There is a great deal we simply have not understood nor even noticed about how boys and men experience their lives. Much of what we do know is alarming. Boys suffer a host of hardships and dangers in their families, communities and schools. They need protection and advocacy in a social system which often seems unwilling to consider their well-being. To say that boys need advocacy tends to generate controversy.
Popular opinion holds that boys have been overly advantaged in society for generations.
While this has largely been true, we should remember that boys themselves are not responsible for these politics. They are born into a world where an ever-changing set of rules already exists. Next to their immediate families, schools decisively structure how a boy's masculinity is developed, rewarded, practiced and punished. Schools have a curriculum which aims to teach boys how to become men. We have recently come to challenge the unfair and limiting assumptions and practices for girls.