1st Edition
Childhood, Identity and Masculinity The Boarding School Boys
Childhood, Identity and Masculinity: The Boarding School Boys examines the lives of ten Iranian men who were sent to boarding schools in England during the 1960s and 1970s. Their stories, situated at the intersection of Eastern and Western cultural values, signify their passage to manhood, and highlight the meaning of masculinity then and now. The reflective narratives explore issues of physical and emotional abuse received from administrators and peers, as well as the "man up" motto that pressured them to persevere in the spirit of meeting expectations and becoming a man.
Narrated within the context of the traditional role of men in both Iranian and British societies, the book highlights key themes of trauma, survival and resistance, power and privilege, and their impact on the men over their lifespan. The volume offers rich insight into understanding the developmental challenges that adolescent boys face as they attempt to deal with the trauma of separation from their parents, while conforming to strict rules and regulations of boarding school education, and societal expectations of them.
The volume will be of interest to scholars of developmental psychology, childhood trauma, education, cultural psychology, men’s studies, and gender. Individuals and parents interested in, and considering boarding school education will also find the narratives informative and educational.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
THE FEMININE DEVALUED, MASCULINITY EVOKED
PARADOX OF BOARDING SCHOOL
PART I Trauma of the Boy
Chapter 1 Mehrdad, The Pecking Order
Chapter 2 Hossein, And They Were Gone
Chapter 3 Ali, Bi Gham
PART II Survival of the Man
Chapter 4 Jahanshah, King of the World
Chapter 5 Amir, Men Don’t Cry
Chapter 6 Alireza, All is Good
Chapter 7 Siavash, On the Move
PART III The Privilege of Power
Chapter 8 Ben, Riding the Waves
Chapter 9 Morad, Getting it Right
Chapter 10 Javad, On My Own
IN CONCLUSION
Chapter 11 The Healing Journey
Biography
Soosan Latham is a former Assistant Dean Executive Education at the Rotman School of Management (Toronto), a J.P. Morgan Human Resources Management practitioner (New York), and most recently Sessional Assistant Professor at York University (Toronto). She is a Cross-Cultural Leadership educator and executive coach.
Roya Ferdows is an MBA graduate from Johns Hopkins University with a post Masters in Health Services Administration from George Washington University. After several years working in the corporate world she became a certified Life Coach. She now focuses her time on supporting her clients in Work/Life Balance and developing better leadership and relationship skills.
"Latham and Ferdows's insightful new book uncannily hits the mark in shedding light on the long term side effects of attending boarding school. They affirm the complex and varied traumatic childhood experiences of young boys, and explore the deep roots of attachment and developmental stressor as well as the cultural factors that impact their subjects’ development, especially, their notion of male/masculine identity. This book is an essential read for psychotherapists, counsellors and others interested in the psychological, and cultural legacy of this tradition including ex-boarders and their partners." Marjaneh Halati, Ex-boarding school survivor, President OMID Foundation
"Latham and Ferdows give voice to boys traumatised by boarding school experiences, and to the men they have become. Their stories examine the boarding school experience, typified by power, fear, violence, intimidation and bullying, and the legacy of those experiences, which include insecure attachments, developmental trauma, emotional apathy and a search for solace. This is essentially a book about masculinity told by two female ex-boarders.
The notion of masculinity poses a challenge for us all, especially for boys growing up to become men, and especially for boys growing up in boarding schools. This book confronts the challenge prudently." Jeanine Connor, Editor BACP Children, Young People & Families, child & adolescent psychotherapist, and author of Stop F*cking Nodding
"... reports an investigation into the childhood experiences of men from Iran who were sent to boarding school in the U.K. during the 60s and 70s. I found this book to be a very sad but all too familiar story of how these boys were made to feel ashamed of their natural human emotions and vulnerabilities. The authors have elicited the ways in which these men have come to value and valorize their traumatic separation from their families and abuse at the hands of school administrators and bullying boys in the service of having made them into ‘real men’. Soosan Latham and Roya Ferdows offer their knowledgeable and compassionate approach to understanding such men." Ronald F. Levant, Ed.D., A.B.P.P., Professor of Psychology Emeritus, the University of Akron, Former President, the American Psychological Association, Co-author of The Tough Standard: The Hard Truths About Masculinity and Violence
