That's an important takeaway from this piece, I think. Even though it was outside the article's scope, I wish he'd gone into common, proven alternatives for when boys don't have adequate role...
“Don’t be bad” is not a technology for change, whether with your own sons, or the culture at large.
That's an important takeaway from this piece, I think. Even though it was outside the article's scope, I wish he'd gone into common, proven alternatives for when boys don't have adequate role models. Are there particular activities (like the bushwalking club) that have good outcomes in promoting healthy masculinity in youth? Adults? Has any research been done on this? He mentions schools sometimes addressing the topic of masculinity directly now. Does anyone have experience with what this looks like in practice?
To what extent is this it being a private school, and to what extent is this just what happens when boys go through puberty?
At Kieran’s new school, the boy culture is more aggressive. These kids are affluent and entitled but un-anchored, left to their own devices, literally and figuratively. Within weeks Kieran seems changed, he has taken on a dismissive tone, the sneering attitude to life of his new peers. There is much trash-talking about girls, sharing of gross pornography, and hearing the older boys boasting about sexual experiences, real or imagined. By year nine Kieran is a sullen, withdrawn boy who spends most of the time in his room. His parents grieve for the loss of connection. When he talks at all, its often to denigrate people - other races, sexualities, the poor.
To what extent is this it being a private school, and to what extent is this just what happens when boys go through puberty?
That's an important takeaway from this piece, I think. Even though it was outside the article's scope, I wish he'd gone into common, proven alternatives for when boys don't have adequate role models. Are there particular activities (like the bushwalking club) that have good outcomes in promoting healthy masculinity in youth? Adults? Has any research been done on this? He mentions schools sometimes addressing the topic of masculinity directly now. Does anyone have experience with what this looks like in practice?
To what extent is this it being a private school, and to what extent is this just what happens when boys go through puberty?