The other day Instapundit linked an article on the role of public school reading assignments in discouraging boys from taking up reading for pleasure. The subject is familiar to anyone to anyone who read Christina Hoff Sommers’ book on the subject. In short, K-12 reading assignments don’t match up with boys’ interests. Boys prefer activity-oriented plot-based stories, schools gravitate toward girls’ interests – quoting Sommers, “[p]ersonal narratives full of emotion and self-disclosure.” I’ll have more to say on that later.
This has me waxing (mostly unpleasantly) nostalgic about my own school-age reading assignments. The earliest one I can recall is of A Tale of Two Cities. I remember scarcely anything about London and a few highlights about Paris. Shakespeare is something I could take only in small doses due to the language barrier. I liked the plot synopses and some of the more memorable passages such as Polonius’ advice to Laertes (someone should CGI W. C. Fields into the role of Polonius). One junior high class assigned two entertaining movie scripts – Colossus: The Forbin Project and Escape from the Planet of the Apes. At home my literary gateway to the world was World Book Encyclopedia; I especially loved the maps and the articles on foreign locales and peoples and exotic animals. I did not grow up reading novels or even comic books. In my late teens I tried reading my mom’s Agatha Christie novels, but for some reason I couldn’t quite get into them.
High school offered (ahem) textbook examples of what’s wrong with school reading assignments. I have finally gotten around to posting Amazon reviews for the three high school reading assignments that turned me off to reading.
The reader is definitely separated from peaceThere is an unwritten rule that to qualify as high literature a modern novel must be bleak. Rare exceptions may exist, but this is not one of them. Two stars for thoughtful messages on envy and reconciliation, but the road to that point is painful. The climax sets up the constant state of dread that dominates the rest of the book. There’s a big, ugly melodrama coming down the pike, the reader can see it as clearly as Commodore Decker could see the approach of the Doomsday Machine in that old “Star Trek” episode, and there’s no way the reader can escape it because there’s a test next week.
Lost generation, indeedI barely remembered any part of the novel by test time when I got stuck with this reading assignment in high school. Teenage boys are not exactly the target audience for a tale of useless rich people, two intersecting love triangles, and a gangster who never gets around to gangstering. I couldn’t get into it as an adult, either. The narrator’s William F. Buckley flair with words can’t make shallow people appealing or shallow parties memorable. Besides the narrator, the only interesting character is Gatsby, who seems so well-adjusted and full of life when he first appears, but his romantic obsession is an albatross around his neck.
My review of The Catcher in the Rye closes with a summary of why modern high literature is at odds with male reading interests.
This sent my reading interest over the cliffFirst-person storytelling can be an effective way to convey the narrator’s personality. Unfortunately Salinger excels at this. For some reason educators got it in their heads that it would be a great idea for high school students to read a tale of arrested development told from the point of view of the arrestee. Holden Caulfield is the sort of crass, antisocial, emotionally weak little snot who deserves to get stuck in an elevator with Dr. Gregory House. Even as a teenager I figured he didn’t know half of what he was talking about when he rattled on about phonies. If he had any stopped-clock moments I couldn’t tell, even when re-reading the novel as an adult.
Guys like plot-driven stories, they like adventure and mystery, they like characters who would be fun to hang out with, they want to see the main conflict actually get resolved. Catcher has none of this. Caulfield is just as lost at the end of the story as he was at the beginning. Discovering early Heinlein and Frank Herbert’s Dune in my early 20s sparked my interest in reading.
(A side note on Catcher: despite its status as a public school fixture, it never did impact the popular culture beyond certain niches. It didn’t get the Warner Brothers treatment like Of Mice and Men, it didn’t influence popular slang like the very titles of Lolita and Lord of the Flies or Nineteen Eighty-Four‘s title and its native terminology.)
Early Heinlein was fun because the stories were about ordinary people in space. A family business, a field trip gone wrong, a boy and his nominal pet. Dune had fairly sophisticated political intrigue, vivid characters, and a well-worked quasi-mysticism revolving around water. I read sci-fi and fantasy of varying qualities. Asimov’s Foundation is dry but well-paced. The characters in McCaffrey’s Dragonflight bored me. Moorcock’s Elric saga offered nobody to root for. Niven’s best work tended to be on the dry, intellectual side (e.g. Ringworld, The Mote in God’s Eye). LOTR takes some patience, as Tolkien sometimes interrupts the plot to indulge in adding detail to the world, language, and lore. Brave New World struck me as the 1980s without the central planning and with pharmaceutical side effects.
