Getting Boys to Read

Today I stumbled upon a great article from The Wall Street Journal called How to Raise Boys That Read.

It is written by Thomas Spence who is the president of Spence Publishing Company in Dallas. He has six sons and has plenty of experience with boys and reading. He discusses the rapid decline over the last twenty years of the education of boys in this country particularly in the area of literacy.

The literacy rates of girls has been going up and has strongly surpassed that of the nation's boys. He makes a very interesting comparison. Not too long ago the elite schools and universities were often reserved mostly for males whereas now most boys are deemed unfit for the classroom.

What a difference that is!!

The agreement among the professionals is that the reason behind the big drop in literacy for boys is that boys do not read enough. They simply are not getting enough practice and are not building up the skills that they need to succeed.

Some professionals believe that boys simply become bored with typical literature and that is why they do not read. So to combat this there has been a recent movement to meet the boys where they are and produce books about bodily functions and all things gross. Some professionals even have "gross-out parties" just to get them reading.

The emphasis is not on what is being read but that something is being read at all.

There are many book publishers and authors who are more than happy to provide the gross books for young boys to read. The Captain Underpants and The Butt Books series are best sellers for boys.

But the author argues that education ought to be what it once was, not only giving facts but also teaching the "formation of manners and taste". A great point! I can only imagine what reading The Butt Books is teaching young boys in their school libraries.

He also points out that if you simply keep meeting boys where they are, rather than challenging them to grow and try new things, the boys will not go very far. They certainly won't be encouraged to grow into men who will make good fathers, husbands and professionals. He believes that we are raising a generation of barbarians.

His experience with his six sons is that grossology is not needed to keep a boy's interest in a book. He also discusses that he hasn't ever needed to bribe his sons with video games to get them to read as so many parents are admitting to doing these days.

Which leads to his point that the decline in boy's reading and literacy has gone down since the video games and other forms of electronic entertainment. He suggests that the competition between electronics and academics has more to do with the decline of boys literacy than the potty humor. He even has a scientific study to back up this idea, that the boys in the study who spent more time playing video games than reading had a dramatic decline in academic performance.

His suggestion is to remove the competition of the video games and watch the boys begin to read again.

I personally couldn't agree more, remember my recent post about taking a day to be free of the TV? I've been cutting back on his TV watching and it's been amazing to watch his imagination soar. He has been drawing better and playing with much more gusto. It's been wonderful to watch!

He's not at the point of reading just yet - but he already knows what most of the sounds are for the letters! He picked it up really fast! He also loves having stories read to him which is a strong foundation to reading later on so I will continue to read to him and find more times throughout the day to read. I want to far surpass the recommended 20 minutes a day.


Oh and I can't leave out the last two sentences in the article: "I offer a final piece of evidence that is perhaps unanswerable: There is no literacy gap between home-schooled boys and girls. How many of these families, do you suppose, have thrown grossology parties?"

What are your thoughts??

A Day Without TV

Yesterday I made the decision that we would go one whole day without TV.

You see the TV watching in our house has gotten out of control - as evidenced by the behavior of the little mister.

How did it get so out of control?

I'm a home educating mom, many people would automatically think that we don't even have a TV.

Others would think that I would at least be good at limiting what my child watches. That much is a lot closer to the truth, I'm a stickler for the preschool channels and educational DVDs.

What happened, then?

I've got one word for you: Pregnancy.

Actually another: Fatigue.

Ok, a couple more: Complete Exhuastion.

The first trimester was insane as far as the fatigue this time around. I was so tired, so sleepy I could barely get anything done. I was sleeping on the couch every chance that I got. I seriously lacked energy.

I was really glad to no be throwing up every day this time around. The fatigue was definitely a welcome change. Not that I didn't have fatigue last time, but it was not to this extreme.

So along came long hours of TV watching for my son. I justified it because I knew that it wouldn't last forever and that I didn't have the energy to keep up with him.

Then came the second trimester and the TV was a nice little comfort that everyone was used to so I didn't fight it too much and I didn't realize just how often the TV was on in our home.

He got used to watching it as soon as he woke up in the mornings. He got used to watching it until breakfast time. He got used to watching it before lunch while I made lunch. He got used to watching it after nap. He got used to watching it before, during and after dinner. Not to mention before bedtime.

Sigh.

Yuck.

Then came the summer time and my teenage stepdaughter was with us for the summer and she was watching shows that I definitely did not want my preschooler watching: iCarly, Spongebob, etc.

But it's extremely hard to keep a preschooler away from these shows when big sister and dad are sitting on the couch watching them and laughing.

Oy.

Though when I had the energy I would get him outside instead of watching TV.

When I was pregnant with him I prayed that he would love the outdoors more than the indoors and that was an answered prayer! He loves to get out and run, jump, build things, chase the dog, etc.

So back to yesterday's No TV Day.

It started out with a lot of protests. Little mister was NOT happy about having a day of no TV. He wanted this show and that show. He seemed to think that asking multiple times in a row would change the answer. (Hmmm, wonder where he got that from??? Daddy??)

But despite the early protests he ended up having a fun day and played with a lot of toys that have been ignored for a long time. Not only that but he was having fun and playing more intensely than ever before. A lot more imagination and verbal skills involved. He even stopped protesting.

His behavior and attitudes changed DRAMATICALLY with just one day too!

Wow, I can see my sweet little boy coming back!

Woo-hoo!

I think that once we start up school again next month we will be having a LOT more of these No TV Days.

At least until I have a newborn and fatigue again...

Photo Credit

PS: As I've been saying all week... I just moved this blog over here to blogspot this week and I could really use some followers. Hint, hint! :)