“Kipling’s If..”
Excellent! My Dad gave me a plaque with the printed verse of “If” on it when I was twelve (46 years ago). I still have it. I introduced my 3 sons to Kipling’s work at around the same age. I told them to follow the advice in this poem and things will always work out for you and “you will be a man, my son”. They all grew up to be MEN.
Robert Service is also great reading for young men. “A promise made is a debt unpaid”.
We have what we call 'Tutor Groups' at my school. Every boy is assigned a teacher as his Tutor who will be personally responsible for him his entire time at the school. You have sixteen boys as a Tutor, four 14 year olds, four 15 year olds, four 16 year olds, and four 17 year olds.
One of my 15 year olds has been a problem for me, for over a year and a half now. Always doing the wrong thing, and normally lying about it when caught. He came to me, off his own bat last week, came into my office and said: "Sir, I've screwed up badly..." and he was right. He had. And he's paying a price for that. But I've also told him I'm exceptionally proud of him for his honesty this time. For standing up and saying, "I did the wrong thing." I told him that that is what a man does - and the pride in his eyes when I said that... I just hope it's sticking with him.