Safe Boys, Safe Schools

This article reflects on the ways in which stereotypical masculine qualities can make our schools more dangerous by teaching boys to express themselves in violent manners. It makes some good points about how the acceptable norms for girls have expanded in recent years while the acceptable behaviors and attitudes for boys have remained fairly static and narrow. Also, the author touches on the fact that not only are boys encouraged to be emotionally disconnected, they are also given a sense of privilege. Taken together, these factors create the perfect conditions under which someone might act out with violence. Allowing boys to express their emotions could conceivably help with this because it gives them the ability to talk out their frustrations instead of using physical means. Despite the thoughtful issues the author raised, I did have problems with a couple of points. For example, he states, “teenage boys of all racial and ethnic groups are more likely to die from gunshot wounds than from all natural deaths combined.” I found this a little difficult to believe and it would be interesting to look at the source of this information to see if it was based on an inner-city study or something of that sort, and also what is defined as a “natural death.” He also discusses sexual harassment as a “miscommunication” where the harassed and the harasser simply have different perceptions of the situation. This made me angry as it used men’s emotional ineptitudes as an excuse for sexual harassment.