How Do We Get Boys To Read?

The subject of boys reading is close to my heart, primarily because as a youngster coming up, I watched my brother’s painful struggles learning to read. Dad sat up with him every night - Dad read one page, my brother another and so on. I empathised with my brother. Books and the joy of reading formed the background to my childhood experience. It seemed such a shame to me that he missed out.

 

With my own three boys, teaching them to read, and sharing the love of reading with them has been a top priority.

 

 

          The wonderful writer Michael Morpurgo said recently, ‘The findings of the National Literacy Trust's report into boys' reading are announced today. It reveals again that boys are falling behind in reading and that attitudes to reading between boys and girls are widening even further.’ 

            Isn't that sad?

 

I remember hearing a story about Frana Cardno, mayor of Southland District Council in New Zealand. When Frana first lobbied for a library in her area, apparently the response from the “mainly macho community where most decisions were made over a beer in the Working Men’s Club”, was this classic line: “What do you need books for?”

 

I like to think we've come a long way since the '70's but then I am an optimist. 

 

The research shows we still have a way to go. In a post by Tricia Lowther, recently, Lowther wrote, The 2012 report by the Boys Reading Commission, (BRC), compiled by the National Literacy Trust, reports that at age seven, there’s a gender gap of 7 percentage points in the proportion of pupils reaching the expected level in reading, and the numbers rise slightly with age.

 

 

 

So, how do we get boys to read? And feel good about it? In recent times, some folks in marketing and advertising have tried to encourage boys by coming up with the idea to label books for ‘boys’ or ‘girls’. But I’m not sure segregating titles would make any difference. It's not getting to the root of the problem.

In the ensuing backlash to the gender marketing, The Let Books Be Books campaign asks children’s publishers to take the ‘Boys’ and ‘Girls’ labels off books. Reminder: when we say "Books for boys," we set a default as books and reading are girl activities. We reinforce social expectations. As journalist and children’s author Bel Mooney said in a radio discussion on marketing books as ‘boys’ or ‘girls’; “The imagination does not have a gender.”

 

            I agree completely. Getting boys reading is such a complex issue, and I'm not an expert, I can only go by my own experience.

 

When my middle son, Samuel, was born with Down Syndrome, my brother-in-law said that the British Research Association had come out with findings that suggested the more you stimulated a baby’s senses from 0-3 years old, the greater the child’s intelligence. I gathered a big box full of different sensory devices for Sam: shells, feathers, pumice, stones, wood, and metal. I engaged him in water play, sandpits, gardening, painting, playdough, clay modelling, listening to music, and watching educational videos. I consistently worked to stimulate his senses. 

 

 

Most of my energy though went into reading to him. Sam and I visited the library every week, when I’d allow him free reign to choose as many books as he liked (up to the limit of 30). Then I would read the enormous pile to him every single day until we went back to the library for a new pile. When my brother-in-law met Sam again, at eleven months old, my BIL said, “He’s changed. The light has come on in his eyes.” And he was right.

 

 

To my delight, Sam has become an avid reader. He was first in his class to read independently, and despite there being three age levels in his room, Sam is the best reader in class.

What do you need books for? How about to switch on the light in a disabled boy’s eyes, a singular event that has altered the course of his education for the better, therefore his whole life.

 

 

“There clearly is a myth about boys and reading as so many people seem to think that the gender gap in reading is bigger than it is, but research shows that the number one factor that determines your reading ability is how often your parents read out loud to you and the number of books in your house.” ~ Jennifer Dyer

 

What do we need books for? What's the best way to encourage boys to read? What do you think?

 

 

Keep reading!

Till next time,

Yvette K. Carol

Introverted Writers Unite?

                    In accordance with the guidelines of the Insecure Writers Support Group, where writers share their insecurities and thoughts, I’m writing my post to coincide with the first Wednesday of the month.

It seems fitting that my next post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group is about being an introvert. Couple that least-admired trait with being a writer, and you’ve got a double whammy of ‘anti-social’ stink-bombs. I’d advise you don’t invite me to parties. I’m just sayin’....

SeanBeaudoin says, Writing is mentally taxing, emotionally exhausting, and requires a rare and unusual skill set: namely the ability to keep doing it long after all your friends and family have stopped believing in you and spend the majority of every Christmas vacation asking when you’re going to get a real job.

One real advantage to being an introvert is that I do have the ability to keep going long after family has stopped believing in me, in great abundance. An introvert’s secret power is that I self-refer first and foremost in every situation.



According to the book called, The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World, by Marti Laney, Psy.D. only about 25% of the people in the world are Introverts. In my former innocence, I’d imagined we shared this world 50/50 with the extroverts. It came as a bit of a shock to find I’m in the minority. But it sure explains a few things!

Laney states that, Introverts are people who are over-sensitive to Dopamine, so too much external stimulation overdoses and exhausts them. Conversely, Extroverts can’t get enough Dopamine, and they require Adrenaline for their brains to create it. Extroverts also have a shorter pathway and less blood-flow to the brain. The messages of an Extrovert’s nervous system mostly bypass the Broca’s area in the frontal lobe, which is where a large portion of contemplation takes place.

 

So for this reason, we introverts need less exposure to people, public situations, noise, social events, to gain all the information we need to be able to retreat again and process it. This fine sifting process I do once I’m alone comes in handy when I’m writing because I have easy access to those thoughts and memories, about feelings and thoughts and images needed for spinning tales of fiction.

           And yet...most people are still none too keen on my kind.

           Paul Ingraham says, If you act too good for small talk and pretentiously lunge for more “profound” conversations, or avoid any topic that isn’t important enough for your majesty, the only people who will be impressed are other socially inept critters with their own delusions of intellectual grandeur.

           See what I mean?

From the positive point of view, I think that most of the traits of an introvert lean themselves towards the career of being an author: skills of quiet observation, contemplation, and the ability to truly apply ourselves productively to time alone.

Carl King wrote a famous article called 10 Myths about Introverts, which caused a lot of flak at the time because some people took exception to items on the list. I enjoyed the list especially Myth #7 – Introverts are weird. Carl says, Introverts are often individualists. They don’t follow the crowd.

I think it’s for this reason that introverts like myself are able to hack it as writers. We can handle the isolation and very happily exist in a workplace of one for the duration.

But that ability makes us cool not weird. 

Me, at 25, a self-portrait

 

The wonderful author, Maggie Stiefvater said in a Facebook post last month, ‘In conclusion, my life gets better every year. I’m happier now than I was at 25, and I thought I was happy then. I am more myself every year.’

Now there’s something to aspire to - to be more myself every year!

So, I say, I’m an introvert and I’m proud.

I want to be confident of who I am, however I am and stop judging myself as less than anyone else. We all have a place in this world.

 

How about you, are you more yourself with every year? If you’re an introvert, are you embracing it?

 

See ya’ in the funny papers,

Yvette. K. Carol

 

“Be that which you really are: don’t pretend to be that which you are not.” ~ Swami Rama