Women read and men fidget

In the July issue of Esquire there is an excellent, albeit disquieting article by Tom Chiarella called 'The Problem with Boys' in which he discusses in considerable detail how our schools and universities are failing to deal with the achievement and ambition deficits of young males, and maybe how those failures are reflective of a greater difference between the sexes than we have been prepared to countenance heretofore.

Chiarella cites such distressing statistics as the fact that 37 percent of 12th grade boys are scoring below basic levels in their studies, as opposed to a mere 15 percent of girls being in the same inadequate category. Today only 42 men for every 50 women go to college, and that the male voting rate has declined by 16 percent. More chillingly, five times as many young males as females commit suicide, twice as many males abuse alcohol in the 18 to 29 age group, and 95 percent of state and federal prison inmates under age 25 are male.

As a journalist and former high school English teacher, there is something I've noticed for years that directly indicates a gender difference that we see every day, and probably don't think much about. Go to Starbucks, an airport departure lounge, beach or poolside and observe the women, some of them young, immersed in books. I was in a coffee bistro the other day, having a solitary cup, and looked at the 25-ish woman sitting alone at another table. She was reading. Not reading a magazine, or newspaper, but a book. My thought as a male (and I am an inveterate reader, by the way, and have been all my life) was, how can you do that? Why would you do that? Why would you go to a public venue and pack a book along with you? And she wasn't reading some glossy piece of summertime nonsense. Her tome wasn't a cheesy potboiler, but a 'real' book. I could tell by the cover, even if I couldn't read the title from where I sat.

The best place to observe this is where people are forced to undergo a wait of some nature, like the aforementioned departure lounge. Check out the number of women, and even girls, who are quietly reading. Watch the men. They are impatient. They tap their feet. They pace around. They'll rapidly sheaf through a newspaper or magazine, but not really read anything within. They'll scratch, they'll yawn, they'll look at their watches, sigh with exasperation, attempt to engage their reading partner or spouse in conversation, without success. But, the one thing you will hardly ever see them doing is reading -- actual book reading. Oh, our male friend probably has a book with him. It's packed away in his luggage. He wouldn't think of leaving it accessible in his carry-on. It just never crossed his mind. He likes to read well enough (we can hope), but he probably reads like I do.

As I say, I have been actively involved with using the language for my entire adult life. My life is writing, and my life is reading. Always has been, as teacher and scribe. But, I honestly never, ever think of reading except at a specific time. That is when I am horizontal. If it is a quiet Saturday afternoon and I am a bit weary, I will haul out one of the books I am working on (there are usually at least five in this category), stretch out on the sofa, and read. I will last for 10 minutes, and then I will doze out, and that is the end of it. I also read at bedtime. I must read at bedtime. I couldn't sleep if I didn't read at bedtime. But, that's it. On the john reading is important, too, but that is usually a magazine. Books are for horizontal time.

Yet women I've known, have been with, have been married to, can pick up a book any old time, and they can read anywhere. Even a dental appointment calls for lugging the book along. My book, on the other hand, is on the bedside table, and that is where it rests until the end of the day and is put into use.

Perhaps one of the reasons for the disenchantment of male students, and Chiarella hints at this, is that our colleges and universities do not address such a fundamental difference between the sexes, and that college courses are often structured to accommodate the female majority rather than addressing the wants and needs of males where are, needless to say, different. Not better, not worse, but different. I think reading habits illustrate this fundamental difference.