The next word to ponder is affirm. I was discussing parenting with a friend of mine at church and he spoke of the need to affirm the manhood of our sons; creating, as Lewis said, "men with chests". In a world in which boys are emasculated (at least an attempt), especially in schools, our boys need affirmation of their boyhood. At our school they can't even play tag! I believe that is the case at most schools, so I'm not picking just on our school. Our schools are very feminine and are becoming even more that way as competition and rewards are being removed.
I'm very thankful for things like Little League Baseball, though not perfect, as it provides an atmosphere that boys need. They need to be put in an atmosphere where they can learn some hard lessons in character and teamwork. Our Little League has some great role models and I am grateful.
School doesn't provide much structure, homework or insentive. It's our (my wife and myself) responsibility to raise our boys but I sure wish the school wouldn't be such an enemy in our cause. Boys just respond differently and many need a lot of structure. They also like to wrestle around with each other but none of that is allowed. Boys are not allowed to be boys, and I'm not talking about letting them be sexist pigs who go around bullying others. They need to be allowed to play football, dodgeball, tag, etc. They need to be able to run off their boyness during lunch and recess. In the classroom they need structure and deadlines, not a bunch of time to go play internet games.
I'm trying to raise "men with chests" and will make an even stronger effort to affirm their masculinity. I want to raise my boys to have true faith in Christ, integrity, strength of character, tenderness of heart, loyalty, a work ethic, to be good husbands and to be good fathers.
Posted by Tim at June 20, 2005 10:08 PMA couple years ago there was a book, The War Against Boys.
Posted by: JoeS at June 25, 2005 08:32 PM
