Here is what I have learned. Many many times a boy has trouble writing because most boys do not write for the fun of it any more than they talk for the fun of it. They talk or write when they have something to say and, having said it, they stop. They would no more rabbit on for the fun of it than the average girl would run laps around the track for the fun of it.
Sorry to Pick on you Kriston, but.......
I have to say that although I consider myself a Feminist, this does match my experience of 'most' boys and 'average' girls in school settings in the United States, at this moment in history (or herstory)
I don't run laps for the fun of it, and couldn't bear to as a girl, average or not, but I do totally enjoy my 'treadmill moments' as a grown woman. Of course the fact that I'm watching Xena Warrior Princess or BattleStar Gallactica might be sweetening the deal.
Even if this effect is totally caused by the environments we live in, this is the environment we do currently live in.
And she does point out that
Many boys will write very well if they can see a purpose to it, just as many girls will run if they can see a purpose to it. So the trick with many boys and their writing is to get them to see the fun of it and then put it (and them) to work with a goal that makes sense.
Grinity
Huh. Most of the runners I know are female, and I seem to be constantly surrounded by loud, chatty, ridiculously talkative boys!
Maybe the sticking point here is really the "for the fun of it" phrase in both cases, male and female. If you run for fitness, for a race, or for your sanity, is that running for the fun of it? If you talk to ask questions, to express your extroverted nature, to share your ideas that are bursting out of you, is that talking for the fun of it?
I guess I'd say "yes," in both cases. You could choose to do something else, but you choose to run or to talk. Is it utterly purposeless? No. But I don't think "for the fun of it" means utterly purposeless.
Meh. We can agree to disagree. But I would LOVE to have some of these silent boys who don't talk! They are not in my house, not in my neighborhood, not in DS4's pre-K, not in my recent experience! Would that they were! Even my introvert talks my ear off. And don't get me started on my extrovert or the extroverts they're friends with...Aye-yi-yi! Stop talking to me already and go play!
