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Preface
I have been working with adolescents throughout my professional life, most of the time focusing on teenage boys in both educational and church settings. As an ordained Episcopal priest and educator, I have become increasingly concerned about the myopic angst many boys exhibit in their personal and social relations and view of life. In order to cope with their internal discomfort, boys will resort to hypermasculine posturing, cower in self-defeat, or retreat into narcissistic self-indulgence. These strategies reveal their inner weakness and need.
Boys’ inner weakness and need are becoming increasingly evident in Western culture. On the one hand, the culture nurtures and glorifies dysfunctional masculinist ways and ideals, including an increasingly violent “boy code,” while, on the other hand, failing to provide healthy and supportive initiation processes that can support boys in their growth and maturity. In short, boys are floundering, and only some kind of intervention and paradigm shift can help them cross over from boyhood into manhood.
Furthermore, the question increasingly being raised is who is going to do this important and life-saving work? I believe strongly that educational institutions must not only be engaged in the work of educating minds but also committed to the mission of supporting and nurturing adolescent boys as they make the crossing into manhood. The crossing is no automatic and easy task. Time, effort, sensitivity, and commitment are needed to make the crossing possible for our sons. I will argue that mature, initiated adult men need to stand up and assume this important task.