Oregon high school hosts a club for boys that teaches ‘Healthy Masculinity;’ part of an effort across the country, as boys struggle.
By Eileen Griffin
Cleveland High in Portland, Oregon hosts boys for a discussion group called the Healthy Masculinity Club during lunch break.
The program aims to show boys what American manhood should look like current times. It is described as part “conscience raising” and part “support group.”
The idea initially began on social media as an effort to improve the level of respect male students have for female students, but the Cleveland High group has expanded topics to a wide range of issues.
Such clubs are part of an effort to teach boys how to be masculine being implemented in schools around the country, sometimes as an elective course, The Oregonian reports.
Seeking to ‘Transform Society’
The curriculum the Oregon school uses is provided by the group A Call To Men. The organization, which provides curriculum and training to schools, government agencies, and corporations, is working to transform society and advance gender equity by teaching boys how to challenge cultural beliefs about the role of men in society and personal relationships, according to the group’s website.
“For decades, A Call to Men has mobilized hundreds of thousands of male-identified aspiring allies to women and girls around the world,” the About Us page reads.
Presentation materials include titles such as, Live Respect: Gender and Racial Equity Curriculum, Six Daily Actions for Aspiring Allies for Racial Justice, and 11 Tips for Fathers and Father Figures of LGBQ, Trans or Gender Non-Conforming Children.
Famed feminist and author Gloria Steinheim is quoted in support of the impact of the organization.
“A Call to Men’s work is the basis for world peace,” states Steinheim’s quotation.
The organization describes healthy manhood as “valuing and respecting women, girls, and LGBQ, Trans, and nonbinary people—and respecting and valuing oneself by striving to live authentically.”
‘The Man Box’
The training is described as a call to equity and an effort to move men out of the “man box” where the culture has them.
“In the Man Box, women are viewed as objects, as the property of men, and as having less value than men, the website says. “The teachings of the Man Box allow violence against women, girls, and those at the margins of the margins to persist.”
“The Man Box perpetuates a heterosexist norm that devalues all those who don’t conform to a gender binary. By breaking out of the Man Box, male-identified people become healthier and help to build and sustain more equitable communities.”
Boys in Trouble
In Portland, the mission of Healthy Masculinity has adapted as awareness of the decline of boys and men has become more concerning, The Oregonian reports. Boys are less likely to go to college than girls. Boys drop out of high school more frequently than girls. Boys have fewer friends and commit suicide more frequently than girls.
In 2011, men represented 47 percent of students on campus, Pew reports. By the end of 2023, that number dropped to 44 percent. At four-year schools, men are 42 percent.
Males start falling behind while they are in Elementary School, Good Morning America reports.
Richard Reeves, President of the American Institute for Boys and Men, told Good Morning America that many young men are struggling to understand their roles in society. Girls receive a great deal of positive messaging, but boys do not.
“Boys and men are floundering with this question of how to be a good man,” Reeves said “We have done a really good job of calling men out and calling boys out for their bad behavior. We’ve done a really bad job of calling them in and making them feel seen and heard and letting them be part of our conversation and letting them feel needed and valued.”
‘The Woman-Focused Classroom’
The change in classroom management and the negative messaging usually reserved for boys is part of the feminization of education, Carmel Richardson wrote for The American Conservative at the end of 2023.
“Feminists had long argued for an entirely new approach to education, one that would root out latent patriarchy, and this idea gained new traction towards the end of the century as a way to combat university decline,” wrote Richardson
Since the 1980s, feminists have been working to change classrooms to make them more “woman focused.” Originally the goal was to increase enrollment in colleges by making the environment more attractive to women. Now, elementary schools are “girl coded.”
“The type of skills valued in the woman-focused classroom, those which are the primary measuring stick today, are qualitatively different from those in a male-focused classroom,” Richardson wrote.
Boys are not treated well and there is no effort to understand them. Classroom materials are selected that are likely to engage girls, but not boys.
“But we scorn the boy’s nature,” wrote Anthony Esolen for American Greatness in 2022.
“We keep away from him what might inspire, because a boy who is given a healthy intellectual diet is going to grow up strong and confident; and that is also why we do our best to make sure that boys will not have their own groups to enjoy,” Esolen wrote.
Boys Are Disadvantaged
Boys and men are at a disadvantage in the education system, Reeves says. The push to encourage girls in education that started in the 1960s and 1970s has continued to the point where inequality has shifted to the other side.
“At least in education, when you talk about gender inequality you are pretty much always talking about the ways in which girls and women are ahead of boys and men,” Reeves says. “If you see gender gaps this size, you should worry about the system that is producing those gaps.”
Regarding the effectiveness of its program, A Call to Men states on it website, “Before taking the course, only 21% of boys understood that they are taught to view women and girls as the property of men. After the course, that number increased to 90%.”
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