AIBM
The singular national research organization dedicated to boys and men
There is currently no commission or council in our government that is looking at the boy crisis. Contrary to that, there has been a Council for Women and Girls since 2009.
Having said that, I would like to begin this article by recommending The American Institute for Boys and Men. They are a private, 501 c3 organization. Their web site says,
“The only national research organization dedicated to issues affecting boys and men. The AIBM conducts non-partisan research on issues that affect the well-being of boys and men across the U.S. and designs programs and policies to help them thrive.” (AIBM.org)
The founding (and current) president of that organization is Richard Reeves. You can find out more about him on the website. He is the father of three boys and keenly interested in the boy crisis. I listened to him in a podcast with Ezra Klein posted March 10, 2023. Klein was talking to him about his book, “Of Boys and Men”. ( https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/10/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-richard-reeves.html)
The website currently has a wonderful treatise on the book that is a Cliff Notes for men with no margins in their lives. It’s called “The Fall of Men.” It’s a well-produced and more concise treatise of what Reeves writes in the book which has a most wonderful subtitle, by the way:
“Why the Modern Male is Struggling; Why That Matters; and What to Do About It.”
I encourage you to give the video a listen to (www.aibm.org) but wanted to highlight some ideas Reeves shares. He lists the three biggest challenges facing men today are in:
Education
Labor Force
Home (Family)
We have discussed these three areas many times at Treign Up in our blogs and our soon to be released book, “Treign Up: Training and Affirming Boys to Be Competent Men of Christ-like Character”. Education has always been at the top of our list of inequalities in this new paradigm shift of men in culture. Remember that the AIBM has its own research team that employs analyst gathering data to support or refute facts that can lead to necessary policy changes that might prevent the dam from breaking, a metaphor we use in our book. Hopefully, they can show the statistics that point to the trends we are all feeling and seeing.
So, that statistics are plentiful in the book, blog, and other resourcing materials from AIBM. What’s really interesting to me is that paradigm shift that has happened so rapidly in the last 50 years since 1972 when Title IX legislation was introduced because the exact same problem was happening to women in education. At that time, the number of women graduating from college was 13% less than men. Now, the inverse is true but the gap has widened to 15% favoring women. So the flag that triggered the proper adjustment by government to address the problem is being ignored when men need it more. Reeves discusses how the education system has since rewarded women for neurological development that favors them meaning, women brains develop sooner than men’s and now that the lid is off the box, they can take advantage of their neurological advantage leaving the men behind in almost every conceivable area of intellectual measurement and statistics. This is not okay for the same reason it wasn’t okay for women. It has only revealed that the system is slanted and bias towards them. And this has happened in a very short piece of human history.
I like that Reeves is offering solutions. He suggests starting boys a year later in school, increasing the percentage of male teacher (role-models) and investing in vocational training, most of which would favor the boys a little more.
The second area Reeves discusses is men in the workforce. Again, equality is good, but this is not equality. Men are losing ground in wage earning, employment opportunities, occupational stature and being ‘muscled’ out of jobs in emerging fields like health, education, administration and …….. (L). As I mentioned earlier in this article, the government is ignoring this problem and probably for the same reasons Reeves was discouraged for writing a book on the boy/man crisis: It’s just not popular and socially acceptable to advocate for men’s rights. The problem is, as the men go, so goes the society.
The last area of concern is the family where Dads are absent and fatherlessness is an epidemic. Raising the bar for women, which was good, has brought one of the greatest liberations of a people group the world may have ever seen. Now, women can choose to be with a man. The do not have to be married and they don’t need men. The problem with that is the children do. Children and especially boys, NEED THEIR DADS. We at Treign Up would contend that the father is most influential person in the family when it comes to shaping the person(ality) of a child. So, Dad deprivation is a big problem that will impact future generations. As Reeves notes, it’s a vicious cycle.
It comes back to PURPOSE. Interesting to me that the three questions of worldview are all about purpose:
Where did I come from?
What am I doing here?
Where am I going?
Understanding PURPOSE is essential in finding meaning to life. Men have lost their way in part because this new reality has left them behind struggling with meaning. This is easily provable in in the depths of despair we are seeing everywhere in men according to statistics; suicide, opioid addiction, prison, etc. The words are ‘useless’ and ‘worthless’. I might also add ‘forgotten’.
In May, I went with my two boys to see Jordan Peterson speak in Richmond, VA. My heart was gladdened by the number of men I saw there. Peterson’s message on responsibility is resonating with men. We need more voices that call us back to our responsibility as men, and especially in this new world order. I would go a step further and suggest that while culture may change, God does not and His purposes for men have not changed either. Redefining ourselves in view of the changing culture may be necessary but not outside of that which God has called us to be.
It’s in responsibility that most people the meaning that sustains them through life. -JP
No small thing. I would also suggest my book “The Funnel: Framing Your Life in View of Eternity”. It’s available at Amazon.