‘Engineering for Boys’: Meccano and the Shaping of a Technical Vision of Boyhood in Twentieth-Century Britain

The construction toy Meccano was created in 1901 by Liverpudlian clerk Frank Hornby and reached its height of popularity during inter-war Britain. By focusing on the development of Meccano throughout the company’s publicity and within oral history testimony, this paper considers how the toy promoted engineering to shape a technical vision of boyhood. Hornby shaped this vision by building upon masculine ideals of self-improvement that were central to Samuel Smiles’ book Self-Help and Robert Baden-Powell’s Boy Scouts movement. This vision built upon a past of achievements in engineering, and with it Victorian values such as clean-mindedness and independence, to enable boys to prepare for a technological modern world. Hornby’s own career and influences also provided the model for boys to make a success of their lives through the later establishment of the Meccano Magazine (1916) and guilds (1919) to accompany the toy. Secondly, it shows how this vision has continued to endure through the use of Meccano as a scientific device and in memories of the toy.     

A boy who would rather write poetry than throw rocks at cats is also considered to be wanting in masculinity: poetry,masculinity, and baiting boys

This paper draws on research on masculinities to examine poetry as a socially and culturally gendered genre. Situated in the context of the current ‘crisis’ around boys’ underachievement in school, attention is drawn to the problematic understanding of poetry as an unsuitable genre for boys. Attention is further drawn to the way in which poetry, when offered up to boys, is often imbued with traditional and outdated definitions of masculinity. We illustrate the extent to which hegemonic versions of masculinity are implicated in discourses about poetry as an unsuitable genre for boys. This is accomplished by undertaking a critical analysis of various sources such as Odean's (1998) Great Book for Boys, and Scieszka's (2005) Guys Write for Guys Read, as well as Iggulden and Iggulden's (2006) The Dangerous Book for Boys. Historical perspectives which highlight the role of sexologists in forging an association between poetry and effeminacy are also used to illuminate the legacy associated with the treatment of poetry somehow discordant with dominant understandings about boys’ developing masculinity. In this way, we provide a richer understanding of poetry and its discursive relationship to masculinity.     

谈少儿跳高运动员徐扬的选材和早期培养

把握好少儿跳高运动员徐扬选材及早期教学训练的过程是培养该高水平运动人才的关键。简述了对少年跳高运动员徐扬的选材工作和早期培养过程的要点。并就如何针对这一年龄阶段运动员生理、心理和生长发育的特点有步骤、有目标的进行训练作了相应的探讨。