Why do boys hate reading?

[clueless]

Galileo managed to find time to read and that was in the "olden days". In the "olden days" men were the scientists and authors and inventors, not women.

In the "olden days" the majority of men AND women were illiterate. But more women were illiterate than men.

There may be no excuse for men and women not to read nowadays but there is no excuse required.

In the olden days, women read almost exclusively fiction and poetry, while men read more non-fiction. In Galileo times (and for quite a long time later in many European countries) scientific, philosophical books, and writing on other weighty subjects were written in Latin, while fiction was published in the vernacular. Education was different for both sexes and female education did not include Latin and Greek. Even though most fiction writers were men, they knew that most of their readers were women.

 

[Dan Luna]

This is an interesting discussion, and makes me wonder what actually generates one's motivation to do something. I never saw the point of ball games myself, but perhaps if someone had explained at the time that sporting success is very attractive to girls I might have tried harder.

I think the aims of reading for me as a child were to (1) discover the facts, particularly when what other people were telling me appeared unreliable, and (2) escape from the boredom of the everyday world. Subjects such as space exploration met both criteria, whereas the "realistic" type of fiction apparently achieved neither - unfortunately this seemed to be the bread and butter of English Literature at school.

Maybe if children could be presented with a list of all the possible reasons for reading, then asked to identify those that were attractive to them, they could be supplied with material tailored more to their individual personalities.

 

[The waveguide]

Thanks for citing me there above

And anyway, may be the whole thing about "boys reading less" is bullshit? May be from the beginning it is based on "common-feeling" rather than on something solid?

I do not have kids (yet) but I have a sister. While I've always been a book worm, she hated reading. So here is the statistics is 50-50 (one sister-kid reads, one does not)

Let's do statistics and write down who of your male /female kids is reading, and who of your brothers/sisters was reading?

 

[Motokid]

Thanks for citing me there above

And anyway, may be the whole thing about "boys reading less" is bullshit? May be from the beginning it is based on "common-feeling" rather than on something solid?

I do not have kids (yet) but I have a sister. While I've always been a book worm, she hated reading. So here is the statistics is 50-50 (one sister-kid reads, one does not)

Let's do statistics and write down who of your male /female kids is reading, and who of your brothers/sisters was reading?

It's amazing to me that you still want to argue this. The original post, and one of the ones I posted after have a link in it you should read. It's from one of the Directors of The National Endowment of The Arts. They have done extensive studies on this and you want to base your arguement on you and your sister.

I am just completely amazed at this kind of thinking. There are huge pile of statistics and studies and research on this subject. Stop looking through a very narrow looking glass and open your eyes to what some very intelligent professionals have discovered.

 

[abecedarian]

I think it is time to stop wasting our energy fighting over IF there's a problem. Obviously the "boys" here are exceptions to the statistics. I'm glad that each and every one of you guys reads with a passion. But what do we do about the ones who'd rather die a slow painful death, than read a book? These kids(and we are talking about children, not adults) are vital to our future. They are the future dads , businessmen, lawyers, doctores, etc. Sure we need to encourage girls too-no one in this forum would argue that point. The question for this thread, is what to do to encourage the boys to read. Are you willing to leave intellectual life to females only? I don't know too many women who would be 100% comfortable with that future secenario. This issue is more important than just sitting around griping about how "they" call us geeks for reading..we all have the potential to shape the next generation, and guide them to enjoy intellectual pursuits as well as non-academic ones. I'm encouraged to see the various threads here about promoting reading, and asking for specific book titles to give to kids. It's a start.

 

[Motokid]

Considering how horrible men have been at running the world for the last few 1000 years, I'm willing to let women have the whole ball of wax....

 

[G4G]

Considering how horrible men have been at running the world for the last few 1000 years, I'm willing to let women have the whole ball of wax....

F*****g A!

 

[abecedarian]

Considering how horrible men have been at running the world for the last few 1000 years, I'm willing to let women have the whole ball of wax....

Oh sure, on top of the cooking, cleaning, childbirth & childcare, and whatever else you guys deemed "woman's work," you now want us to run the rest of the world too????


Next you'll be expecting us to gather our own straw too...

