Raising Cain

From "News & Notes (1/11/06 - 6:23) comes this discussion of boys and their problems, with child psychologist Michael Thompson, the host of the documentary Raising Cain.

Musings

• Gender differences represent a continual subject of controversy and fascination. What's your take on the general premise that boys have a particular set of problems to overcome in growing up?
  
  
• Behind many of the discussions of helping boys in schools, as to grow up generally, is the even larger issue of masculinity, and whether or not boys (and maybe men generally) need help in overcoming or achieving masculinity. Here two related questions arise: Is the end result to narrow the differences between the genders, and do adult males have any special role to play in helping boys become men?

Bullying

Here is a commentary by Carlos Overstreet, a 15-year-old who has overcome the trauma of being bullied. You can also read an article by Overstreet, My Fight for Respect, in LA Youth magazine, and listen to a commentary on a report on bullying (4/25/2001 - 3:35) from the Journal of the American Medical Association. Finally, listen to this NPR report, Ganging Up on Bullying (10/2/2002 - 5:43), and check out some of the many links it has on the subject.

Musings

• Describe your reaction to Overstreet's story. Does it ring true; how does it compare to your own experiences and observations of school life and to what any experts have to say about bullying?
  
  
• Historically bullying is not considered a big deal, just a regular part of growing up. Do you agree this view? Why or why not?
  
  
• This academic article by Kimmel & Mahler, "Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia, and Violence," (in PDF format) raises a number of important, but seldom discussed issues related to bullying and violence, including the assertion that masculinity is "the single greatest risk factor in school violence."

Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain, an event that is the focus of the new movie Amazing Grace. The film tells the story through the career of just one key player in this effort, the British politician, William Wilberforce. Here are two film reviews, by John Powers (3/15/07 - 6:39) and Kenneth Turan (2/23/07 - 2:48).

Musings

• Powers's piece ends with speculation abut our own moral blindness today. What makes such speculation so difficult? Why is it so much easier to see the moral blindness in the past?
  
  
• On Talk of the Nation (2/22/2007 - 30:08), the film director's Michael Apted and Eric Metaxas, the author of Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, discuss many of the contemporary parallels with Wilberforce's struggle, especially those that involve talking truth to power and going against entrenched interests. Which, if any, of these parallels do you see as valid?
  
  
• Here is a feature by Liane Hansen on John Newton's hymn, "Amazing Grace" (12/29/2002 - 10:39). What is the connection between the song and the abolition of the slave trade? Also see the brief entry at Wikipedia.
  

The 1950s

Here's a twist for AudioLinks101, a link to a video slideshow, Take Me Back to the Fifties.

Baby-boomers, now turning sixty, grew up in the 1950s, and this slideshow reveals some of the intense nostalgia some people have for the period.

Musings

1. What are some of the aspects of life in the 1950s that seem most attractive to the creator of the slideshow? What, if any aspects, seem attractive to you?
   
   
2. Here is what the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture has to say about the 1950s: "Yet, the 1950s continues to be perceived as the ultra-American decade." (You can read the full article here, where this assertion is challenged.) Part of being ultra-American has to do with the perceived conformity of the decade--a widely felt pressure for people to look and act "normal." Do you see any of these pressures in the slideshow? What are some of the negative aspects of such pressures? What's wrong with normal?