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The silent crisis of disconnected and lonely young men
Raising a child takes a village – and some of the villagers must be men.
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Today’s leaders have been slow to recognise the extent of male troubles, in part because of a fear of being seen as somehow anti-woman. But alarm bells are ringing.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Robert D Putnam and Richard V Reeves
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In the early years of the 20th century, America had a “boy problem”. Boys on the street, making trouble. Boys becoming truants. Boys getting caught up in crime. The problem spread across the United States alongside the disruptions of technological change, immigration and growing socio-economic inequality.
Policymakers stepped in – with universal public schooling, for example. But it was the civic response that was truly extraordinary. In less than a decade, most of today’s major child-serving organisations were founded: Big Brothers (1904), the Federated Boys’ Clubs (1906), Boy Scouts (1910), Girl Scouts (1912) and 4-H (1912).
