A couple of years ago, actress and brainiac Danica McKellar got a lot of attention for her first book, Math Doesn’t Suck aimed at helping girls dominate in math. Here’s a story I wrote about it in Newsweek. Now she’s got a new book on girls and math that is getting lots of attention, too. Good for her! But that brings me to a question: Where, pray tell, are the macho guy role models urging our impressionable young sons to bust out on reading and writing — areas where school boys are badly lagging? (Cricket. Cricket.)

In the 1950’s, well-respected academics and serious scientists suggested that school girls didn’t do well in math because they didn’t have the “math gene.” That turned out to be crap. If girls don’t have it, they don’t need it since national tests now show them to be pulling about even with guys (check out the graph of scores at age 17.) So what’s up with guys and reading and writing? Do we believe now that there is something innate in boys that makes them less accomplished at these skills? That they don’t have the reading and writing gene? No? So why aren’t we talking more about how to address it?

An excellent guy I know, children’s book author Jon Sczieska, runs a cool website aimed at getting boys to read more. But he’s out there alone. While I’m on this little rant, let me ask you — why do colleges run science camps for girls but not writing camps for little dudes? Are we all ok with that? And one more thing, why isn’t Tony Hawk– who must have amassed more money that he could spend in two lifetimes by now–cutting a PSA urging boys to read a book as well as playing video games? Just askin’.

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