What do you like to do?

“Like Mahiri (1998), we believe that trying to understand the sources of young men’s success and enjoyment outside of school may shed light on how school may shed light on how schools can better serve them.” (Smith, 27)

Smith and Wilhelm conducted interest inventory surveys of forty eight male students of various ages. The majority of them ranked reading and going to school near the bottom of the ranks. Looking at the surveys, they took into consideration psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s research of “flow, ‘joy, creativity, the process of total involvement with life’ (p. xi)” (Smith, 28) Basically, this translates to “a simple premise: ‘that more than anything else, men and women seek happiness.’” (Smith, 28) Now, this is common sense, right? We all truly enjoy doing things that we like and struggle with things that we don’t. Let’s face it, who wants to continue to do something that they stink at?

Looking deeper into things, Smith and Wilhelm suggest that boys seek some sense of accomplishment. This might be why boys enjoy subjects like math, where there is a solution that they can find. Subjects like literature, however, are too aesthetic. “Again and again we heard boys talk about how a feeling of competence kept them involved in an activity. Again and again we heard boys exclaim that they would quickly give things up if they did not gain that competence.” (Smith, 32) So…how can we get our boys to have that feeling of competence in literacy?

The generalization of findings within the study concluded that boys do not get a sense of accomplishment while reading, therefore they lose interest. One student in the study, Larry, talked about not particularly enjoying reading until his teacher acknowledged his improvement with reading. This made him proud of his accomplishments and encouraged him to continue. Okay, so more encouragement overall? Check.

The next finding reported was that the students enjoyed assignments were not topic specific. They needed choice to pursue things that interest them. Now, does this mean that teachers should let students read and write whatever they want all of the time? Not necessarily. Just give them a break once and awhile.

Another struggle of boys depicted was finding books that appeal to them that were just right. They are interested in challenging themselves, but did not want to become overwhelmed. Whew! A lot to digest, but really great information.