Boys and Literacy
In order to become participatory citizens who can contribute to society, boys must develop literacy skills. Low levels of literacy contribute to increased chances of incarceration, compromised health, and often a sense of lifelong inadequacies.
How well do our boys fare with these vital skills?
The 2007 Canadian Council on Learning report,
State of Learning in Canada: No Time for Complacency, states that “The difference in the reading levels was more significant, with girls scoring an average of 32 points higher than boys,” and that “males have a higher rate of language and learning difficulties.”
Evidence in developed countries highlights an alarming trend
of boys’underachievement in literacy skills, especially in
reading and writing:
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• Boys take longer to learn to read than girls do
and typically score lower than girls
on standardized tests in the language arts.
• Significantly more boys than girls declare
themselves to be non-readers.
• Dropout rates are higher for boys than for
girls - 2 out of 3 dropouts are likely to be male. |
Of course, we should, as always, be wary of over-generalizing about the complex relationship between gender and literacy development. Academics point to the need for research about which subgroups of boys might be struggling with literacy.
Culture influences the ways in which boys perceive literacy. Often, there are few desirable gender role models for boys to emulate. For generations boys have been urged toward independence, toughness, and competitiveness; cultural messages today may equate being disrespectful with being cool.
Often these culturally coded behaviours interfere with boys’ literacy success. They can also distort our perceptions of boys' abilities and willingness to develop literacy skills. Finally, since we tend to see only what we expect to see, traditional definitions and measurements of literacy may fail to register boys’ real literacy achievements in the twenty-first century. |
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