The Magazine of the Men's Resource Center of Western Massachusetts (Formerly Valley Men) I \I I I cJ t) 8
Can We Raise Boys to Become New Men? By Rob Okun
oys. Our sons, nephews , cousins, young brothers. What do we wish for boys? For many, answering that question may be easy-'-fulfillment , sense of purpose, happiness , love-but the roads boys must travel to reach such goals are fraught with danger. Raising boys in our society has never been easy. The collective societal shrug ("Boys will be boys") has left a gaping hole in the fabric of boys' lives. For too long, boys have slipped through that hole unchallenged and unguided, have engaged in a host of detrimental behaviors while we mostly stood by and watched, threw up our hands, or even winked and chee1ed. This issue of our newly renamed magazine, Voice Male, examines the notion of raising boys through several lenses: the 路 moving insights of Geoffrey Canada, author of the timely new book Reaching Up for Manhood (both reviewed and excerpted in this issue); a first-person account of raising a son by Sarah Reid, a 23-year-old single mother; a column by Steven jacobsen on the special problems faced by adoptive fathers and their sons; and some remarks by MRC Executive Director Steven Botkin, who offers gen-
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tle-and challenging-words for adults and young people planting a peace garden in the wake of a fatal stabbing. The horror of last springl; deadly violence at schools in Arkansas and Oregon is still reverberating. Closer to home, those of us living in and around Northampton continue to deal with the aftermath of the daytime, downtown stabbing death of a 16-yearold boy by his 15-year-old classmate. The media and public officials have been quick to decry "youth violence" and today's "problem young people," but rarely have they Photo: Glenn Ruga spoken the unhappy truth-this is not "youth violence" but male violence; these are not "problem young people" but our sons, our nephews, our boys. The women's movement has contributed enormously to freeing contemporary generations of women from the narrow roles to which for centuries they have been confined. The attention sho.wn our daughters, in schools and workplaces and elsewhere, is refreshing and long overdue, even as much remains to be done.
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