Boys and Reading
September 16, 2009
Filed under Parenting & Family Posts
We’re often told (or we’re seeing) that adolescent males don’t read. Well…
We had high school parent-teacher interviews this week and had four great conversations with four great teachers. Really revitalized our faith in the teaching profession after a bad year last year at a different school.
One of the conversations we had was with oldest son’s history teacher – a terrific fella who loves Monty Python as much as do and who (when I said “My son didn’t start your class expecting the Spanish Inquisition”) responded correctly with “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!” (follow the link if you don’t get the humor).
More intelligently, he made a great point that adolesent lads tend to read only about what obsesses them. When suddenly they are captivated by soccer, start leaving soccer magazines and books and websites open around the place, and they’ll read. When they become obsessed about heavy metal, leave that around the place. In other words, young men in their teens are not natural readers unless there is something to read for.
Now me as a teenager, I was so captivated by the escapism of star wars that I’d read anything science fiction that I could get my hands on … 
even if I didn’t understand it (I’m talking to you, Asimov!). Similarly, when I began to follow Manchester United I even read a “biography” of the team. Currently oldest son, who can read very well but has traditionally been averse to reading books since he got too old for me to read for him, now can be found almost nightly reading up on Medieval History (largely due to the influence of this teacher).
What’s your experience of this, to the positive or to the contrary? What could you “leave around” for your son to pick up and read?
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By the way, I will be on holidays from all things web-based from the 19th to the 30th September, so if I don’t reply to your comments then, don’t feel slighted. You have my permission to carry on conversations in my absence – as long as you keep it civil. 
And no, Mr Thief, I won’t be away from my house, so don’t go trying to rob me during that period.
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Loosely related posts:
I am having a hard time getting Jack to read.
“I saw the movie, so I don’t want to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”
“The book is boring”
“The cover looked cool, but the book sucks”
“My best friend hates reding, so so do I”
He has a reading list that he has to read from, then is tested to earn points towards a grade. There are tons of books on the list, but he just hates reading.
I don’t have an adolescent yet, thank goodness!, but do have a pre-adolescent.
He LOVES to read, but I have noticed he will stick to the books he likes, and topics he likes, He’s ready the entire Harry Potter series 4 (or 5) times now (he’s in grade 3, started reading them in grade 2 when he was 7)
He’s developed – tragically – an interest in Star Wars, just watched the movies and now wants to read the books. I’m torn! LOL
And anything about bums or have rude words in them. Andy Griffiths for example. I have the issue that he’s reading way above his age, so emotional concepts are hard to explain at times.
(My 6 year old is reading currently reading at grade 2 level also. He proudly informed me he is reading “Aussie Nipples chapter books” ROFL)
I think this is fantastic advice, Pete – thank you.
Do you think, Pete (and others) that their like, or love of reading comes from the environment around them? How much so? Or how much about how often they were read to as babies?
And other outside influences, like Bryan there and his son’ts friends?
Nice points, Pete. I like the idea of finding text that matches a child’s interest and leaving it laying around where they can discover them. What would these be called, Interest Mines?
I think a parent and the environment can have a heavy influence on a child’s interests, but its not absolute.
If a parent demonstrates that books are important to them, by reading to a child and also letting the child see the parents reading and hearing how much they love it, then a child is going to be far more likely to become a reader. Doing things like Pete suggest of staying in touch with your child’s interests and making sure there are things to read that play upon those interests will also hedge your bets. Still, its no guarantee that the child will become a reader.
My big question is all about the Lord of the Rings. I want my son to read the books, somewhere around his twelfth or thirteenth year and I don’t want that magic to be spoiled by watching the movies first.
But, even though I read the books every year (I always start on Sept. 22 as that is the day Frodo receives the ring.) the story isn’t enough, several times a year I have to bust out the movies and watch them. How am I going to explain to my son that daddy doesn’t want him watching the films until he’s read the books without building up so much intrigue that he sneaks a peak at the films or reads the books when he’s too young and doesn’t appreciate them or expects too much from them?
@ Mad Cow: If the boy wants to read Star Wars, then let the boy read Star Wars, dammit! It’s good for his soul!
@ U and Bryan: hey, everyone’s an individual, some people don’t like reading. Fair enough. And then there’s peer pressure.
I don’t think reading is in the same non-negotiable category as vegies: “You WILL read that Very Hungry Catepillar book or you will be reading it at breakfast time!”. We just set the table, set an example ourselves, and hope they’ll follow suit.
Maybe joke books, Bryan? Or books about bottoms and farts (as MC suggests)… Or maybe leave it to him? I dunno…
@ Jonathan: ‘interest mines’, I like it a lot. And LotR? (Man, even I haven’t been able to get through book one, though I’ve tried twice.) I like your tradition around it. That raises a whole other thought for me, about trying to get our kids to experience the exact same magic as we did. I don’t think it can be done. I think there’ll be things in their generation that will affect them the way LotR did you. Then again, LotR is a classic. Just ban the films and the books until he rebels at around 15 and sneaks a peek at the speculative fiction hidden underneath dad’s bed!!
Book one of LoTR is the hardest to get through. I was a stubborn kid and thought that if I started a book and didn’t finish it, then I was a failure. I struggled through the better part of book one before I really got into it. I think it was in Moria that I finally became hooked.
On a side note, yesterday I saw a giant birthday card . On the front it reads, “A long time ago…” and has pics of tie fighters and as you open it reads, “You were born.” Simple enough, but it also plays the opening theme of Star Wars and it sounds good–not tiny, but an actual digital quality sound.
Its not my birthday, but I almost bought it anyways.
I’ll let you know when my birthday’s coming up…