Don't Read Too Much Into Boys' Verbal Scores | Womens eNews
10/1/10 11:20 AM
Covering Women's Issues – Changing Women's Lives
Friday, October 1, 2010
SIGN IN
SIGN UP
RSS
Search Women's eNews
HOME
CULTURE & TRADITION
MEDIA
PERSPECTIVES & VIEWS
POLITICS & INFLUENCE
ARABIC SITE
WORK & LABOR
JUSTICE
HEALTH & SCIENCE
SERIES
EDUCATION
>HOME
>POLITICS & INFLUENCE
>EDUCATION
Don't Read Too Much Into Boys' Verbal Scores
By Rivers and Barnett
WeNews commentators
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Boys' poorer reading levels in a recent study are feeding a troubling tendency to lower literacy
expectations for boys, say Caryl Rivers and Rosalind C. Barnett. It's just as destructive as the old myth
about girls' math inferiority.
Editor's Note: The following is a commentary. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not
necessarily the views of Women's eNews.
(WOMENSENEWS)--Are we creating a new myth to parallel
the one that says girls can't do math? Are we, in fact,
starting to believe that boys are simply not "wired" for
reading and other verbal skills?
Will mothers (and fathers) start looking at their sons and
begin steering them away from careers that involve writing
and verbal skills because boys are just not suited for such
pursuits?
Something similar happened with girls in 1980 after the
media hyped the idea of a male "math gene" that girls
didn't have.
That idea has since been discredited, but mothers in particular took it seriously. A longitudinal survey by
Jacqueline Eccles of the University of Michigan and her colleagues found that, 10 years later, mothers who
knew about the articles had lowered their expectations of their daughters' math abilities. There's proof
positive that flawed-but-widely-published media stories can do harm.
So mothers need to know that their sons are not verbal basket cases. But this idea--popular with the
media in the last few years--has resurfaced in the wake of a new study by the Washington, D.C.-based
Center on Education Policy, a research and advocacy group. It found that girls are reading better than boys
in all 50 states.
COMMENTOON
SYLVIA
However, media stories on the study too often have included unscientific ideas. An ABC News blog on
March 17 said that: "While girls' brains are more verbally oriented, often making reading skills easier for
them, boys' brains are visually oriented." There is no reliable scientific evidence for that statement.
Meanwhile, reporting on the study, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote: "Some people think
that boys are hardwired so that they learn more slowly, perhaps because they evolved to fight off wolves
more than to raise their hands in classrooms."
Media Eagerly Takes Up Narrative
Such articles dovetail with a narrative that has been eagerly taken up by the media in the past few years.
A number of critics have suggested that boys' reading material be dumbed down to "informational texts"
and stories about adventure and combat.
Houston neurologist Bruce Perry, quoted in Newsweek in 2006, claimed that because of boys' hardwired
disadvantages, putting girls and boys in the same classes is a "biologically disrespectful model of
education."
http://www.womensenews.org/story/education/100423/dont-read-too-much-boys-verbal-scores
Page 1 of 3
Don't Read Too Much Into Boys' Verbal Scores | Womens eNews
10/1/10 11:20 AM
The New Republic claimed in 2006 that a "verbally drenched curriculum" is "leaving boys in the dust." That
same year, The Hartford Courant suggested that "because boys don't want to read books from beginning to
end, informational texts are ideal."
Are American boys really in reading freefall? Are they verbal incompetents?
Not really. The newest study sounds alarming, but if you look at the fine print, there's less than meets the
eye.
The authors of the study noted that girls did outperform boys in every state between 2002 and 2008.
However, in the large majority of states, the gender difference in proficiency scores in reading at the
elementary-, middle- and high-school grades was less than 10 percentage points. Moreover, between 2002
and 2008, boys made slightly more gains in reading than did girls.
The takeaway message, on the last page of the report, is that "there is a great deal of overlap in the
distribution of reading scores between males and females; many boys do well in reading and many do not,
and the same is true of girls."
1
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
2
NEXT >
LAST >>
PRINT
ShareThis
0 COMMENTS | Login or Sign Up to post comments
RELATED STORIES
Sarah Shourd On Women's Rights
Uncovering Gender
Women Are Brainy; That's All We Know for Now
By Caryl Rivers
WeNews commentator
Commentary
Conservatives Fabricating 'War on Boys'
By Caryl Rivers
WEnews commentator
Books
AFP World Headlines
Guys Still Hog Role of Intellectual Heavy Weight
By Caryl Rivers
WeNews commentator
Equal rights law 'toothless', say campaigners
New Yorker faces jail in Dead Sea Scrolls row
Weapons found in Pakistan MP murder case
Oil from BP spill traveled 500 Kms: scientists
Obama enforcer Emanuel faces tough
Chicago mayoral race
US hiker's release 'bittersweet': Obama
US to help Philippines handle hostage
incidents
Rain suspends play at Ryder Cup
US consumer spending, incomes rise in
August
Venus Williams withdraws from China Open
http://www.womensenews.org/story/education/100423/dont-read-too-much-boys-verbal-scores
Page 2 of 3
Don't Read Too Much Into Boys' Verbal Scores | Womens eNews
10/1/10 11:20 AM
Powered by Mochila
RSS
REPRINT FAQS
CONTACT US
PRIVACY POLICY
RESOURCES
REPRINTS
ABOUT US
Copyright © 2010 Women's eNews Inc. All rights reserved.
http://www.womensenews.org/story/education/100423/dont-read-too-much-boys-verbal-scores
Page 3 of 3