Connecting boys with books, part 2

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article on this subject, which contradicted some earlier information that I had.

There seems to be an ongoing debate in reading advocacy circles between the "let them read what they will" group and the "good literature" group. I think the answer has to lie somewhere in the middle. On the one hand, a reluctant reader who is hostile to the idea of reading in the first place is not going to learn to enjoy reading by being told that his or her choices aren't "good enough" and that he or she "should be" reading Ivanhoe or Moby Dick. I remain of the opinion that if a child who has never read anything longer than a school lunch menu goes to the library and picks up Captain Underpants, we shouldn't (at that point) push this child towards a book with less bathroom humor. We should be glad, for the moment, that he or she is reading. On the other hand, reading advocacy for boys should not be comprised primarily of "grossology parties." I think it's a bit insulting to make a blanket assumption that "all boys like bathroom humor and won't be interested in reading anything else." If they haven't been reading at all and choose a bathroom humor book, by all means we can celebrate the fact that they are reading, but once they are habitually reading for enjoyment, we should not be afraid to steer them to literature that is more substantial.

I found the statistic on the video and computer games interesting and had not given it much thought, partly because I am the only female in my house and I spend more time on the computer than my husband and sons together. However, when I taught middle and high school, the majority of X-box and Playstation users were boys. I'm interested in research as to why video games are more boy-centric. Are they created that way or are boys more naturally drawn to the virtual competition?

The article's suggestion to completely eliminate video games for boys may be a little extreme, at least for a boy who isn't flunking out of school completely, but limiting the games is certainly appropriate. I taught middle school boys who enjoyed both Tolkien and and their X-box games. As far as rewarding boys with video game time, the goal is to make reading its own reward. As long as we have to bribe children to read, with video game time or anything else, we have work to do.