...People often say, “boys will be boys,” or “boys don’t cry.” What do these phrases really mean? Are boys really pre-determined to be aggressive and emotionless? Co-authors of Raising Cain, Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson, would argue that this is not the case. As psychologists specializing in helping young males, Kindlon and Thompson bring to light the notion that boys are just as emotional as their female counterparts. They show how a boy without a good understanding of his emotions will likely face many difficulties in his upbringing. Reflecting on my own adolescence experiences, I feel like I am able to validate the claims of Kindlon and Thompson. The main argument expressed in the passage is that “boys need an emotional vocabulary. They need to experience empathy at home and school…they need modeling of a rich emotional life.” (7) Without this, they argue that boys are destined to struggle throughout their childhood and adolescence. “They are forced to manage conflict, adversity, and change in his life with a limited emotional repertoire.” (4) I never realized it at the time, but looking back, I can tell that my parents always fostered the growth of my emotional vocabulary. If I had a problem at school, my parents encouraged me to talk to them about it. If I was in an argument with my brother, we were separated and asked to talk over how we felt. Never did my parents try to shy me away from showing and understanding my emotions. As a result, I never had any of the big...
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...The Boys at the Back The boys’ grades are dropping and dropping, while the girls' grades are getting better and better every year. This is very frustrating for the young boys, and research shows that more and more of the young boys are dropping out of high school and college because of this problem. But what is the explanation for this? That girls are smarter than boys? Or that boys do not have the brain capacity to straight A’s? Although this might be a delight for many teenage girls, this is not the case. Christina Hoff Sommers has been brave enough to take this issue up for us in the media in her article “The Boys at the Back”. Previously, it was the boys who were at the top of the society. The male gender was the ones who had the most and the best opportunities in educations, and so did they of course have the rights, which women have not always had. But beyond that, the parents also expected more of their sons than they did from their daughters; "Families’ favoring sons over daughters in allocating scarce resources for schooling; cultural norms that de-emphasized girls’ education, particularly past high school; an industrial economy that did not require a college degree to earn a living wage; and persistent discrimination toward women in the workplace.” (p. 1, ll. 19-21). However, in our today’s society parents seems to look more identical at their children. There has always been a small gap in preparation to education between boys and girls. In the beginning...
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...I selected Boy at the window by Richard Wilbur. The author of this poem said he wrote the poem after seeing how distressed his five-year- old son was about the snowman they had built. This poem starts by using a depressing and somber tone from the overly dramatic perspective of a young boy. The poem is told by an omniscient outside perspective. The poet starts by describing the outdoor aspect of the snowman’s situation as being a lonely and terrifying experience as seen in lines three and four of the first stanza. “The small boy weeps to hear the wind prepare/A night of gnashing’s and enormous moan.” (Clugston,2010). It is apparent that, to this boy, this is a huge frightening storm blowing in and threatening his poor snowman. Furthermore, the use of personification and metaphors are used to describe the prediction of the storm’s violent behavior as gnashing and moaning, both are which human qualities that can sometimes express pain and anger. Specifically, gnashing paints an image of something being grinded up through extreme impact, almost like a tornado’s behavior. The poem also gives a description of the snowman’s facial expression as seen by the young boy, showing a desperation and betrayal. This poem gives a touching depth to the fear that the boy grasps and represents the emotional transfer to the snowman in the boy’s mind. The use of personification is showing when the author describes the snowman’s face “the pale faced figure with bitumen eyes”. I found this part really...
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...Commentary of “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro Alice Munro is a Canadian short-story writer. She grew up in a rural environment such as is featured in the story “Boys and Girls”. This story is collected in her first collection of short stories, “The Dance of the Happy Shades”, which has been published in 1968. In the story, the protagonist experiences a process in which she leaves childhood. However, if we have to sum up the main idea of the text in a sentence, it would be the title with a few words more, “The education in boys and girls”. Therefore, we can see that the whole text is subordinate to this concept: characters’ attitude, characters’ comments, character’s name, indeed the style and the horses that appear in the story. Firstly, we will focus on the style. It is a first person narrator who shows us all the thoughts and impressions of the protagonist, this fact help us to understand how the influence of the other characters affects her. Secondly, we have to stress two characteristics of the personages that normally have unimportant role. One feature is the character’s names or more specifically the lack of name in some of them, because no female characters have a name, neither the main, so this fact helps to emphasize the distinction between women and men. Although neither the father has name, this could be explained in the sense that the author wants to stress that Laird, the son, is the winner because this sexist education is favorable to the men side. The other...
