How to Get Boys to Read

Why don't boys like to read? I think the answer to that question is complicated because it's rooted in culture and biology. For one thing, boys like to move around a lot, and it's hard to move while you're reading. Boys also seem to like to read factual books more than girls do, and boys seem to remember facts better than girls. Studies also find that boys' verbal abilities develop later than girls' verbal abilities. When I mentioned to a friend how impressed I was with his 3-yr-old daughter's language skills, he told me that she was good at talking because she practiced for 24 hours a day. 

What about culture? If boys start out behind girls in reading, our modern culture seems to throw hurdles that not only slow boys down more but make it almost impossible for them to want to take the time to read. We have too many screens, and screens seem to mesmerize boys.

First, they watch television and DVDs almost from the day they are born. Now parents even have DVDs in their cars, or they own portable DVDs--as if children cannot be expected to find creative ways to entertain themselves for even one minute. Yet having to find ways to occupy time forces us to think and look inward to our imagination. We have to develop inner resources that push us towards becoming our own person and not a clone of every other media-saturated drone. Having to occupy ourselves also teaches us to develop relationships, get along with others, and compromise. Those of you who traveled before DVDs think back to the day when, if your family was like mine, you all piled into the giant Buick and went hurtling up the interstate to visit family, parents in front. Think about how boring that 8-hr trip was. "Are we there yet?" Before long, you probably did what we did: invented games, sang, and told stories--our own that we made up as we went. They were no doubt very bad stories. Nevertheless, they taught us that if we use our imagination, we'll never be bored. I wonder how many children, boys or girls, learn that now.

Children today seldom have time to develop their imaginations enough to feel the thrill of the inner world because they are soothed too often with the drone of voices coming from screens filled with wonderful images created by other people. A third-grade teacher told me that her students used to make up their own stories, but when toy companies began to make replicas of cartoon characters, she noticed that children merely reenacted what they have seen on TV.  

Boys seem to be especially susceptible to our multitudinous screens, especially when they become old enough to play video games. One commentator, whose name I can't remember (sorry), said that studies on home-schooled children show no reading gap between boys and girls; they are all good readers, He speculated that the reason home-schooled boys read well is that they are not allowed to play with video games. I think he may be right. When I taught in a 2-yr college, all but one of the students in my Honors English said their parents limited the number of hours they were allowed to watch TV, and none mentioned video games at all. Not one.

So, boys seem less inclined to read, especially fiction and especially when they are young. Also, they seem to be more susceptible to the fast pace of video games.

What should we do? First, parents and schools should leave lots of books lying around. Eventually boys will do what my nephews did when they reached high school--they'll pick them up and read them. Both of my nephews, good students even when they were young, didn't begin to read seriously until they were in their teens. When they were ready, they had a house full of books to choose from.

I also think it would help if teachers and parents made sure non-fiction was available for all ages, and allowed boys to read in smaller increments, especially when they are young. Engrossed in a book, I could read all afternoon even when I was young. Boys may not be able to do that. Let them read for 30 minutes and then do something more active.

Last and most important, turn off the television, the computer, the video games. Teachers should almost never use television sets to educate. I believe that the fast pace of even children's shows change children's brains so that they never develop the ability to focus. Severely limit or eliminate their screen time, and I think boys will read in a desperate attempt to fill time. And then they'll read because they find a genre or author they really like. And then someday, they'll read because they love it and can't imagine not wanting to read.

The last occurs only when they read well, though. We have to help them get to that point in their development first.