This too will pass…

OK. Let’s begin by accurately ascribing this to the Associated Press – one of the largest and most respected news organizations in the world – just so you know it’s more than a bunch of, um… hot air.

Fart jokes may help middle-school boys improve their reading achievement levels.

There. We said it. Well, actually, Amelia Yunker said it during an interview with the wire service. Boys have trailed behind girls in reading levels for more than 20 years, and the gap is only getting wider. So if the subject matter involves bodily noises, who cares?

“Just get ‘em reading,” advises Yunker, a Farmington Hills, Mich., children’s librarian. “Worry about what they’re reading later.”

Certainly that makes perfect scents to fourth-grade teacher Ray Sabini, who a couple of years ago wrote and published SweetFarts, a book that hit No. 3 on the Amazon children’s humor list. It’s about a 9-year-old boy whose school science fair invention – a tablet that imbues otherwise foul-smelling flatus with the pleasant odor of grape or summer rose or cotton candy – earns him a million dollars.

“Reaching those reluctant (reader) boys is a challenge I take very, very seriously,” says Sabini, who teaches in a district outside New York City. “And this is what they think is funny.”

Boy. What a missed opportunity. He should have said it passes for humor.

© Miller Communications Inc.