Time magazine’s cover story for July 26 is “The Myth About Boys” by David Von Drehle. He explores the idea, made popular by several books over the last decade or so, that boys lag behind girls.

He cites titles including William Pollack’s “Real Boys,” Susan Faludi’s “Stiffed,” and Christina Hoff Summers’ “The War Against Boys.” Each offers a mix of statistics, anecdotes and theories about why modern society is not doing a good job of enabling boys to develop properly into good men.

Von Drehle decides the boy crisis alarmists have a point, but that things are getting better. He cites the multi-agency federal government study “America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007.”

The study, Von Drehle says, shows that juvenile crime and prison population, teen drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy are all on a substantial decline from recent historic highs. Boys are also scoring better on standardized tests than they were in 1990. They still trail girls, though, especially in reading.

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But, as Von Drehle also says, “the subject of boys is a bog of sociology in which a clever researcher, given a little time, can unearth evidence to support almost any point of view.”

One point of view Von Drehle doesn’t explore is the influence older men have on boys. He doesn’t even mention how the presence – or absence – of a good father can affect a boy’s development. Nor does he mention the importance of the example set by other men a boy sees while growing up.

Society sends mixed messages to boys on what is expected of a man, and a boy needs a trusted guide to help make sense of them.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another,” the writer of Proverbs said.

The sports world can deeply affect how a boy looks at life, and there is never a shortage of either good or bad examples.

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is about as bad as they come. If true, the charges indicate that Vick, not satisfied with his status as a ridiculously wealthy football star, needed to augment his masculinity through inflicting pain and chasing a gambling rush. The NFL’s decision to bench Vick pending trial is welcome, signaling that even stars must be held accountable.

The Barry Bonds situation can also be seen as stemming from male insecurity. Sometime in his late 30s, it seems almost certain Bonds began using steroids to reverse the aging process. It worked, and his performance improved dramatically at an age when athletes almost always start to lose it.

Major League Baseball’s non-response to Bonds and other all-but-proven steroid users (Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, et. al.) has been timid and damaging to a game that used to have impeccable moral standards on behavior affecting the game’s integrity.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig missed a chance to do the right thing by today’s young fans.

On the bright side, it would be hard to think of two better role models than Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. Both were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame Sunday, and their remarkable speeches were an accurate reflection of the players they were and the men they are.

Ripken was thought to be too big to play shortstop, and Gwynn often looked a little too pudgy for his own good. But both men dedicated themselves to hard work, and turned their natural talents into durable skills that gave them an honest competitive edge.

While they were busy doing that, they became good men, and good examples for a boy to follow.

Aaron Keith Harris writes about politics, the media, pop culture and music and is a regular contributor to National Review Online and Bluegrass Unlimited. He can be reached at aaronkeithharris@gmail.com.