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At least, that is what this commentary piece from the same paper seems to indicate.
Results may be skewed by the non-inclusion of groups that may had reduced Canada's ranking.
http://www.nationalpost.com/commentary/columnists/ story.html?f=/stories/20011207/812265.html
Claude
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I tried to cut and paste to get to your link, but it didn't work. I did find this one though try this link if this is the article your were referring to.
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Yes Donald, that was the article I referred to.
Claude
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To add, to my comment above, I'm glad you made me aware of this one because the reporter who wrote the article originally in question wrote a second article the following day about the reading results that boys had.
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I live in New Brunswick, and I can say that the education system here bites the big one. And the reading skills of boys is pretty bad. I remember in class teachers making students reading passages aloud (IMO they shouldn't be doing this) girls would always zip through the text, and most boys would be struggling to just read the first few sentences
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This is an interesting and valid point but its not really valid as far as the education of students is concerned.
Boys read worse than girls on any scale used to determine reading ability. Most of these tests attempt to determine comprehension of the material read. Can the student pick out the main points, subject, actions, etc., these are basic skills of reading? A similar test in math would be the ability to add and subtract. An enormous amount of time and money has been spent on determining this and it holds true across all languages and sexes. The simple fact is boys are behind girls in language ability which relates strongly to reading and writing. There are several reasons for this mostly biological (brain structure is the main factor). Males and females learn differently. A great deal of attention has been given to females and changing the way we teach science and math to fit their needs. What I am asking is equal attention and money be given to boys in their areas of educational needs in reading and writing.
PS I am still unsure of how you feel the two articles are related though.
Tony H
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" ...
Boys read worse than girls on any scale used to determine reading ability.
[even so and as you continue below...]
...
The simple fact is boys are behind girls in language ability which relates strongly to reading and writing.
"
... I suggest the jury is still out.<br><br>
<
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sorry about that, I hit the wrong button
" ...
Boys read worse than girls on any scale used to determine reading ability.
[even so and as you continue below...]
...
The simple fact is boys are behind girls in language ability which relates strongly to reading and writing.
... "
... I suggest the jury is still out.
Language use and accuisition is on different cerebral hemisphers generally per gender.
Bi-hemispheric language activity is a hallmark of psychopathy
source:
Without Conscience : The Disturbing World Of Psychopaths Among Us
by Robert D. Hare, Ph.D.
Paperback - 236 pages (January 8, 1999)
Guilford Press; ISBN: 1572304510
Both my daughter and my son born 7 years apart and of very different tempermants right from birth (I was there from the beginning) really enjoyed reading. The time that my son started reading was not all that much later than my daughter. The intersting aspect in this context was that they both learned to read fluently earlier than most of their peers.
They were both bi-lingual from birth. By aggreement, my wife spoke to the children in "her" first language only (Spanish), and I spoke to the children only in "my" first language (English). We decided that they should learn each language simultaneously and from someone who speaks it idiomatically .
Both children learned to read in Spanish, before they learned to read in English, and well before their English-only peers learned to read at all. Spanish is phonetic in construction so the way the letters sound in the alphabet is the way they sound in words (there are exceptions of course just not enough exceptions to forestall reading earlier per say.)
I guess my point in this context is that IMHO the rules regarding children and reading are about what value the experience holds for each "person"(child).
I think that we are seeing, as far as the testing, real world performance, and anecdotal evidence goes, an aspect of how we package (and the stock that package) and present the reading experience or challenge to our children.
There is equally great danger in the reportedly "great results the girls are having". One could use Miles Davis (the great post war jazz trumpet player) as an analogy in reverse here. Miles Davis could express himself profoundly with his trumpet, the irony was that his trumpet technique was, even by his own admission, poor if not plain terrible. So are these good reading results even indicative of good minds. Maybe girls just find the parrot thing or quick-pick word grasp easier than boys. Maybe boys don't have the training to be compliant or obedient enough to get with parroting. Maybe the way we teach both genders to read needs to be the same but very different from current practices. It is important; We cannot write well if we cannot read well, and both are imperatives for meaningful or serious critical thinking.
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