GayandRight

My name is Fred and I am a gay conservative living in Ottawa. This blog supports limited government, the right of the State of Israel to live in peace and security, and tries to expose the threat to us all from cultural relativism, post-modernism, and radical Islam. I am also the founder of the Free Thinking Film Society in Ottawa (www.freethinkingfilms.com)

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

We need programs like this in Canada too...

Could you imagine any Provincial Minister of Education talking like this???
Every secondary school should provide a bookshelf packed with spy novels and action stories to help boys catch up with girls, Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, said yesterday.

They should choose books "containing positive, modern, relevant role models for working class boys", he said.

"Boys like books which depict them in a powerful role, often as sporting, spying or fighting heroes," he told a meeting of the Fabian Society in London.

To encourage reading boys needed "not just Jane Austen, but a necessary dose of Anthony Horowitz as well", he said.

Books that would appeal to "working class boys" included Raven's Gate, about a boy with supernatural powers by Horowitz, The Fall, a spy novel by Robert Muchamore, and Bloodtide, the Viking saga by Melvin Burgess.

Schools should also contain more male role models such as "old boys" or local boys made good, he said. The successful former pupils should be invited to return to inspire those coming after them. "Eighty-five per cent of primary school teachers are women and doing excellent work, but this can mean that many children from lone-parent families can reach the age of 11 without having any significant contact with a male role model," Mr Johnson said.

4 Comments:

Blogger Blackstone said...

Indeed! Labour ministers have said a lot of things that would be deemed politically incorrect over here. Meanwhile, the Canadian left still sticks to its failed 70s era ideology.

1:21 AM  
Blogger Suricou Raven said...

I dont think this is going to work... partly because im not sure role models are that effective, but mostly because I recall from my own years in school that a typical pupil these days isn't going to read anything unless you force him too - they have movies, and television, and games. Why would they want to read?

I would throw some science-fiction into the mix anyway. Give them some hope for the future.

6:30 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

The best SciFi is an important add to the mix. While the list of the 100 greatest SF novels of all time includes many not appropriate for grade schoolers, there are others that will get boys reading.

ie Niven's Ringworld for the good ones and "A Canticle for Liebowitz" for the inappropriate (the book is seriously depressing).

4:23 AM  
Blogger Suricou Raven said...

I would definatly include Permutation City. Actually, anything in which AI plays a significent role. It will get people thinking about the nature of conciousness and what it means to be human... thoughts that people will need to have, if they are to understand the bioethics issues that are going to arise in future.

5:17 PM  

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