To YA Lit or Not to YA Lit?

Older literary fare has been replaced by "culturally relevant" literature that targets students' ethnic group identification, on the assumption that sharing the lead character's ethnicity will motivate them to read.

There is no evidence that either of these types of reading fare turn boys into lifelong readers and learners.
Exerpt from "Young readers' interest waning"
Published in The Lake County Leader and the Advertiser
By Dennis Anderson
Posted, March 23, 2006
http://www.leaderadvertiser.com/articles/2006/09/20/columns/columns03.txt


So, this is the conclusion from the President of the Mission Valley Friends of the Arts reacting to a study published by the National Endowment for the Arts. Mr. Anderson does note in his article that the disparity between young girls and young boys when it comes to reading is alive and well. He also nots that boys "prefer adventure, war, sports and historical nonfiction, while girls prefer personal relationship and fantasy tales." It seems that that is where teachers should be focusing their lessons for their young adult readers. It would seem at least to me that Mr. Anderson's view that the problem of disinterest by young adult readers is the K-12 curriculum is unfortunate. I think he is missing the point. Educators need to look at the stats and research and find ways to fix the problem in front of them. They need to find ways to bring the materials into the classroom that will interest our young readers.
As for the idea that culturally relevant literature and ethnic group identification don't work to motivate readers is just not true. The purpose of Young Adult literature is to have a protagonists that the reader will associate with. If the reader is a young Chinese-American girl shouldn't she have available to her works that have strong characters like herself? Or, in the least shouldn't there be works available that have characters that she identifies with? I think that this may stimulate her to continue reading through those tough years in middle and high school. If she comes out of those years with positive feelings toward reading in general and the tools, taught by her teachers, to move on to more difficult works then she will be armed to tackle other works in not only her literature classes but all of her classes. She will be able to see some "relevance" in what she is doing, and she will understand why she has to do what her professors will have her do.
The focus of the article seems to highlight boys and how they aren't becoming lifelong readers, but I would contend that boys growing into men read like most people. The read what they LIKE to read. It is not our job as educators to dictate what should be enjoyed. It is our job to assist our young adult readers to become better readers and comprehenders of what they are reading. We are to use those two tools to be better thinkers. Therefore educators need to use whatever possible to motivate our young adult readers at a time when their society (school culture) is telling them that reading sux!

(This article was found using Yahoo News/Education)