 

[SFG75]

Oh sure, on top of the cooking, cleaning, childbirth & childcare, and whatever else you guys deemed "woman's work," you now want us to run the rest of the world too????


Next you'll be expecting us to gather our own straw too...

Oh come on, as if Bill made a decision.

 

[muggle]

Tee Hee.. let's throw in Jimmy Swaggart, just for fun and really drive the mods crazy!! What the hay, it's Friday

You go back too far. How about someone more current like Pat Robertson.

 

[Motokid]

You guys are such rebels....

 

[G4G]

You guys are such rebels....

yeah - I'm gonna stay up till after midnight tonight...

 

[muggle]

yeah - I'm gonna stay up till after midnight tonight...

Now you are really going to far. Perhaps 11:00pm....but midnight.

 

[SFG75]

It's amazing to me that you still want to argue this. The original post, and one of the ones I posted after have a link in it you should read. It's from one of the Directors of The National Endowment of The Arts. They have done extensive studies on this and you want to base your arguement on you and your sister.

I am just completely amazed at this kind of thinking. There are huge pile of statistics and studies and research on this subject. Stop looking through a very narrow looking glass and open your eyes to what some very intelligent professionals have discovered.

Gotta concur with Moto on this. Yes, there are exceptions to every rule, and studies are no different. We all have a brother, nephew, or cousin who loves to read-but for every one of them, the statistics say that there are probably two or three who absolutely hate reading and want nothing to do with it. If the ratio was one to one in terms of liking to hating reading, then the statistics would show that with findings being insignficant.

 

[muggle]

Boys in Charlottesville do not hate reading as we constantly encourage them by holding such events as

http://www.vabook.org/

After accessing the site click on Participants to see some of the authors that will be attending.

 

[SFG75]

Interesting Newsweek article regarding their overall problems in school. For the first time, males are now the minority in colleges in the United States.

 

[TheRedNewt]

Interesting Newsweek article regarding their overall problems in school. For the first time, males are now the minority in colleges in the United States.

I'm interested to see how this all plays out because it essentially flips some long held assumptions about higher education. It will also be interesting to see if this statistic eventually carries over to the professional world.

 

[abecedarian]

Interesting Newsweek article regarding their overall problems in school. For the first time, males are now the minority in colleges in the United States.

Interesting article. I made note of the three books mentioned, and plan to order them from the library in the near future. I'm wondering how this experiment to separate boys and girls will work out. I can understand the boys not wanting to read a "girly" book; my sons are picky that way too so I've not forced them to read the Little House books I can also see the problem the article addresses about expecting boys to conform to the way girls learn..ie, sit still and do paperwork. This is an area that a lot of homeschoolers have made it their business to be aware of, individual learning styles. A classroom setting is more difficult to manage if some of the kids are allowed to freely move around, while others are doing their seatwork, so I'm sure it's better for the teacher if the so-called "girl" mode is prefered. I don't know that the kids would need to be segregated all day, maybe just for certain subjects.

 

[RolandOfGilead]

Wow, I haven't read any of these posts so far because I have to leave in a minute, but in a reply to the first post, I LOVE READING!! Yes, i'm a guy. I've been reading probably since my mom used to read me the Hardy Boys back in like preschool, and have been hooked ever since.

 

[SFG75]

I'm interested to see how this all plays out because it essentially flips some long held assumptions about higher education. It will also be interesting to see if this statistic eventually carries over to the professional world.

Excellent point, two things of concern. On one hand, I'm not certain how Title IX has anything to do with it. All that provision requires is that female athletics be offered within the same proportion of male ones. In that regard, I think it's not accurate to throw in that provision as a potential "problem" as to why boys have such a hard time learning. On the reverse side, the assumptions about boy behavior being cultural and not innate is one thing that will definitely be tossed out the window. The article referenced brain scans and how girls at a younger age mature faster than the boys. Not to mention that early elementary education favors girls over boys. The idea that boys should sit down for forty minutes and act like the girls will hopefully be tossed out. I'd definitely like to see some of the professorial theorists who state that boys are encouraged in these behaviors and that it's not innate, be called out to explain how their theory fell flat upon it's face.