I used to work as a middle school paraprofessional, someone who helps kids with special needs. A big part of that job was assisting in general education classrooms, and what I saw brought me a lot of concern. I believe schools are (unintentionally) leaving all their students behind — especially boys, who are falling behind at a tremendous rate. There’s no singular answer to this crisis, as a million different factors affect it, but I believe one solution can help boys drastically improve their reading skills: bring the pulp novel back into schools.
To explain pulp, we need to go back to its heyday: it’s the 1910s, and more Americans are literate than ever before. A type of book called “a pulp” comes out. They’re made of the cheapest materials possible, but that allows near everyone to get their hands on them. The stories are simple but compelling; they’re page turners that focus on heroic and daring deeds. “Tarzan,” “Zorro” and “Conan the Barbarian,” and so many others grab the national imagination. As all trends do, this genre falls out of fashion, having brief resurgences in the 60s and the 80s. Today, pulp fiction is a small genre that does well in writing sites like Substack, but its presence elsewhere is minimal.
Why do I bring this dead genre up? It’s because it’s the key to helping young boys learn to love reading. I tried to go through a lot of the recent award-winning science fiction aimed at kids, and it’s overwhelmingly slop. The books in many school curriculums fail to grasp attention, and without a love for reading, students can’t glean any deeper meaning from the books.
To this day, I believe the biggest lasting impact the pandemic will have is the disruption of learning it caused. Students are demonstrably years behind, and that’s going to have a knock-on effect far into the future. If the decline is to be stopped, the time to take action is now. Imbuing a love of reading helps people grow in so many facets of life. I know that my favorite books have brought me a lot of joy and knowledge, and I wouldn’t be half the person I am today without them.
If you want to get into pulp fiction, I strongly recommend starting with stories like “John Carter” or “Tarzan.” You may think of the Disney movie due to their usage of the trademark, but I promise you, “Tarzan” is actually really good as a series. It’s captured the imagination for a long time, let it grab yours!
Self-written bio: Ryan Hurley is an Iowa State senior majoring in Business Administration with a minor in political science. He enjoys discussion and is currently working on a cookbook.
