babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
Why won't boys read?
If you have a son who is a reluctant reader, despite the fact that his sister will sit for hours paging through the books on her shelf, you’re apparently in good company. Considerably more boys than girls aren’t meeting proficiency level standards on the annual National Assessment of Educational Progress reading report, according to a recent Center on Education Policy report.
“This disparity goes back to 1992, and in some states the percentage of boys proficient in reading is now more than ten points below that of girls,” Thomas Spence noted in the Wall Street Journal last week. “The male-female reading gap is found in every socio-economic and ethnic category, including the children of white, college-educated parents.”
Spence, the president of Spence Publishing Company, thinks he knows why boys aren’t reading enough to get their skills up to proficiency level. It’s not that we’re not giving them books that they’re interested. After all, the publishing industry is now meeting boys “where they are” with a whole gross-out genre of books aiming to appeal to elementary- and middle-school boys predilection for body humor, he argues.
Spence names this trend, charmingly, the “SweetFarts philosophy of education,” after a book, “SweetFarts” written by a self-published author who goes by the nom de plume Raymond Bean. “One obvious problem with the SweetFarts philosophy of education is that it is more suited to producing a generation of barbarians and morons than to raising the sort of men who make good husbands, fathers and professionals,” Spence asserts. “If you keep meeting a boy where he is, he doesn’t go very far.”
So if it’s not the reading material itself, why are so many fewer boys reading books – and mastering reading proficiency – than girls?
We hear a lot about the messages our little girls are receiving from the shows they watch on television these days. Their favorite programs feature all manner of bad role models. A self-centered and bratty girl (Hannah Montana), a lying and conniving girl (Wizards of Waverly Place) and a wealthy and dumb girl (Suite Life on Deck), just to name a few. But what about the boys? What are they watching and what are they learning from their favorite fictional characters?
According to new research from University of Massachusetts-Boston, our boys aren’t faring much better than our girls when it comes to what they are exposed to through television, books and movies. Superheroes in particular are giving them bad ideas about what it means to be a man. Continue reading »
While parents of some private-school kids have long had the option of enrolling their kids in single-gender classes, the trend is slowly creeping into public school systems across the country. According to the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, more than 500 public schools currently offer single-sex education opportunities for kids from kindergarten through 12th grade.
The latest public school to launch a single-sex education program is Prince William Middle School in Virginia. But while parents and teachers have both expressed enthusiasm for the opportunity for kids to opt out of coed classes, the idea is not without its detractors. Continue reading »
Nearly 10 years after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, researchers have uncovered some interesting numbers that show the lasting effects of that day and how humans react biologically to stress that is bey0nd the immediate and personal.
Population health researchers at the University of California — Irvine found a small but real rise in the number of miscarriages following the attacks. They also found that women who were pregnant with boys miscarried at a higher rate than women pregnant with girls. Continue reading »
We all hope we’re raising good men, those of us with sons. We want our boys to grow up to be gentle, responsible partners and fathers, as well as happy and successful. At least, I assume we do. That’s certainly what I want for the teenage boy in my house.
The Globe and Mail has a sobering column on this topic. Anthony Wolf writes about the conversation he believes every parent should have with their teenage son. Not the one about sex. The one about abuse: what it is, what it looks like, and how to avoid becoming abusive towards a woman you love.
The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: you DO NOT talk about Fight Club!
Actually, the first rule of Fight Club should be that you don’t ask two fourth graders to fight each other for your own viewing pleasure. Especially if you’re their teacher.
Men are primitive, or so goes the popular opinion. Thousands of books authored by men and women hinge on this notion. However; new research indicates males are the more “advanced” of the species.
Lori Garcia 
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
8