Boys, Books, and Teen Brains

We've talked with partners for a long time about "books for boys." Why don't they read? What do they want to read? Does it matter that they're not reading? What can we write that they WILL read? There are a couple of articles with some intriguing insight, including today's Nicholas Kristoff op-ed piece in the Times, The Boys Have Fallen Behind. The Center on Education Policy confirms that boys have fallen behind in reading in every single state. Some argue “The world has gotten more verbal...Boys haven’t.”

The answer may surprise some. ..."Encourage lowbrow, adventure or even gross-out books...Indeed, the more books make parents flinch, the more they seem to suck boys in."

Kristoff shares a very cool idea, the website, guysread.com, that offers useful lists of books to coax boys into reading, and they are helpfully sorted into categories like “ghosts,” “boxers, wrestlers, ultimate fighters,” and “at least one explosion.”

And while we're looking at the boys/reading dynamic, take a look at NPR's look at the differences in the teen age brain and the adult brain. It may answer more questions than just why boys don't read. It's a fascinating article that may explain why your kids are doing what they're doing and that they might not have any idea WHY they're doing what they're doing. Their frontal lobes are not fully connected, and that leads to a lack of insight, excitability, and their being self centered. Sound like some one you know? Or knew?

Maybe they should read a good gross out book?

The Kids are All Right

A beautiful pause in the health care debate from Thomas Friedman in the NYT today, reminding us that there is hope that we're doing some things right thanks to the kids of recent immigrants. See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/opinion/21friedman.html

He wrote:

Gotta say, it was the most inspiring evening I’ve had in D.C. in 20 years. It left me thinking, “If we can just get a few things right — immigration, education standards, bandwidth, fiscal policy — maybe we’ll be O.K.” It left me feeling that maybe Alice Wei Zhao of North High School in Sheboygan, Wis., chosen by her fellow finalists to be their spokeswoman, was right when she told the audience: “Don’t sweat about the problems our generation will have to deal with. Believe me, our future is in good hands.”

As long as we don’t shut our doors.

You can read about the Intel Contest here: http://www.societyforscience.org/STS/