Why can't Johnny read - but Susie can? It's a question Ontario parents and educators are asking as evidence mounts that boys are lagging behind girls in school.

In test results for Grades 3 and 6 released this week, boys and girls scored roughly equal in math but a pronounced gender gap opened when it came to reading and writing.

In the Grade 3 writing exam, girls scored an average 67 per cent, compared with 50 per cent for boys. By Grade 6, the girls averaged 64 per cent to the boys' 45 per cent.

Some experts say that a boy-girl gender gap has always existed.

Still, Education Minister Gerard Kennedy is right to conclude the province cannot stand idly by, and must develop a strategy to help close that gap. Ontario plans to fund pilot projects that will, among other steps, offer boys reading material designed to better capture their interest.

Research in the United States suggests simple changes can pay big dividends. Boys' reading skills improve when teachers use books on subjects they like, particularly science and technology. Boys also are more engaged when computers are used. And they focus better when activity periods are built into the school day.

But researchers have also concluded that children acquire their attitude to learning at home.

Boys do better when their father, or other male figure, takes an active role. A father who turns up for hockey games but not teacher meetings, sends a message about what matters.

A Canadian study also found parents do more to encourage their daughters to read and write than their sons. Why?

If we want our boys to be better students, the men in their lives must lead by example. Hockey is great. But real men can read, too.