Boys Reading

During the vacation all the teaching staff of the school where I work went to the EARCOS conference in Bangkok. I have been there before for previous conferences but this was the best one by far. The workshops I attended were all good but one stood out as significant. While I wouldn’t say it was life changing – it came close. Titled, If You Want Boys To Read Give Them Blood & Thunder! In a nutshell it was about why boys don’t want to read. They don’t bother because the educational community has sanitised the literature we give children so that it is free of any blood and guts whatsoever. The example was used of, Curious George by H.A. Rey, and how when it was first published the character of George was fearless. Over twenty years the same character developed into a scared wimp. When I think back over my teaching career I can think of many examples as a teacher and witnessing other teachers censoring the material children were exposed to. We rejected certain materials as inappropriate. When choosing literature it wasn’t that difficult. The books chosen for libraries have always reflected certain values and tastes and I cannot think of many titles, especially picture books that contain any sort of violence. The presenter illuminated something that I have discovered from raising a son. Despite my best attempts to keep weapons, war and violence from him he naturally craves just those things. He has never owned a toy gun but screams about the house brandishing a stack of cubes in the shape of one. At this workshop it was stated that boys have natural preferences for external conflict and they relish in it. Whether it is in stories or games or videos it doesn’t matter. The children’s literature community and book publishers certainly don’t understand this but the video game designers do. They give boys what they want. I intend to give my son the same. I am not going to rush out and buy him a toy gun but the next time I am tempted to make a judgement about a book or game based on my previous ideas I will stop and look at it in this newfound framework.