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Girls have been reading primarily male-centric books in school for decades.
Unfortunately, that is absolutely true. Fortunately, the male dominance of authorship and literature has been on the decline for about 200 years. Prior to that , everything from the Bible to the Constitution was written by, for, and about men. Now, as we are reaching more of a gender equalibrium, it is time for the audience to catch up. Here's where we go back to the unfortunate news. The world of the average American adolence male is still dominated by an archaic set of machismo BS rules that value physical over mental development, and stoicly resists anything that would even hint at a threat to their masculinity. Honestly, just getting some of these kids to read anything more than a Sports Illustrated magazine is a challenge. In the end, the test questions will be nearly identical. Describe the main characters moral responsibilities and actions? How is race and racial segregation/integration adressed in this work? Etc. I'm not advocating assigning work by gender, but suggesting options that may be useful in breaking through to some students who may not be responding to the regular assignment. A foothold is a foothold, you take what you can and hope the student will be more cooperative next time.
The reason that most curriculum books are male oriented is because girls are more likely to respond to/associate with male books than boys are to associate with female POV characters. Or that's what I learned in my teaching classes.
I agree with the pertinence of Lords. Great story written by a master.
I agree with The Secret Life of Bees. It is not just a sotyr of women...but a story of a time in our history where blacks fought to vote, were beaten for being "out of line" and when even a young white girl could command more respect than the grown black woman walking with her. I loved the book for the love of these women for each other...but it would just be a pleasant tea party read were it not for the ugliness of the lack of respect for fellow human beings in the '60s and the reminder that it's still felt today
The Secret Life of Bees would be my choice as well.
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Leann
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Aug 08, 2011 07:51AM
Girls have been reading primarily male-centric books in school for decades.
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Unfortunately, that is absolutely true. Fortunately, the male dominance of authorship and literature has been on the decline for about 200 years. Prior to that , everything from the Bible to the Constitution was written by, for, and about men. Now, as we are reaching more of a gender equalibrium, it is time for the audience to catch up. Here's where we go back to the unfortunate news. The world of the average American adolence male is still dominated by an archaic set of machismo BS rules that value physical over mental development, and stoicly resists anything that would even hint at a threat to their masculinity. Honestly, just getting some of these kids to read anything more than a Sports Illustrated magazine is a challenge. In the end, the test questions will be nearly identical. Describe the main characters moral responsibilities and actions? How is race and racial segregation/integration adressed in this work? Etc. I'm not advocating assigning work by gender, but suggesting options that may be useful in breaking through to some students who may not be responding to the regular assignment. A foothold is a foothold, you take what you can and hope the student will be more cooperative next time.
The reason that most curriculum books are male oriented is because girls are more likely to respond to/associate with male books than boys are to associate with female POV characters. Or that's what I learned in my teaching classes.
I agree with the pertinence of Lords. Great story written by a master.
I agree with The Secret Life of Bees. It is not just a sotyr of women...but a story of a time in our history where blacks fought to vote, were beaten for being "out of line" and when even a young white girl could command more respect than the grown black woman walking with her. I loved the book for the love of these women for each other...but it would just be a pleasant tea party read were it not for the ugliness of the lack of respect for fellow human beings in the '60s and the reminder that it's still felt today
The Secret Life of Bees would be my choice as well.
