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OUR YOUNG MALES

Jul 30, 2017 Editorial, Features / Columnists

In Guyana, youths are roughly 60 percent of the population, but males are falling behind females at every level of the education system—from high school to university with likely consequences for the workplace.
Further, young men are also vastly over-represented among the prison population and as the perpetrators of crimes and the victims of homicide and suicide. This has had a negative impact on society in terms of young males becoming future husbands, fathers and community leaders. However, the solution does not lie in more prisons, more laws or more police, but in all of us as parents and communities being good role models for them. This could reshape their behaviour and help them to become decent and productive citizens.
The phenomenon of young males failing could affect the economy and society as a whole; we must strategize how to remedy this crisis of masculinity in the country. We cannot afford to give up on our young men; we must do all we can to rescue them.
Our young men need assistance from family members, teachers, priests/pastors and sports personnel to mentor and coach them into a healthy and valuable lifestyle. Without better male role models in real life, young men tend to become confused about what constitutes acceptable male behaviour.
Many have and continue to meddle in the illegal drug trade, violent gangs, criminal behaviour and anti-social music.
Amid the country’s general social breakdown, young men face specific challenges, which can largely be blamed on the absence of male role models. Instead, many are comforted from the endless hours spent in front of a screen titillated by video games and or pornography. Others are getting conflicting messages from the media, institutions, parents and peers about what it means to be a man and what is acceptable and desirable male behavior in society.
It is said that boys are more vulnerable than girls in absorbing the messages from the media. However, evidence strongly suggests that the excessive playing of video games can alter the functionality and indeed the very architecture of the human brain, producing boys bereft of social skills and detached from reality. However, this kind of stereotype of young men and the lack of male role models in their lives are harming their ability to succeed.
The absence of the father-figure role in single parent homes has contributed to the wayward behaviour of young men in today’s society.
Further, it is rather unfortunate that the role of fathers has been taken over by mothers, who single-handedly have to raise generations of boys into men. This is true for Guyana where data shows that 95 percent of all single households in the country are headed by women.
Several studies have revealed that most children in the father-absent homes tend to score lower in Intelligence Quotient (IQ) than those in homes with fathers. Such findings are rather disturbing and should be of concern to parents and policymakers, especially those in the field of education.
Undoubtedly, this finding has serious implications regarding parenting in light of the absence and burdens that absentee fathers place on the female parent in administering discipline and raising children, particularly boys.
While moms are great at giving unconditional love to their children, boys or girls alike, regardless of their performance in school or elsewhere, dads would motivate their sons to try harder, to work for success and not to give up. Fathers in the home are good role models for boys. It could help them become decent and productive citizens in society.

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