Chapter 1

First of all, I am really enjoying this book so far. The writing style is easy to follow and the subject matter is proving to be intriguing.

One thing that I am really glad about is that they address the issue of feminism and why they are writing a book specifically on the male gender at the very beginning of the book. I think that addressing that issue on the outset really makes their purpose as the authors, and the purpose of the book very clear.

In the beginning of the first chapter, Smith and Wilhelm set forth some statistics ultimately showing that, "the gap between the girls and boys is 'comparable to the difference between Whites and racial/ethnic groups that have suffered systematic social and economic discrimination in this country'" (2). This was really surprising to me. They then go on to list various contributing factors, or, possible contributing factors, which also surprised me. I had never thought that perhaps standardized testing maybe favors female responses? I don't know how founded this claim is. The way they put it makes sense, but I am still slightly skeptical.

Their take on whether much of boys' behavior is biologically determined versus socially constructed was somewhat problematic to me. I understand that they believe that looking at behavior from the point of view that it is socially constructed makes sense to them as teachers and for their study, but I feel like they are ignoring the fact that it is both. Biology does have a lot to do with the sex differences, and isn't it only fair, in examining male difficulties, to take this into account? How can they fully examine the situation by not addressing the biological aspect of the differences?

I read a book once (ah! the name is escaping me!) written by a psychologist who had a son and tried her very best to make sure his world was as gender-neutral as possible. Her son, though given trucks and barbies to play with, would gravitate to the trucks, and when he did play with the barbies, it was to beat them up and run them over with the trucks. The book is a lot more extensive, but basically it shows that biology does have a lot to do with the difference in the different sexes' behavior. I am sure that social factors also contribute hugely--maybe even more than biological factors, but I think that the authors should address that issue instead of dismissing it completely. Perhaps I'm thinking into this too much? The more I think about it, what could taking the biology aspect into account really help to contribute to our understanding of male literacy issues? Any thoughts?