The Trouble with Boys by Peg Tyre

Author:Peg Tyre
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780307449771
Publisher: Potter/TenSpeed/Harmony
Published: 2008-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

Justin’s Bloodthirsty World

THE public school in an affluent area of Southern California where Justin Johnson now attends fifth grade maintains high standards. And that’s a blessing for his parents—Mark, a personal assistant, and Melissa, a banker. In third grade, though, something happened that made Mark and Melissa begin to worry, not that the school’s standards were too high but that the school’s ideas about acceptable ways of writing might be too narrow.

Since he was a very little boy, Justin has seen himself as a hybrid of Luke Skywalker, General Douglas MacArthur, and the swashbuckling pirate Captain Kidd. He’s transfixed by Star Wars. He’s fascinated by all things military. He has dragged his parents to repeated showings of Pirates of the Caribbean. In his hands, a tree branch, a broomstick, or even a pencil can be transformed into a sword, a bayonet, or a light saber.

Mark used to apologize for his son’s passions. “I’m not that centered on those kinds of things myself,” he says with a little shrug. “Living in a liberal section of California,” he adds, “I’ve certainly never owned a gun. But this is what my son loves.”

After spending the last five or six years observing children on the playground, Mark has gradually become less self-conscious about his son’s obsession with fighting and what sometimes seem like bloodthirsty fantasies. “It seems to me that a lot of little boys are like that,” he says.

So Mark was surprised when Justin’s third-grade teacher called him in to discuss Justin’s early attempts at writing a fictional story. “I’m very concerned about your son’s journal,” began Justin’s teacher, getting out the marble composition books where the children drew pictures and described them in short captions. Mark wracked his brain. Justin had made major gains in the last year or so. His handwriting, which had been large and uneven, was almost passable now. His spelling was definitely improving. Besides, Justin loved telling stories, the wilder the better. What could have gone wrong?

“Look here,” the teacher said, as she opened Justin’s notebook.

The journal page was crowded with an animated drawing and a neat (for Justin) caption. So far so good. Justin had clearly followed the directions. From the amount of crayon on the paper, Mark noted proudly, it was obvious Justin had worked very hard on his story.

“What am I looking at?” Mark asked tentatively.

“Look closer,” the teacher directed.

Mark saw that Justin’s illustration was a carefully rendered massacre. Swords were drawn. The air was thick with arrows. Several figures were in the process of getting decapitated. In short, Justin had taken great pains to vividly share with his teacher and his class one of his favorite narratives.

Mark started to laugh but bit it back. He could see from the teacher’s face that she wasn’t in a joking mood.

“Is there anything that he’s done here that violates school policy?”

“No,” the teacher replied. “I’m simply concerned about the subject matter.”

There was a long pause. Mark couldn’t think of what to say.

“I have other children in the

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