News Room
Role Models and Mentoring for Boys
4/6/2010
Roles Models Critical for Boys, Especially When 'Dad' Is Absent
Published: Monday, April 05, 2010
By: Michael R. Malone of The Children's Trust.
“Dad, why do you treat me differently than you do my sister?” The pointed question from his 11-year-old son surprised Arthur Athis.
He considered the question carefully and heard the request behind it: See me as the boy I am. “I treat you differently not because you’re a boy and she’s a girl, but because you’re a different person than she is,” Athis told his son. Athis, a teen counselor for the Family and Child Faith Coalition, doesn’t squeeze his son into a stereotype of what a boy “should” be.
