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Hi
Has anyone been watching Gareth Malone’s Extraordinary School for Boys? In the three-part programme, choirmaster Gareth Malone tries to engage boys in their school work to see if he can raise their reading age; as a group they are behind the girls of their age. He talks a lot about risk, adventurous play and why children, particularly boys need it.
Malone thinks that boys are not interested in school because there is not enough risk or competition. He says "Boys need to feel that what they’re doing is exciting and a bit risky…†He reckons the trouble with boys goes far beyond school: too much Xbox, not enough risk-taking and mucking about outdoors, too few challenges …His concern is not just about physical risk taking: “It’s about trying something you haven’t done before, whether it’s camping, climbing a tree, trying a book you thought was too hard, or standing up in public to speak – doing things that are really challenging builds up confidenceâ€.
What he was doing with the boys was new and exciting for them. I agree that boys do need risk and excitement. However, they also need to learn that sometimes you just have to sit down at a desk and get on with it. In educating and parenting we are preparing children for life and the reality is that it’s not exciting every minute of every day. That’s an important life lesson too.
Should children have a “reading age†when all children learn different things at different times. Isn’t it more important that they are simply reading? There's also the view that if you want to make reading more appealing for boys, don’t call it “literacyâ€!
What do others think?
I have been watching it - its quite good. I don't think his methods are necessarily sustainable, but as a short experiment to change the boys attitude for later on, it might work, I certainly think it's a worthwhile experiment, and I hope it does work for the boys sake.
Last night's program was mildly annoying - I can't remember the boys name, but he was the one who played on his x-box from 3:30 to 8 every night and had never taken a book home. His mother seemed to think there was nothing she could do - I would have thought that restricting the time on his x-box would have been a start, and possibly some negotation of x-box time as a reward for reading. Gareth did succeed in his case though, a notable success.
As a matter of interest, I don't particularly remember reading much with my children, certainly not once they could read the basics. However, with all of them, they went to bed at a sensible time, with the option of either lights out, or lights on and they could read for as long as they wanted - not surprisingly, they all chose the latter with the result that they are now all avid readers.
I haven't watched last nights episode yet - have it recorded. But from the first episode I thought: good ideas ...not particularly well implemented for a large scale ...but fun and interesting in the short term small scale setting ...but full marks to the head teacher for giving it a go
My oldest boy is 9 and I simply can't expect him to just sit down and 'work'. However, my girl is only 2, so I have no gender comparison yet - put a book in her hands and she jumps on your tummy until you read it to her ...I'm hoping she'll grow out of that by the time she starts school.
A few things I have learned:
1/ Reward (not bribery) helps, e.g. "Oh fantastic, you have done all your times tables and I didn't have to beat you once with a stick. Here, I'll give you an extra penny in your pocket money this week".
2/ At the point when he is looking out of the window, his books have fallen on the floor, there's a pencil sticking out of his nose and a line of dribble dripping off his chin ...it's time to take a break. Five minutes, half an hour, get a drink or a snack, run around the garden for an hour, come back to it tomorrow, ...
3/ The interest has to be there. I took him off the school reading program last year. Their books just didn't interest him enough and he was trolling through them, because he had to (reminded me of reading Tess at school). Took him to Borders in Oxford and told him to go find a book. He was like a kid in a sweetshop. Went on to read the first 5 Potter books, before they got a bit difficult. He was interested again and school was happy.
4/ Change. Potter went stale, so he drifted through a couple of Morpego books and this week arrived at Alex Rider, which will hold his attention for a few books, before he needs to change again.
...and probably lots more
I think there is an element of common sense in Malone's methods and how we teach generally. Schools are MUCH better than they were in my day, but they are still in some ways very confining ... necessarily so. You couldn't just stop and go swimming for half an hour every time someone got a bit bored.
>At the point when he is looking out of the window, his books have fallen on the floor, there's a pencil sticking out of his nose and a line of dribble dripping off his chin ...it's time to take a break
😆
My daughter (just 12) had a not too positive report about her reading - something about the range of books - I ignored the report as she was only allowed to read from a certain section from the school library, but let loose in the local public library, she will happily come out with 12 books (the maximum she is allowed) and polish them off in a week or two.
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