I moved on to other genres, including a great deal of historical and issues-oriented nonfiction, a little manga (particularly the one featuring a different Elric – Fullmetal Alchemist) and even included some classical literature I could not have appreciated as a youth. The reader needs to build on a foundation of fun stuff in order to develop the discipline to take on the more intellectual pursuits, including psychological novels such as The Scarlet Letter (which also requires an adult’s perspective on society). A juvenile cannot relate to the midlife crisis featured in Babbitt, which to me satirized loveless marriages much more than it did the middle class; Babbitt’s failing was not the business and civic involvements in general but overprioritizing them to the expense of personal life.
The signature trends in school-inflicted literature – bleakness, melodramatic angst, the “personal narratives” fixation – also find their way into films and television. The Catcher in the Rye gave us one angsty teen, a show like Dawson’s Creek has a bunch of them, serving as an eternal monument to the phrase “get off my lawn.” Star Trek: Discovery follows a similar trend with a largely twentysomething cast; it also makes attempts at action-adventure, but its touchy-feely elements earn eyerolls from traditional action flick audiences (male or female). Star Trek isn’t as emotionally adult as it used to be. There is a growing cynicism in modern movies in TV, as found in the growth of apocalypse- or dystopian-based series, and in the recent Indiana Jones atrocity. Johnny’s getting turned off by more than just books.
We did Shakespeare (Hamlet & MacBeth) as pseuro-performances, with various students reading the lines from their assigned character. Worked out pretty well, except I still think of Ophelia’s voice as being that of Brenda, and so on with others.
I have written often on the language difficulty of Shakespeare, and of noting how my favorite linguist John McWhorter largely agrees with me. You can go to Assistant Village Idiot and put either Shakespeare or McWhorter in the search bar if you like. The best combo is probably this one: https://assistantvillageidiot.blogspot.com/2021/10/not-understanding-shakespeare-again.html
First, it is poetry, and there is something of a barrier to understanding even in poetry written in our own time. As Elizabethan English is also the language of the Authorised Version of the Bible, and was sometimes intended to be more poetic in that context as well, there is a similar barrier, though less pronounced. Secondly, the meanings of words have gradually changed, as illustrated in this post about “Hamlet.” https://assistantvillageidiot.blogspot.com/2017/03/understanding-shakespeare.html
A personal letter written at the time we would understand better. Parts of the KJV are clear even now.
Girls read more fiction than boys, and always have. Teachers are more often female and more often plug girl books. The effect is cumulative over time.
This comment is not directed to reading assignments, but to writing assignments in high school and college English classes. Both used literary criticism as the way to teach writing to students. Unfortunately, I , my sister, and many other students were uncomfortable with the role of Junior Literary Critic. We were supposed to find symbolism, metaphors, whatever. A lot of what we wrote about symbolism, metaphors, whatever seemed contrived- because it WAS contrived.
Much better to write about what you know instead of what you believe the teacher thinks you should know.
I liked English classes in elementary school and junior high. I hated English classes in high school. The only two times I liked what we did in high school English was when we were directed to write an in-class essay on some topic that had nothing to do with literary criticism.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but my 11th grade English teacher had a better approach. When we objected to tests on Shakespeare plays that had about a third of the test points on various facts, such as who was Hamlet’s girlfriend, his reply was that if you don’t know what happened in the play, how could you go on to write about symbols, character analysis etc. ? As he later wrote his doctoral dissertation on Shakespeare, he knew what he was talking about. I eventually took his advice to heart, and in a Shakespeare class in college, I read each play twice. Got the only semester A grade I ever got in English.
This Johnny didn’t like reading this article much. It seemed to be mostly about the author’s experiences and preferences. I lightly skimmed the last half of it.
The only two times I liked what we did in high school English was when we were directed to write an in-class essay on some topic that had nothing to do with literary criticism.
A friend of mine long ago was teaching high school English in northern Idaho. Lots of farmers’ kids in his class. He assigned an essay on “The essence of a doorknob.” I never did hear how it turned out.
I was a member of the “Book of the Month Club” at age 10. At age 14, I saw the movie “Shane” and recognized the plot from a series in “Argosy” magazine. I had read it several years before.
I was an English major in college because I could not get a student loan as “premed.” I enjoyed it thoroughly and was offered a “Woodrow Wilson Fellowship” for graduate work. I started medical school instead.
Why don’t boys like to read?
Because most YA novels for tween-teen boys on the market are horrible baths in dysfunction and despair, when all they want to read are books of adventure, mystery-solving and daring, with hopeful outcomes and sympathetic heroes.
And the required readings in HS classes are even worse.
Just my two cents.
(This is why I write historicals – so readers who want something less depressing have something more promising to read!)
