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Pollack Attracts the Irresponsible

January 2001

When an interview with Dr. Pollack was published in 1999 in the magazine of the teachers union, the National Education Association, this unbelievably, irresponsible headline was used:

A psychologist suggests strategies for reaching boys before they reach for guns.

The lead paragraph before his interview in the paper which was sent to most teachers in the country, said:

“Last spring, as Americans tried to make sense out of the latest spate of school shootings, the media turned repeatedly to William Pollack, assistant professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and author of Real Boys, Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood.

“Pollack’s message was a consistent one: the ‘boy code’ imposes a ‘gender straitjacket on boys, often leaving them without the experience or the tools to express their emotions safely.

“Educators, Pollack explained in a recent interview with NEA Today, can and must do more to address boys’ unique social, academic, and emotional needs.”

One may say it is difficult to blame Dr. Pollack for this untrue, irresponsible labeling in a headline of the male children of America as dangerous people. But it is no coincidence that these extreme statements about boys follow wherever Pollack goes.