E38: Mentoring Our Boys with author Earl Hipp

E38 Introduction

The topic of guiding adolescent boys into manhood seems to me an extremely relevant one right now. As a society, we have not created the initiatory structures that enable our young people to come into manhood as a celebration. We almost dread it when a boy is creeping towards manhood, as if that is a terrible thing. What sort of message does that send our boys? Is being a man really that awful? Do men not have anything to offer? Or is it the cultural conditioning that is in dire need of being upgraded? How come boys aren’t properly celebrated as they enter the tribe of men?

There has been a movement to create rites-of-passage trainings for boys but we need more. We need more imperfect men stepping up to mentor adolescent boys.

My guest today exemplifies being committed to helping our boys arrive at manhood as a celebration and with the support of caring, appropriate elders.

Earl Hipp Bio-

Earl Hipp is an author, speaker, adviser to mentoring groups, and community consultant. Since 1982, Earl has been involved with organizations that focus on men’s issues and development. He speaks at national conferences and delivers workshops across the country, teaching organizations how to call men to mentoring.

Since 2005, Earl has published the Man-Making Blog, discussing manhood, male culture, mentoring, and men’s rites of passage. His mission is to help men discover and use their innate man-making gifts, so fewer boys (and men) are left to wander alone in the dangerous never-never land between boyhood and manhood.

Lastly, here is a quote from Meladona Some, an African spiritual teacher, “When a civilization lacks rites of passage, its soul is sick. The evidence for this sickness is threefold: first, there are no elders; second, the young are violent; and third, the adults are bewildered.”