The author of "Reaching Up For Manhood" discusses troubling social/environmental conditions confronting boys. Raising better boys requires caring adults, safer risk-taking situations, positive reinforcement, and role models. Parents should monitor boys' media exposure, provide moral education, broaden their cultural and natural-world…

Adults need to acknowledge the nature of this world more frequently in their discussions of youth violence. The media's focus on retribution and punishment reflects the popular anger over "bad" kids. Seeds of evil have sprung from an unkempt societal garden where widespread child poverty, disintegrating home environments, child abuse, a…