Boys and Reading

Recently I attended a workshop given by a well-known educator from OISE. The topic was boys and literacy, and the current concern that boys are not reading as well as girls, as demonstrated in provincial tests.

He described how many boys do read, but not necessarily novels and poetry. Instead they are reading manuals, comics, sports magazines and non-fiction materials, and reading as  they use technology. In the stories they do read, they like action and suspense and follow heroes such as great athletes. The Guinness Book of Records is an all- time boy’s favourite. Boys are literate, but this may not have to do with literature.

My brothers in the 1940s and 50s read manuals and comics. They read non-fiction. They read boys’ adventure stories. But they moaned about the prescribed novels they had to read for English exams. How it was then is obviously how it is now.

So what has changed? Why this concern about boys reading now?

 In the 1950s it was still assumed that girls were not as able as boys.  The Education system was dominated by men, with male principals, and male teachers. The universities were mostly full of men, which did of course make then very attractive to women, if they could only get accepted. There were only about 300 spaces a year for women at Oxford University and these were in women’s colleges.

 In the twenty first century the evidence that girls are as able as boys is very visible. Now more women than men are attending university. Power has shifted, and the education system is no longer a male preserve. There are very few male elementary teachers, few male elementary principals, and less male secondary teachers than there once were. So boys are now being largely taught by women, who now have to learn what male teachers always knew: boys like to read facts, action stories, manuals, and non-fiction (now some of this read off the internet). And some too will read novels and poems. But now most employment depends on being literate and this adds a new concern  about boys’ literacy.

 If you are interested in this topic, below is an excellent short overview  of the research on boys and reading with some suggested  resources.

http://www.ccl-cca.ca/CCL/Reports/LessonsInLearning/LinL20090218Whyboysdontliketoread.htm?Language=EN