a snippet from this very good article, as found by a link on this weblog, on young boys’ tendency to read less than young girls:

“Seventy-five percent of elementary school teachers in the U.S. are women, while the percentage of female elementary school librarians is closer to 80. So it shouldn’t surprise us that many boys don’t see reading as a particularly masculine activity. We tell boys that reading is important, that reading is for everyone. We show them that reading is something mostly women do. While they’re creative and well-intentioned, I’m not convinced that the Reading is FUN-damental posters of Michael Jordan and Sammy Sosa with their noses in books are making much of a difference. Boys know why these guys are famous and how they make their money. It’s not from reading.”

it’s a good article, and makes me think i will be a very good father; at least as measured in terms of male-reading-role-model-ness. it’s sort of a weird thing to admit to thinking about, but i have to say i’ve done it before too. it’s just not a question for me, really — whenever i think about there being kids in my care someday, i think about how smart they’re going to be being around someone that loves books as much as i do.

that is, if i can carefully position myself so that there isn’t an anti-reading as anti-parental rebellion backlash of some kind, which i would see as one of my life’s great failures, were it to occur. i’ll let you know in a decade or so.

[now hearing this: hey mercedes – “let’s go blue”. i just found out yesterday that they’re coming through southern california for a stop on their tour with piebald. hot damn is that going to be good or what?]