The Call for a New Manly Vigilance – War on Boys Edition

There is a war on boys.

In the video, Christina Hoff Sommers from American Enterprise Institute offers a cogent and simple prescription for confronting the war on boys on Dennis Prager’s excellent Prager University.

Here are Ms. Hoff Sommers offers her view on how to deal with the War on Boys.

The government school industrial complex treats boys like defective girls and boys are languishing academically.

Schools have become more “feeling centered’ and competition adverse, the government schools are turning our sons into drop-outs.  Ruled by women who have either activist feminist instincts or have been coerced by feminist thinking to control boys, many of today’s teachers don’t have a clue as to how to educate boys.

Under the “guise of diversity” and “tolerance”, all things are tolerated except being a boy or a man.  Boys are being persecuted for being born male.

Ms. Hoff Sommers suggests 4 reforms for firing up the education of  boys:

Turn boys into readers.

Inspire the male imagination.

Get rid of “zero tolerance” approaches for discipling boys.

Bring back recess.

Dads (and moms) need to encourage boys to be boys and to fight for their God-given right to be boys.  Get involved with your sons by acting on Ms. Hoff Sommers suggestions.

• Read with your sons and help them find books to read.
• Challenge boys to use their imaginations in the real world, avoiding the easy option of letting the t.v. and computer program your sons.
•  Let your sons be boys and don’t over discipline….and don’t drug them with ADD drugs just because they are being boys.
• And get active with your son…encourage sports that are competitive and other actives that are physically demanding.  While not encouraging reckless thrill-seeking, let your sons take risks and allow them to fail.

For Catholic dads, there are some additional things to think about:

• Why do our boys reject the Catholic faith?  Because 70-90% of the time, they are catechized by loving, well-meaning women who just can’t set a role model for faith…because young men look to men to be their role models.
• Get involved with a hand’s-on teaching of the faith.  The Bible is full of manly heroes who fight great battles (think of Noah’s adventure, Abraham, Joshua, King David, and of course, the most Manly Man, Jesus Christ the Warrior Davidic King.  This is the kind of stuff that will fuel a boy’s imagination and commitment to the faith. Always remember, Our Lord Jesus Christ was raised on a steady diet of the Old Testament.
• And get out on a pilgrimage with other men and sons, out into the woods with other Catholic men.  Build a fire.  Roast some slabs of meat. And pray.  Again, what did Jesus do?  He was an active, robust man who knew how to survive in the wilds (Luke 9:58 – “Birds have nests and foxes have dens, but the Son of Man has no place to rest His head”).

Don’t despair in this time of confusion and disappointment.  Man-up, be a Catholic man and rely on Jesus Christ and His Catholic Church to help you raise your sons (and daughters).