I have been a part of Warren Farrell’s group to establish a White House Council for Boys and Men for a number of years. Recently we are starting to record some of the speakers that come and present their work. This recording is of Sonia Shaljean talking about her remarkable UK program called Lads Need Dads. So many young men are lacking a father in the home. Watch Sonia describe what they do for these boys. By the end of the video you realize that these young men feel as though they now have another family, with people who care about them and their lives. Bravo Sonia! In a world that seems to try to help fatherless boys by changing them to be more like women…Sonia’s pathways seem like a breath of fresh air!
Shaljean is doing good work. Really good. She talks about prevention, in particular, not merely picking up the debris after crises in the lives of boys. And, on a personal level, that's surely what many boys need in this pathological time. But her definition of prevention is narrow. Real prevention would surely mean preventing fatherless children, and boys in particular, by first stemming the relentless tide of single parenting due to divorce, separation or abandonment (although we can hardly prevent death).
To put this in positive terms, we need ultimately and desperately to support--no, to revive and honor--marriage as the cultural ideal for most adults. This is huge task, which would involve the participation of every institution (not only government agencies) in a kind of cultural crusade, but it's an essential one. Since the dawn of our species, marriage has been the keystone not only of personal and family life but also of communal life. Every society depends ultimately on its ability to foster heathy marriages, based on some form of reciprocity, not only on its ability to rescue individual boys (and girls) who lack the obvious advantages of children who live with both mothers and fathers. I don't denigrate the work of Shaljean. I do denigrate those people, both men and women who have (for different reasons) relentlessly trivialized or even degraded marriage as nothing more than a "bourgeois" or "patriarchal piece of paper."
Thank you, Tom. I heard that the Coalition for a White House Council for Boys and Men has the group Zoom call, like this one, every 2 weeks. Are the Zoom calls open to others?
Thanks for sharing, Tom. How inspiring! I appreciate her explanation about the meaning of the term "absent father."
Inspiring indeed!
Shaljean is doing good work. Really good. She talks about prevention, in particular, not merely picking up the debris after crises in the lives of boys. And, on a personal level, that's surely what many boys need in this pathological time. But her definition of prevention is narrow. Real prevention would surely mean preventing fatherless children, and boys in particular, by first stemming the relentless tide of single parenting due to divorce, separation or abandonment (although we can hardly prevent death).
To put this in positive terms, we need ultimately and desperately to support--no, to revive and honor--marriage as the cultural ideal for most adults. This is huge task, which would involve the participation of every institution (not only government agencies) in a kind of cultural crusade, but it's an essential one. Since the dawn of our species, marriage has been the keystone not only of personal and family life but also of communal life. Every society depends ultimately on its ability to foster heathy marriages, based on some form of reciprocity, not only on its ability to rescue individual boys (and girls) who lack the obvious advantages of children who live with both mothers and fathers. I don't denigrate the work of Shaljean. I do denigrate those people, both men and women who have (for different reasons) relentlessly trivialized or even degraded marriage as nothing more than a "bourgeois" or "patriarchal piece of paper."
Of course you are right Paul that there is a need beyond the support of the boys but it sure is a good start!
Thank you, Tom. I heard that the Coalition for a White House Council for Boys and Men has the group Zoom call, like this one, every 2 weeks. Are the Zoom calls open to others?
At this point I think they are by invitation from Warren.
Thank you, Tom.