Knowledge will give you power, but character respect<\/i>.\u2013 Bruce Lee<\/p>\n
In March I wrote a blog titled \u201cNon-fiction Reading and Character.\u201d Seeking a topic for this month\u2019s blog, I was struck by the reports about the San Diego Comic-Con International (showcasing comic books and science fiction\/fantasy books among other pop culture genres), amused by attendees\u2019 customs and behaviors, and informed by PBS\u2019s program on \u201cSuperheroes\u201d in comic books.<\/p>\n
To use a summer-time metaphor, I started \u201csurfing\u201d the Internet in search of more information about boys and their reading interests, habits, and skills or lack thereof.<\/p>\n
What we know:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cGirls are reading better than boys\u2026 and the pattern is giving girls a life-long advantage\u2026. Boys are lagging behind girls on standardized reading tests in all 50 states\u2026In Virginia and New Hampshire, middle school girls did better than boys in reading proficiency by 15 percentage points. In New York, girls were 13 percentage points ahead\u2026The difference now is that boys are not catching up.”<\/p>\n What has been observed:<\/strong><\/p>\n Columnist Michael Kimmel writes, \u201cI think the social scientific evidence leads in a different direction. Boys’ underachievement is driven by masculinity \u2013 that is, what boys think it means to be a man is often at odds with succeeding in school. Stated most simply, many boys regard academic disengagement as a sign of their masculinity.\u201d<\/p>\n What is happening:<\/strong><\/p>\n Did you know that the Common Cores Standards might be slanting what one reads to more non-fiction than fictional materials? Might this help boys?<\/p>\n The new standards envision elementary students \u2026reading equally from literature and informational text. By high school, literature should represent only 30 percent of their readings; 70 percent should be informational. The tilt reflects employers’ and college professors’ complaints that too many young people can’t analyze or synthesize information, or document arguments.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n What we should admit:<\/strong><\/p>\n