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...inthe schools. They learn to read and write a little, and how to do math. Then they learn about God,and then they are out of school!!The parents don’t teach their children what is normal. How it is normal to react. I think that is oneof the reasons to Arnold goes picking peas, before he tells his parents, that his brother, their son, isdead.He is so petrified, that he doesn’t know what to do! Even though we don’t hear about his feelings,we can tell, by the way hi is behaving, acting. He carries though his first mission; picking peas.Then, finally he tells his parents what had happen. The poor boy is terrified, and the only thing hisfather is doing, is dragging him to the sheriff! The sheriff is very doubtful, and are silently accusingArnold for the death of his brother, whom he admired very much. The sheriff is very littleeducational, and cannot see the fear, the anguish, and sorrow the young boy is carrying. The...
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...ENG/125 July 16, 2012 Literature in Society In the story "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro, she tells a story about a young girl whom resists womanhood during the time of society where men and women were not considered equal. A mother’s role was in the house and a man’s was outside the house. Men were the dominant figures in the household whereas the women were subservient. This story occurs on a family farm outside Jubilee, Ontario, Canada during the 1940s. Munro's narrator has no identity and therefore remains unnamed, compared to her younger brother Laird. Her brother's name, which is a synonym for "Lord," comes from a Scottish origin (Laird - Origin and Meaning, 2012). Munro uses these names to represent how a male child was more important than a female child in a family. The narrator resisted the role a woman was expected in life to lead. She worked outside with her father rather than inside the home with her mother. "I hated the hot dark kitchen in the summer" (p. 775). Because the narrator was female, she was not regarded as essential help to her father. "Could of fooled me," said the salesman. "I thought it was only a girl" (p. 774). She was still under appreciated even though she could work more than her younger brother. "Wait till Laird gets a little bigger, then you'll have a real help" (p. 775). This shows that girls were expected to stay inside the home doing chores whereas boys were allowed out to do the things that they wanted instead. ...
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...B Finding our path in life and our talent is big a part of growing up. The Society and our parents expect us to be talented at something. After school activities and hobbies are stressed and encouraged, because it is often in these we find what we are gifted at. But what if the search for our talent and personal skill becomes a tedious task, instead of a natural part of finding our identity and becoming adults. This is the case in the short story “Every Good Boy” written by David Nicholls, where a young boy, Michael, is desperate to find something he can do well, even after several failures. So when is father comes home with an old piano, Michael sees this as his chance at finding his talent. Both of Michael’s siblings found their personal skill around age 9, but Michael is still without skill at this age. All he wants his to find his own special ability, so he can live up to his siblings and have his parent’s approval. With this drive to become something great, he puts his heart and soul into mastering the art of the piano. Michael sees mastering the piano as his key to approval and to fitting in. But after intense training, he can only play the musical theme from the movie Jaws, so he is sent to the other side of the street to get lessons from Mrs Patricia Chin. Yet Mrs Chin can’t help Michael, after several lessons Mrs Chin gives up and doesn’t even bother correcting him any more. Even with this realization Michael does not give up, is too strong-minded to let the piano...
