or classical) books and stories to modern examples to get the student's attention and then provide some appropriate comparisons to the original? Or use electronic media and then after they have some interest start to read from the books.

Why not develop videos that depict various circumstances (life situations, skills and subject related items, etc) to introduce topics that the boys and girls can watch and solve problems. Options from there could include multiple endings or solutions to the videos that require different thinking skills, discussion situations where they could work in teams to come up with suggestions and solutions, and moving to the books that they think are boring, etc. May need to wet their appetite.

The author of this article is the president of a publishing company so it is obvious that he isn’t in favor of the new media because of his suggestions.

Satellite learning environments may need to be set up at other areas that may be more conducive to learning.

Just having a teacher lecture students all period was boring when I was in school and it probably still is boring for today’s young people. We may also need a new kind of teacher or instructor to help our kids move into this new millennium.

If you see my post titled ‘History Repeats‘ about young people and advice from older people this may help you realize that young people know how to learn but we are just not keeping up with them. Current methods may even be slowing them down.