Raising Cain DVD - an Honest Review

This is a 2-hr documentary produced by PBS exploring the inner lives of American boys today. It was hosted by Dr Thompson who had earlier written a book under the same title with Dr Dan Kindlon. In this video, Dr Thompson conducted in-depth interviews with various boys from birth through high school, of different race and socio-economical backgrounds. His interviews were candid and revealed the many challenges and confusion all boys encounter while growing up in America.

I had read his book Raising Cain years ago. And seeing this video recently has significantly refreshed me. So what is in the video? Basically it explores:

1. How and why boys are being stifled in their development by society, by stereo-typing and also by educational system which is inclined towards girls' development.

2. How the lack of positive adult-male role models give rise to boy's decline in classroom performance, rise in violent outbreaks and inability to communicate inner feelings.


After presenting the problems in each section, Dr Thompson skillfully defines ways for parents, educators and counselors to engage boys and help them discuss many internal issues they have conflicts with.

Even though I am residing in Asia, I can easily identify many similar issues highlighted in the video such as why boys cannot concentrate well in class, why they are inclined to bully and violence etc.

On the hindsight, maybe these are the common social issues found in other developing countries where many dads are the missing figures at home.


It is true that there are many excellent parenting boy books in the market. It would definitely take a while to read and ‘digest' their content. I find this video has ingeniously condensed the essence of the problems and their solutions, in raising boys, in an easy and comprehensive manner that I believe it can speed up our learning curve in helping our boys.


I highly recommend this video to every parent, educator and anyone who works with boys, and is interested in raising happy and successful boy.
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