Totally Catholic Youth Ministers Lounge

Are you in youth ministry and you've had it with crazed parents? Rollin' your eyes at the pastoral council? Tired of administration work? Love youth? Love the Church? Appalled at parish politics? Looking for some good games? For a creative ways to teach a lesson for Religious Ed? Just need a place to veg out and say "phew! Someone outside of the parish to talk to!"? Grab y'r Starbucks, turn the computer away from the staff's eyes, grab a seat on a donated dusty couch and let it all go.

Friday, January 27, 2006

"Trouble" With Boys

No. Really? You mean in all this time that we've spent focusing strictly on girls we've left the boys behind? Chrsitina Hoff Sommers wrote an excellent book called "The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men". It is a must read for anyone working with adolescents: male or femail. Sommers takes issues with Mary Piphers' very popular "Reviving Ophelia" has a surprising lack of statistical backbone and that both genders struggle with identity, low self-esteem, feeling of inadequecy, etc. As one reviewer of the hardback edition commented

"She essentially urges parents and educators to let boys be boys, even though
their 'very masculinity turns out to be politically incorrect.' "

Instead of pathologizing them, why not recognize that all of us hated life between ages 13-18 and dealth with self doubt and inadequecy. Getting through it successfully we can help all young men and women find their way with grace and confidence.