Why Your Sons Refuse to Read
American Thinker,
by
Jack Cashill
Original Article
Posted By: DVC,
12/5/2019 4:22:19 PM
A few years back, my friend Mike McMullen and I were driving to Oklahoma for a seriously incorrect weekend of eating, drinking, and shooting, when Mike posed a question. He asked if I had time to take a look at a novel he was working on.
An engineer by profession and an outdoorsman by inclination, Mike did not strike me as a would-be novelist.
“What’s it about?” I asked. “We’ve got another hour so. We can just talk it through.”
“Well,” said Mike shyly, “it’s about this concealed-carry expert. One night he’s out walking his dog,
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Cherrybark 12/5/2019 5:05:11 PM (No. 253803)
OP - "...which I have offered to fund to save them from the horror show which government schools have become." Very well done OP. May thoughtfulness and generosity towards those young men bring blessings and rewards to the three of you and your family.
11 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
DVC 12/5/2019 5:31:08 PM (No. 253822)
Well, thank you, #1. I am financially able to fund this, and their mother is not. I consider the money well spent to keep them in a Christian environment and to get the older boy into proper classes to challenge him. He's a really bright kid, but needs a proper environment in school to make him work and let him accomplish more.
7 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
bad-hair 12/5/2019 6:08:18 PM (No. 253857)
My children are thankfully long past the "school system". My daughter reads, we exchange books. My son is a man. I have high hopes for my grandchildren. I'll take a bit of credit, but luck counts.
4 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
pros7767 12/5/2019 6:43:08 PM (No. 253879)
If you're looking for books boys will enjoy, check out "The Fighting Hawks at Pearl Harbor" and "The Fighting Hawks at D-Day". Time Travel adventure to both battles will teach them the history surrounding the events and they will live through the battles with the characters. Meant for youth from ages 8 and up. Should be an easy read for high schoolers, but nowadays, who knows.
Available on Amazon. Also, great Christmas gifts!
0 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Geoman 12/5/2019 8:12:13 PM (No. 253926)
FTA: "One major reason for male failure is the effete dreck boys are assigned to read in schools."
I passed on to my son the joys of reading Louis L'Amour and the veritable roadmaps to becoming a gentleman that his books admirably represent. L'Amour was himself, educated by reading thousands of books, many of which used to represent the Western canon of classical literature, which has fallen out a favor on our college campuses. Ironically, L'Amour recognized the achievements of indigenous peoples throughout the world but politically correct he was not.
I also commend the OP.
5 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Smart11344 12/5/2019 9:14:35 PM (No. 253960)
You ever look at the the texts they send. They can't spell. Years ago an 8th grade kid could not tell the time using an analog clock!
4 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
MissMann 12/5/2019 9:48:19 PM (No. 253977)
Having worked for a private school, please don't think that is always the answer to dysfunctional public schools. You have to be very, very careful and do your due diligence--and still teach liberty at home!!!!
7 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Urgent Fury 12/5/2019 10:08:02 PM (No. 253984)
I've noticed as an adult that there is a dearth of decent male writers. And many male writers use female protagonists. I used to walk into a library and have 5 readable books in 30 minutes. Not so easy anymore, they're mostly written by women.
3 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
clipped wings 12/5/2019 10:19:05 PM (No. 253985)
#8, as a writer, your comments are magnified. Romance writers tend to dominate writers conferences.
2 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
JimBob 12/5/2019 11:33:10 PM (No. 254010)
I have three (now grown) children, two girls and a boy, spaced two years apart in age.
When they were little, I used to read to them every evening, and read them to sleep.
One night at bedtime I was reading to them from The Hobbitt, and I got to the part where Frodo is creeping down the passage in the Lonely Mountain, and he could see the glow from the Dragon shining around the corner at the foot of the passage...... I realized that all three kids had their eyes WIDE OPEN in suspense!
Took them a WHILE to get to sleep that night!
Later, the girls were reading well above grade level, but my son, who was in 2nd grade, was just middling along. Then the first Harry Potter book came out. He glommed onto it and could not put it down. Reading that book got him going on reading, so that by the end of his 2nd grade, he was maxing out the school reading tests, which were designed to test up through the sixth grade.
My wife and I both read to the kids and encouraged them to read, and my wife also taught them to shoot for 100% on every test and every assignment. We also encouraged them to play in the school band, and participate in school plays and the 'Beta' club. The result was that all three of the kids earned straight A's all the way through school, my younger daughter was a 'National Merit' finalist, and all three earned full academic scholarships to the local state university. My older daughter is now a junior engineer at a civil engineering firm, my younger daughter designs the interior of buildings at an architectural firm, and my son is about 2/3 of the way to earning a PhD in molecular biology. He is working on a new Anthrax vaccine which, if it eventually works out and gets adopted, may one day replace the current 'nasty' Anthrax vaccine (you readers who are ex-military may have had experience with this one!) with a vaccine that is immediately over 95% effective, and has few or no side effects.
For us, it all started with READING AT HOME, and having books that INTERESTED the kids!
5 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
DVC 12/6/2019 12:28:12 AM (No. 254032)
#7, my SIL is a retired teacher, very conservative and sensible. She is going with her daughter to check out a couple of the private school possibilities before they decide. We take nothing for granted, and all want the best educations for these boys.
And get a copy of the new Cashill/McMullen book for someone on your Christmas list. They'll enjoy it.
1 person likes this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Sunhan65 12/6/2019 3:31:05 AM (No. 254095)
Robert A. Heinlein wrote wonderful stories for young men and women. His so-called "juveniles" are entertaining novels set in a scientifically-realistic future about young people who must face and overcome practical and ethical dangers.
One clever reviewer pointed out that, although these books seem to be about aliens and space travel, they are really an owners manual for the life of a young person trying to grow up. The stories could just as easily be subtitled "how to deal with bullies," "when to fight City Hall," "knowing who your friends are," and "character is who you are when no one else is looking."
"Have Spacesuit Will Travel" is a good place to start. Once they get through the so-called juveniles, "Starship Troopers" is a good transition to his adult novels. Troopers is a civics class wrapped inside a thrilling story about mechanized warfare in space. It was once required reading at West Point. It's also a teriffic story.
"Podkayne of Mars" is sometimes viewed as the final story in the juvenile series. It's not. Although the protagonist is a teenage girl, it should be read last. Heinlein wrote it in part to help usher his young readers into adulthood. I re-read it from time to time just to remind myself how powerful good writing can be.
After Heinlein died, his wife dedicated a posthumous book "To Heinlein's children." Generations of grateful people who grew up reading his stories knew exactly what she meant.
1 person likes this.
DVC, ya done good.
God bless you and yours.
0 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
DVC 12/6/2019 4:20:39 PM (No. 254836)
Thanks, #13, but it hasn't happened yet. We have half a dozen 529s active though.
0 people like this.
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Screwing up young boys is a horrible thing. A niece is looking into private school for her two boys, which I have offered to fund to save them from the horror show which government schools have become.
And buy the book. The authors of the book are friends, and it's a good read. I recommend it. LDotters will enjoy it, and if you have any boys, they will, too. Note that there are other books with the same name, make sure you get the authors' names right before you order.