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...understand about the relationship between gender and behavior, and even more regarding gender and education. Angela: Today, we invite some guests that will share their point of views, opinions and reactions regarding both genders. Lance: We have students from University of the Philippines. And let’s see who will stand among them. Lance: From girls, we have Nicole Bernal, Angeli De Leon, and Jozelle Gonida. Angela: From boys, we also have Steven Evangelio, Ricky Park, and Mel Lloren. Angela: Ok, to start the face off. Let me know who do you think among you is smarter? This has been a worldwide controversy notion since the beginning of creation. Let’s start with the girls.. Juicy: For me, we girls are way smarter because we are deep thinkers and imaginative. We are much better than boys mentally speaking. We think before we act and we remain calm in crisis. Angeli: Yes yes and Boys on the other hand tend to reason things out and find practical solutions to problems. They don’t waste time and they like to hit the subject right away. That’s why boys don’t like to chat for hours on the phone without a goal. Mel: Yeah.. That’s because we are goal-oriented, this means that we tend to reason. Our nature forced us to be reasoning creatures. A conversation should have a purpose that is worth considering. We Men do not indulge in a...
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...Boys Against Girls Summary: Discusses the academic and social rivalry between boys and girls. Findings of a study conducted by the American Association of University Women regarding the issue; Gap between men and women in the sciences; Strengths and weaknesses of boys and girls. GENDER A 1992 study by the American Association of University Women reported that schools shortchange girls--letting them lag behind boys in science, silencing them in class and damaging their self-esteem. But some experts are arguing that it's boys who lose out. "The Columbine killings have been a wake-up call," says Judith Kleinfeld, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. "Boys also have their problems." Kleinfeld refutes the findings of the AAUW study: With the exception of the (rapidly narrowing) gap between men and women in the sciences, she says, "most of the other findings are misleading or false." Studies show, for example, that girls receive better grades and more awards than their male counterparts. They also have superior verbal skills and are more likely to attend college. But while many schools sponsor interventions to coach girls in physics and math, few have tried to remedy boys' poor reading and writing abilities. And contrary to popular belief, many boys have a well-hidden low self-esteem, believing that schools are hostile towards them. "Women have been shortchanged in other areas of life," says Kleinfeld. "But schools, with their...
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...The fearless boys and girls Between the World and Me? it a letter Coates wrote to his son describing the violence he went to and still going through in his life. He gave us a tour of his life. From the tough neighborhoods of Baltimore from his youth, to Howard University which Coates describe as “The Mecca” for its diversity of African Americans students and teachers to the broader Mecca's which he calls it of New York and Paris. Every day the epidemic if violence grows either by the statistics of death of young black male, the inner city kids mastering the street, and social influences. A teenage boy pointed a gun in his face on the street, the worst part was his father beat him for letting himself get robbed by a boy. Recently they were a statistic report that shows how young people died. 24,600 people died as the victims of homicides. This converts into a homicide percentage of 8.9 per 200,000 populace. The homicide percentage for male teenagers ages 13-21 is 21.8 per 100,000. The homicide percentage for young African American males in this age group is 84.8 per 100,000. The overall homicide percentage for male teenagers in the US was between 6 and 83 times greater than the homicide percentage for male teenagers in any other nation. Guns were used in four-quarters of the death in the USA. This statistics released proves and demands that violence has become an infection and a huge public health issue. Ta-neishi also mentions many examples of probably unnecessary violence...
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...two – maybe more people. This can causes further conflict, as you may not agree on how to deal with conflicts and how to progress the development. In the movie and the book "About a boy" a lot of different developments are looked into, and brought up in all sorts of ways. This happens most often through the two main characters' life and everyday. The movie and the book use multiple viewpoints. The story is told by only one character at a time, but the viewpoint switches between the two main characters throughout the course of the movie and the book. In every chapter of the book it changes from Marcus viewpoint to Will’s, and in the movie it changes when we as viewer follows Marcus’s actions to Will’s. We know what Marcus and Will thinks, which gives us a perspective from several different angles and in this case keeps the story fresh and exciting. The author has done an incredibly good job, as he has managed not to lose the viewer/reader through the multiple viewpoints, and that is because the transitions are well done. The narrator is a 3rd person narrator and it is character-bounded to Marcus and Will. In the movie and the book, there are two main characters – Marcus and Will, who both are round characters because they develop much though the story. Marcus is a special 12-year old boy and seems very grown-up for his age. In the beginning of the story he is very influenced by his mother, Fiona, but as the story...