What Gringo said. If the world depended on my becoming a competent literary critic, we are all in a lot of trouble. I never had the patience to master the whole symbolism, allusion, metaphor, etc. I read a lot, by choice mostly SF but nearly any book was better than no book. I got a fair way through “Silas Marner” in 9th grade because it was the novel in our literature anthology and the teacher couldn’t tell I was reading that instead of whatever was assigned, at least from a distance. I vaguely remember some controversy when I was caught, but nothing serious.
More to the point, by the time I was in jr. high, the ability to read was assumed, mostly correctly. They weren’t teaching reading, they were teaching literature. I doubt the sort of literature that appeals to English teachers and more importantly impresses other English teachers is going to appeal to many teenage boys. At that point I was into Heinlein, cars, guns and airplanes far more than feelings and imagery. If you have something to say, a simple declarative sentence will do just fine. I probably eat a lot more regularly as an engineer than I would have as a poet. In the 50 odd years since, I’ve read and enjoyed Tolstoy, Austen, Hardy and many more that wouldn’t have been on my list then. Tastes broaden.
The real issue is that too many now days simply never learn to read well enough to function. The point of assigning “chapter” books in elementary school should be to get students used to the idea that they can read a hundred pages without their head exploding. At the same time, I remember nearly everyone ordered books from Scholastic and an impressive pile of boxes on delivery day with no discernible effort to direct choices, the same for the library. The emphasis was on reading just about anything that individuals wanted. It seemed to work, I’d bet that every one of the 42 people that graduated with me could read reasonably well. Remember the old PSA; “Reading is fundamental.”, they weren’t wrong
OK, I may be a bit of an anomaly. In the middle of the 50’s in kindergarten they taught me the alphabet and started teaching me the sounds the letters made. By early in first grade, I had learned all the letters and was sounding out words. Other than the “See Spot Run” books, the first book I remember reading in first grade [and I have a copy on the shelf behind me] was “All About Dinosaurs” by Roy Chapman Andrews. He was the paleontologist who found the first fossilized dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert. I found it in the elementary school library where they took us for an hour every week.
The combination of dinosaurs [which young boys like] and the Gobi Desert which I knew was part of China [I am of Chinese ancestry] grabbed me. That was one key. Give boys a chance to discover something that actually interests them.
The second key falls on the parents. My father came to this country just before the Depression; 12 years old, alone, and not speaking, reading, or writing English. He learned all three well before he was an adult. And I was highly praised by all the adults in my family for learning to read, and especially for reading more than just school assignments.
When I was 10 we moved to a suburb of Denver and I discovered the city library. The staff there tried to shoo me into the kid’s section. I was deep into 940.54 in the Dewey Decimal System. Specifically, the official “History of US Naval Operations in WW-II”. All 15 volumes, each a couple of inches thick and written in operational language. And incidentally, I have all 15 volumes on another shelf today.
I told my dad, and he gave me a note for them saying that he assumed the library had nothing that would harm me if I read it and told them that if I could carry it, I could check it out. So they let me read what I wanted to read. When parents show that reading is a good thing, and are proud of you for reading; if you are a young boy you will read.
Subotai Bahadur
If you have something to say, a simple declarative sentence will do just fine.
That’s most of it.
In my experience, there’s a divide between those who see a significant language barrier in Shakespeare, and those who see little if any more than language speed bumps. I’m in the latter group, and those in the former group sound to me almost like their having the same level of problem with Shakespeare’s plays that I would have with the Canterbury Tales.
(they’re dang it! My computer for an edit feature!)
Specifically, the official “History of US Naval Operations in WW-II”. All 15 volumes, each a couple of inches thick and written in operational language. And incidentally, I have all 15 volumes on another shelf today.
When I was in 8th grade, my relatives asked me what I would like as a book for my birthday. I replied that I would like a copy of “Janes Fighting Ships.” I doubt they ever understood. I had a similar experience with a librarian. I was about 10 and asked to check out a book titled “The Foxes of Harrow” which was about a pre-Civil War family in the South. She called my mother to see if she would allow me to have it. The author, Frank Yerby, finally moved to Europe because of discrimination. He was black.
I once met a Norwegian geologist whose command of the English language was truly impressive — much better than that of the average denizen of England. When the opportunity arose, I asked him how he had managed to learn the foreign language of English so well.
He responded that he had been a rather mediocre student of English in high school. Then he came across James Bond novels. He credited Ian Fleming with igniting his interest in the English language. A little sex & violence can go a long way in getting young males interested in reading.
Mike K….”I replied that I would like a copy of “Janes Fighting Ships.” I doubt they ever understood” Maybe they thought it was a children’s book intended as an introduction to the Navy and written for a girl named Jane.
