Re: Reading and Writing

From: edequity@phoenix.edc.org
Date: Thu Feb 10 2000 - 17:20:33 EST

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    I would have to disagree about the issue of reading remediation for boys
    or any underachieving student. I don't know the history or reading
    remediation, but it is long, probably goes back to at least the 50s, but
    maybe longer, and the funds available for such programs are
    so well established as not to even get any special notice. In fact an
    equity issue of a decade ago was that there is all this money for reading
    remediation (affects boys) but none for numeracy remediation. Neither
    issue is unimportant.

    I agree that some boys dismiss reading as "sissy." Because little boys
    have so few males in their daily lives (mom as primary parenting influence
    for young children, other caregivers are overwhelmingly female, elementry
    teachers are over 90% female) many young boys have almost no routine male
    contact during the day. If we could get more males into the ranks of
    early childhood education and elementry teaching, this might reverse
    itself. Other countries that have no tradtion of all female elementry
    faculties do not have the same reading problems with boys.
    ***************************************************************************
    Barbara Tavares
    University of Hawaii
    808/956-6194
    <btavares@hawaii.edu>



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