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...Pink for girls; Blue for boys? Nowadays if we walk into a department store we can be sure that we will find pink and some blue clothes, toys and little other objects for children such as books, bikes, lunchboxes, board games, toy cookers, cash registers, even games consoles. If we look at these objects there is no wonder everybody knows that pink is specified for girls and blue for boys. But how did this become a common thought? Since when do we use colors to make a difference between genders? And why exactly did we choose pink and blue to fulfill this role? In the 1800s most infants were dressed in white and both boys and girls wore dresses or short skirts until the age of five or six. Although, there was a few small difference between boy and girl clothing. For example girls wore dresses which were buttoned up in the back while boys’ dresses were buttoned up in the front. So gender difference wasn’t highlighted just in a little scale. Why wasn’t this important in that age of time? One theory is that distinguishing boys from girls was less important than distinguishing kids from adults. Childhood was a time of innocence while adulthood typically meant working hard. By the 1850s other colors than white had started to appear in baby clothing, but gender-based distinctions were slow to emerge. For example a Times fashion report from 1880 says that boys and girls were dressed alike in shades of blue, pink, white or violet; another report from 1892 says young girls were wearing...
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...19 February 2016 Vickers Questions 1. Vickers main topic of “Where the Boys Aren’t” is about the growing gap between male and females enrolling and attending college. “At colleges across the country, 58 women will enroll as freshmen for every 42 men. More men than women drop out, the ratio after four years will be 60-40, according to projections by the Department of Education.” 2. Vickers believes that schools are “not paying enough attention to the education of males.” Brian A. Jacob of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government has a statistical analysis that “suggests it is boys’ lack of skill in non-cognitive areas that is the principal cause of the gap.” Vickers believes Title IX, federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity, is keeping men away from college. Vickers believes the Department of Education sees no problem and are not going to “take their heads out of the sand unless forced to.” 3. Vickers believes the shortage of males in college will be harmful to the social and economic world. Economically to the American workforce, where employers will “have to turn to foreigners.” Vickers also believes women “won’t find educated male peers to marry.” 4. Vickers intended audience are parents of white male children. I believe Vickers is persuasive towards that audience to make them start caring about education. She could have given optional steps that parents can take to avoid the loss...
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...In the film The Boys of Baraka it is evident that lots of these young boys come from broken homes or dysfunctional families, where they lack stability and positive role models. The two young boys Devon and Montrey are two boys that obviously come from dysfunctional families with each only having one positive person in their lives. Devon’s mother mentions in the film that she has had trouble with drug use; so therefore his Grandmother Mary has raised him. Montrey’s mother is the only person he really has because his father at this time is in prison for shooting his mother in the leg. I feel that both of these boys will benefit from this opportunity because it is a structured place with rules they will have to follow or they will be reprimanded...
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...Scottsboro Boys The Scottsboro Boys is known as a minstrel show. A minstrel show consists of comic relief, a variety of acting, dancing and music by white people in blackface or black people in blackface. This particular show consisted of black people in blackface. However, minstrel shows portray black people as dim-witted, lazy, and careless. The nine Scottsboro boys were accused in Alabama for raping two white women on a train in the 1930s. The landmark of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism, the right to a fair trial, and miscarriage of justice. The cases included an angry murder crowd before the suspects were charged, an entrapment, a completely white jury, and rushed trials. Throughout these trials, the boys received very poor legal representation, and even though there was medical evidence to suggest that they had not committed the crime, eight of the boys were convicted. The youngest, Eugene was given a new trial because he was a juvenile. The other boys were held in Kirby Prison, having their case appealed twice to the United States Supreme Court. During the return of the case to the lower court, one of the girls, Ruby admitted to fabricating the rape accusations and explained that none of the Scottsboro boys touched her or her friend, Victoria. The jury still managed to find the defendants guilty. Another trial, with one black member within the jury, freed four more of the Scottsboro boys. Of those who remained in prison, one was shot by a prison guard...
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