A student asked him for a band-aid. One of Men For Change's first in school workshop experiences several years ago was with a class of Grade 8 boys. We had a good dialogue about being macho, stereotypes and date rape. The discussion wrapped up 10 minutes before the bell so the teacher filled the time by playing Hockey's Hardest Hitters on the video tape player. These anecdotes from the front lines may not be very pleasant to read at a time when teachers seem to be undervalued and stressed out but lets not forget the teachable moment here for all of us.
Racism objectives, the first step begins with an awareness of the breadth of the problem.
It is when we realize how deep the roots and tradition of violence is that we begin to see the solutions. We need to all work together and challenge the deeply ingrained illusion that we are all lock into a rigid stereotype, tough and aggressive for boys, passive and beauty-bound, for girls. Then and only then will we be helping teach our students, and ourselves, not the law of the jungle where only the strongest survive, but rather the choices needed to build healthy relationships based on cooperation and trust where everyone is thrives.