Popular Culture Important to Boys' Literacy

Rams forwarded me this article about an English professor at the University of New Hampshire who has taken a close look at boys and literacy. Prof. Thomas Newkirk argues that instead of viewing popular culture as of no intellectual value, that in the case of boys and reading, it can be a very important influence: "Newkirk interviewed 100 boys and girls in third, fourth and fifth grades in New Hampshire schools for the book, and discovered that sports, movies, video games and other venues of popular culture are a powerful way to encourage young boys to read and write. In his book, Newkirk argues against the simplistic stereotype of boys, showing that rather than mimic violence, boys most often transform, recombine and participate in storylines, and resist the unreality of popular culture." Newkirk has written a book on this subject, Misreading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture, that many MANN readers might want to check out.

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