Posted on 08/08/2007 1:59:01 PM PDT by fgoodwin
In 1958, when my pal Glenn and I were 13, our fathers dropped us off at Limekiln Lake near Detroit and left us there with a pile of food, camping gear, fishing poles, and a rowboat. For the next four days, Glenn and I were Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn floating down the Mississippi.
Limekiln Lake came to mind again the other day when I bought a copy of Conn and Hal Iggulden's bestseller, "The Dangerous Book for Boys."
"Dangerous" is a challenge to the nanny state in which children are growing up today. Something has gone terribly wrong in a society in which you rarely see kids at a park or a soccer field unless their parents are there too, serving as umpires or coaches or just cheering wildly whenever their kid kicks a goal. When are kids supposed to learn a little self-reliance?
"Dangerous" is similar in many ways to the "Handbook for Boys," the old Boy Scout guide that went out of print in 1959. It taught us how to build a campfire; follow a compass; and above all to be brave, clean, and reverent. I don't know that my friends or I necessarily held those three qualities to any greater extent than do kids today, but we sure were more independent. So, I bought "Dangerous" to save until a favorite nephew turns old enough.
The authors are right: Over the past few decades, we have focused on the dark side of masculinity: aggression, the tendency to take dumb risks, false machismo. Perhaps that is one reason boys are falling behind girls on any number of social and academic measures. Their book points to a brighter side: self-discipline, wry humor, quiet determination, and curiosity about everything. Let's send the pendulum swinging back in that direction.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Excellent book.
I bought it for my daughter. The characteristics it promotes for boys are also good for (some) girls.
bump
ping
Our (dangerous!) daughter and her husband are expecting their first child. And my husband picked up a copy of this book for our son-in-law. He’s not quite up on the dangerous aspects of life, so he can read it first. LOL
Yes. It's high time that society stop expecting boys to act like girls, and encourage girls to at least admire the best qualities in boys.
It amazes me how many young men have never had their noses bloodied in a fight.
He’s a great guy, but his mom was raising the kids while dad was a military pilot. She’s a great mom, but he just didn’t have the opportunity to play rough.
Lucky for us, he’s very “trainable”. He’s learned to shoot clays, trout fish and this year, he’s going to attempt a deer hunt. His wife (and her brother) both had their first deer by age 12.
I think we can have him ready to raise a dangerous boy.
Thanks for that, fg. I just ordered the Boy Scout Handbook, 1961 that I had when I was kid. Camping, outdoor cooking, knot-tying... Oh, boy!
I was never in the Scouts, but I sure did plenty of the “dangerous” stuff in this book, as well as a lot that isn’t. Managed to break 7 bones by the age of 12.
Excellent article. Get boys [and girls] out and keep them out! Away from the influences of video games, TV and hollywierd. Nature is a classroom.
LOL!
I didn’t mean fighting as a hobby. I just meant that most boys of my generation got into a scuffle or two growing up.
I was just teAsIng. Boys need to learn how to stand up for themselves and maybe a bloody nose once in a while is the way to do it. Funny how my boys [now they they are older] have been telling me about “stuff” which included a few fisticuffs in their growing up that I never knew about until now.
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