Boys To Men

This year at the elementary school I work at there is a new group called “Boy To Men” where boys are chosen by their teachers to attend the group. The criteria for boys attending this group tends to be behavior based. The boys are in this group to reflect, understand, and build upon on the six pillars of character development: trustworthiness, responsibility, fairness, caring, citizenship, and respect. This group has given mixed emotions about how it approaches masculinity and what expectations a “boy” has.

I bring up this group as they just had their meeting in my classroom yesterday and it was very interesting to observe. It was made up all the “bad boys” in fourth and fifth grade being instructed by our male school dean. I was interested because the dean did not focus on “being a man” or “what a man should do”, instead he focused on goal setting, making a realistic short term goal, and respect. I believe all of these are things kids need to be taught and are not just based on how a boy becomes a man. This is good because they are not being taught that they need to be respectful or set goal because “that’s what a boy/man does”, they are being taught that is what you do be a better person in general, regardless of gender. Where my mixed emotions are in that this type of character development should be given to all students, not just boys. There are girls who are having home troubles, behavior problems, and attitudes which need to be addressed. Just because they are female these girls are missing out on a group setting to work on character development which puts them at a disadvantages. I believe if not involved in this group the girls should at least have their own group to work on respect and other aspects of character development.