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Re: Non-Fiction; Boys; Diversity
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From: bookmarch_at_aol.com
Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 12:25:25 -0400 (EDT)
I hear Megan's concern about "genderizing" but I think there is a place for raising this issue -- less in terms of some kind of inherent chromosomal preference and more about adult gate-keepers. I have spoken at innumerable conferences where librarians/parents report that a child was told he could not read a book on snakes, or a book of records, or a graphic novel, or a compendium of military gear and needed instead to read a novel -- as if reading meant fiction. This attitude among adults splinters reading into "reading' - that is, fiction; independent reading -- which, for some, is all those books they were told they could not read; and report resources -- books you mine, you don't explore. The CCore has pressed against this splintering, but it still exists, and it has very harmful effects.
Last weekend the New York Times published an Op-Ed about girls and coding. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/opinion/sunday/how-to-get-girls-into-coding.html?_r=0 The article, by a woman who is of Indian immigrant background, pointed out that just 0.4% of women entering college say they expect Computer Science to be their major. Somehow we have convinced 99.6% of women entering college not to see themselves as future computer scientists or engineers. The article mentions some promising efforts, such as the group Black Girls Code http://www.blackgirlscode.com/, but there is so much for all of us to do. We have to make clear that math (as KT pointed out); coding, engineering are all as exciting as fiction, as deserving of being featured in displays, contests, summer reading, programming as any other kind of material -- we have to invite every kind of child to see her or himself in nonfiction, and make clear that all readers may well love reading a book to learn how to program a computer as much or more than they enjoy reading a novel about kids who become computer wizards and fight epic battles in fantasy realms.
Marc Aronson
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Received on Thu 05 Jun 2014 11:25:45 AM CDT
Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 12:25:25 -0400 (EDT)
I hear Megan's concern about "genderizing" but I think there is a place for raising this issue -- less in terms of some kind of inherent chromosomal preference and more about adult gate-keepers. I have spoken at innumerable conferences where librarians/parents report that a child was told he could not read a book on snakes, or a book of records, or a graphic novel, or a compendium of military gear and needed instead to read a novel -- as if reading meant fiction. This attitude among adults splinters reading into "reading' - that is, fiction; independent reading -- which, for some, is all those books they were told they could not read; and report resources -- books you mine, you don't explore. The CCore has pressed against this splintering, but it still exists, and it has very harmful effects.
Last weekend the New York Times published an Op-Ed about girls and coding. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/opinion/sunday/how-to-get-girls-into-coding.html?_r=0 The article, by a woman who is of Indian immigrant background, pointed out that just 0.4% of women entering college say they expect Computer Science to be their major. Somehow we have convinced 99.6% of women entering college not to see themselves as future computer scientists or engineers. The article mentions some promising efforts, such as the group Black Girls Code http://www.blackgirlscode.com/, but there is so much for all of us to do. We have to make clear that math (as KT pointed out); coding, engineering are all as exciting as fiction, as deserving of being featured in displays, contests, summer reading, programming as any other kind of material -- we have to invite every kind of child to see her or himself in nonfiction, and make clear that all readers may well love reading a book to learn how to program a computer as much or more than they enjoy reading a novel about kids who become computer wizards and fight epic battles in fantasy realms.
Marc Aronson
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Received on Thu 05 Jun 2014 11:25:45 AM CDT
