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The boys have fallen behind.

But why? Nicholas D. Kristof asks.

Some people think that boys are hard-wired so that they learn more slowly, perhaps because they evolved to fight off wolves more than to raise their hands in classrooms.

But why has the problem gotten worse lately?

[In ?Why Boys Fail,? by Richard Whitmire] argues that the basic problem is an increased emphasis on verbal skills, often taught in sedate ways that bore boys. ?The world has gotten more verbal,? he writes. ?Boys haven?t.?...

Some educators say that one remedy may be to encourage lowbrow, adventure or even gross-out books that disproportionately appeal to boys....

Indeed, the more books make parents flinch, the more they seem to suck boys in. A Web site, guysread.com, offers useful lists of books to coax boys into reading, and they are helpfully sorted into categories like ?ghosts,? ?boxers, wrestlers, ultimate fighters,? and ?at least one explosion.?

Hey, I thought we needed to worry about fanning the flames of violence. Face it, Kristof, the world of men has ended. You ? you men ? in your geekhood, transformed your world of action into a world of text, and we women sat down and started typing, typing circles around you, the way we talk circles around you from the earliest possible moment ...



... and so women rule and women will rule... unless somebody pulls the plug.

Full post as published by Althouse on March 28, 2010 (boomark / email).