My hometown library had copies for several years, Wonder if they still do (checks) yes indeed
AP English in my senior year of high school, for the big final paper I turned in to my long suffering teacher my master work comparing the Noble Savage in Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard. If you know of any deserving would-be young gentlemen, this is the book for them: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Book-Adventure-Stories/dp/030747450X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=K4D73GL6S5SB&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.xm1IUo5myAdUZ8OOb-HPAHmFVUU5TYOfz0zr1HzPiPTDa8UpCO97H3FkKCHvNcoK778DoixU3M7Ewo_Fqx_fXi2jqgN58jCY49O58zQe8u6S5eopjWljYIOzXG_QVB6XUNTuQ6R6IcOK4LIdL8TRNfg6HeaGfiVb9AXD6JFSpo9UC3DZGO9PcwtO4UvHHV4icgODuzeWOCKiMJylGtubQxG5TzmVf5YkfPhby-BrV5I.f5sIcsfdYhLDxiW5rah33f7UOyj5I7xrs_kJPYb42hk&dib_tag=se&keywords=adventure+stories+otto+penzler&qid=1721337100&sprefix=adventure+stories+otto+penzler%2Caps%2C182&sr=8-1
At my little podunk rural high school, the senior English teacher not only taught Shakespeare but also the KJV Bible as a form of English literature. We were also assigned the entire Will Durant Story of Civilization whose prose I found well… interesting. Somebody complained to the teacher about the difficulty of penetrating the language of both Shakespeare and KJV and he said something to the effect that it is important to do difficult things, I never did figure Mr. Breslin for being a Marine.
The boys in the class took to Shakespeare, especially the tragedies, better than you would expect because we were all enthralled with General Chang
The link that Alan provides to Sommers, while 10+ years old, shows that a question that is facing us today has some historical roots which is what do we do about boys in public education? If men and women are different enough to be also separate species (I head my minster yelling “not Complementary!”) then you really you cannot have a one-sized fits-all curriculum for both boys and girls. I think she nails it when the school system basically treats the problem as boys being defective.
Sommers brings up some excellent ideas for dealing with the problems of getting boys to read, but I think that will have to be as supplementary if not in opposition to the K-12 school system. Common institutions only work if they is common cultural consensus underlying them.
It took me 4 years to slog through the entire Will Durant Story of Civilization. The Enlightenment was memorable for highlighting the French philosophes’ antagonism toward religion while at the same time crediting them (or perhaps thinking Voltaire sufficient for the task) for inspiring religious tolerance. I think such tolerance was led primarily by the grassroots of Northern Europe. It’s not a coincidence that Protestantism faced the fewest obstacles among high-cooperation societies. As far as I can tell, the first peaceable post-Reformation ecumenical movement was the abolitionist movement – well, it was peaceable between the religious abolitionist factions…
I discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs’ earliest Tarzan novels late in life via Gutenberg.org. I find this passage in The Return Of Tarzan a bit amusing: “Tarzan entered the smoking-room, and sought a chair a little apart from the others who were there. He felt in no mood for conversation, and as he sipped his absinth he let his mind run rather sorrowfully over the past few weeks of his life.” The jungle lord sets foot in “civilization,” and now he’s gone native.
well he was an Earl wasn’t he, most of the adaptations of the work, except for the most recent ones and the one in the 80s, do not rest on that part, he was the son of British settlers in Kenya,
I was on a birding trip to Door County Wisconsin the past few days (aided by the Merlin app on my father’s smartphone–I still use a dumb phone) and I read the following books when not hiking or visiting maritime museums: the Bible, two mysteries by Agatha Christie, The High Crusade by Poul Anderson*, and a field guide to edible wild plants (that I’d given up for lost until finding it in my backpack when we set out).
* Wherein a scout ship for extraterrestrial would-be conquerors lands in fourteenth-century England, only for the aliens to learn the hard way that “primitive” is not the same as “stupid”.
As a boy I read a lot of “Tarzan”novels. I remember the story of his parents dying and leaving him alone to be raised by gorillas, as I recall.
As a boy I devoured science fiction. Lots of action, interesting (if implausible) technology, and most important, strong male leads.
I haven’t read any decent sci-fi in years, because it’s all girlboss and Mary Sue. Any strong male characters are there only to provide a possible love interest and/or an obstacle or diversion to the female lead’s mission.
here’s an intro, of course just the word Tarzan is triggering to the zombie mind, I don’t use woke,
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/78/pg78-images.html
yes Asimov Clarke and even some like Harry Harrison, which were more picaresque efforsts