A while back, I asked my former teacher about her experiences in the school where I am teaching now.

She said teachers during her time had boys who struggled with reading and had to be placed in various programs to get extra help. The boys gave clever excuses and faked their reading skills. I told her we still had those in the public school system.

Two things are of concern here. The first has to do with attention, which seems more a question of manners or respect. Inability to pay attention is a personal failing. The second is development. Boys often start more slowly. In a recent study of achievement in reading, boys were behind girls in every region surveyed.

Reading, one of my students said, was a ?girl thing.? And it seems this failure is accepted as natural. Boys are just too active, social, inattentive, nonverbal, media-obsessed to become serious readers. It is just the way things are, people seem to think.

But public school teachers, especially those handling reading classes, should try to turn things around. We should develop books and other reading materials that make literature more enjoyable, while offering moral guidance.

At the same time, we should identify the developmental and physiological constraints that cause boys to start slowly and experience difficulty.

Early experiences of failure and frustration often makes boys decide they are just ?not good at reading.? As reading expectations rise, a printed page may seem like a minefield to a reader who lacks confidence. Rather than expose their weakness, they become resistant and concentrate on activities they like and do better in.

Adding to the problem is the proliferation of computer games they can play at Internet cafes or at home.

Though some non-readers find a way later to read books they love, many abandon reading for good. The less they read, the farther they fall behind and the less they want to expose their deficiencies. The books they are expected to read also become much more difficult for them.

But slow starts do not necessarily mean long-term failure. I have not met a boy who does not prefer to be a reader (though he might claim it does not matter).

How, then, can we help boys develop a love for reading as they work through a developmental period where they may experience difficulty? That, I think, is a major educational question for our time.

Sonny N. de Guzman teaches intermediate pupils at Dau Central School, Mabalacat South District, Division of Pampanga.