[CSPS] reading

Tue Jan 25 18:04:37 CST 2005

A very interesting analysis.
         Jonathan

Why Johnny Won't Read

By Mark Bauerlein and Sandra Stotsky
Tuesday, January 25, 2005; Page A15

When the National Endowment for the Arts last summer released "Reading at 
Risk: a Survey of Literary Reading in America," journalists and 
commentators were quick to seize on the findings as a troubling index of 
the state of literary culture. The survey showed a serious decline in both 
literary reading and book reading in general by adults of all ages, races, 
incomes, education levels and regions.

But in all the discussion, one of the more worrisome trends went largely 
unnoticed. From 1992 to 2002, the gender gap in reading by young adults 
widened considerably. In overall book reading, young women slipped from 63 
percent to 59 percent, while young men plummeted from 55 percent to 43 
percent.

Placed in historical perspective, these findings fit with a gap that has 
existed in the United States since the spread of mass publishing in the 
mid-19th century. But for the gap to have grown so much in so short a time 
suggests that what was formerly a moderate difference is fast becoming a 
decided marker of gender identity: Girls read; boys don't.

The significance of the gender gap is echoed in two other recent studies. 
In September the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued the "American Time Use 
Survey," a report on how Americans spend their hours, including work, 
school, sleep and leisure. The survey found that in their leisure time 
young men and women both read only eight minutes per day. But the equality 
is misleading, because young men enjoy a full 56 minutes more leisure than 
young women -- approximately six hours for men and five for women.

The other report, "Trends in Educational Equity of Girls and Women: 2004," 
is from the Education Department. Between 1992 and 2002, among high school 
seniors, girls lost two points in reading scores and boys six points, 
leaving a 16-point differential in their averages on tests given by the 
National Assessment of Educational Progress. In the fall semester of 
kindergarten in 1998, on a different test, girls outperformed boys by 0.9 
points. By the spring semester, the difference had nearly doubled, to 1.6 
points.

Although one might expect the schools to be trying hard to make reading 
appealing to boys, the K-12 literature curriculum may in fact be 
contributing to the problem. It has long been known that there are strong 
differences between boys and girls in their literary preferences. According 
to reading interest surveys, both boys and girls are unlikely to choose 
books based on an "issues" approach, and children are not interested in 
reading about ways to reform society -- or themselves. But boys prefer 
adventure tales, war, sports and historical nonfiction, while girls prefer 
stories about personal relationships and fantasy. Moreover, when given 
choices, boys do not choose stories that feature girls, while girls 
frequently select stories that appeal to boys.

Unfortunately, the textbooks and literature assigned in the elementary 
grades do not reflect the dispositions of male students. Few strong and 
active male role models can be found as lead characters. Gone are the 
inspiring biographies of the most important American presidents, inventors, 
scientists and entrepreneurs. No military valor, no high adventure. On the 
other hand, stories about adventurous and brave women abound. Publishers 
seem to be more interested in avoiding "masculine" perspectives or 
"stereotypes" than in getting boys to like what they are assigned to read.

At the middle school level, the kind of quality literature that might 
appeal to boys has been replaced by Young Adult Literature, that is, 
easy-to-read, short novels about teenagers and problems such as drug 
addiction, teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, domestic violence, divorced 
parents and bullying. Older literary fare has also been replaced by 
something called "culturally relevant" literature -- texts that appeal to 
students' ethnic group identification on the assumption that sharing the 
leading character's ethnicity will motivate them to read.

There is no evidence whatsoever that either of these types of reading fare 
has turned boys into lifelong readers or learners. On the contrary, the 
evidence is accumulating that by the time they go on to high school, boys 
have lost their interest in reading about the fictional lives, thoughts and 
feelings of mature individuals in works written in high-quality prose, and 
they are no longer motivated by an exciting plot to persist in the struggle 
they will have with the vocabulary that goes with it.

Last year the National Assessment Governing Board approved a special study 
of gender differences in reading as part of its research agenda over the 
next five years. The study will examine how differences in theme, the 
leading character's gender, and genre, among other factors, bear upon the 
relative reading performance of boys and girls. With its focus on the 
content of reading rather than process, this study will, one hopes, give us 
some ideas on what needs to be done to get boys reading again.

Mark Bauerlein is director of research at the National Endowment for the 
Arts. Sandra Stotsky is a research scholar at Northeastern University and 
served on the steering committee for the new reading assessment framework 
of the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33956-2005Jan24.html?referrer=email

Jonathan Coopersmith
Associate Professor
Dept. of History
MS 4236
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas  77843
979.845.7148
979.862.4314 fax

Secretary
History & Philosophy of Science Section (L)
American Association for the Advancement of Science
aaas.org 
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