‘Bromance’ classes will fight ‘toxic masculinity’ in schools: teacher

Article here. Excerpt:

'An important course is missing from school education: Bromance 101.

A teacher and author argues that schools should provide “lessons in bromance” to help focus on the mental-health crisis among boys.

Matt Pinkett, an English teacher who challenges champions of “toxic masculinity,” believes that teenage boys should be exposed to good models for a “bromance” with close, strong, male friendships through characters such as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, or Frodo and Sam from “Lord of the Rings.”

In his new book, “Boys Do Cry: Improving Boys’ Mental Health and Wellbeing in Schools,” Pinkett expresses the importance of the “emotional openness” of male friendships — but warns that the men learned about in school literature are often not “great examples of male kindness” and most of them are “tools.”

For example, Macbeth “kills a lot of people” and Ebenezer Scrooge is “a bit of a numpty” throughout most of “A Christmas Carol.”

Pinkett compiled evidence from school staff, therapists and experts in well-being to come to this conclusion.'