Becoming a man

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Becoming a man

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Becoming a man. I teach a class at our school and it's called Becoming a Man to second semester seniors. And the thing that I hear a lot is, "Well, you know I'm 18." He looks like a man. Is he a man? No, he's not. I mean, that's ultimately it. The journey to becoming a man is, one of the quotes I like to use for our boys is, "Becoming a man is not a time, it's a choice." It's a choice becoming a man. So on this journey we have to become almost initiated to it. You know, I think in our country and even in our society, we runout of initiation rights. Everybody thinks hazing is initiation; it isn't. Hazing's hazing; it's not the same. Initiation into manhood is really gonna be done by an elder group of some sort. Ideally, it could be a retreat, a men's retreat. I think that that's an important piece. But the journey to become that man is also important to have those role models in place throughout your life. More so than just a father figure; I think that having a tribe around a boy really helps them along that journey. And finding those avenues becomes critical when they become teenagers and even before that. I think if you're at a stage where they're teenagers, you need to find them the avenues to find those great mentors to really be able to balance off what does it really mean to be a true man? Otherwise, they're gonna get it from TV, and the reality is we know what's gonna happen.

Watch Rob Kodama's video on Becoming a man...

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Rob Kodama

Director of Admissions & Marketing, Crespi Carmelite High School

Mr. Kodama has been a Certified Gurian Trainer since 2007. He is the Director of Admissions, Marketing, and Public Relations at Crespi Carmelite High School. He is also the head soccer coach and the Director of K-sports Soccer Camps. He has been involved in the educational field since 1991.  In his role as the Director of Admissions he has increased enrollment at Crespi Carmelite High School nearly 20% within his first five years. He has taught a revolutionary course called ”Becoming a Man” to seniors at Crespi Carmelite High School for the past eight years. In this innovative class, he challenges his students to look at what it truly means to become a man in our society. He explores what their roles are as sons, brothers, fathers, husbands, and mentors. He has presented this class at the Gurian Institute in Colorado Springs. He has served as the social studies department chair, and taught World Cultural Geography, US History, AP Macroeconomics, Micro Economics, and World History.

As a certified trainer and teacher, Mr. Kodama brings a wide variety of experience working with children, parents, students, and athletes. He has been training parents and schools about how boys and girls learn differently and how to help them succeed in school since 2007. He was recently the Keynote Speaker at Pierce College in Woodland Hills for the Early Childhood Development program. He has presented numerous times at The Gurian Summer Institute in Colorado Springs, and has worked with the following schools: Berkeley School, Crossroads Christian, Serra High School, Encino Presbyterian Children’s Center, St. Mel’s School, Kirk of the Valley School, Laurel Hall, Weekday Preschool, Young Oak Kim Academy, Our Lady of Malibu, Palma High School, and Army Navy Academy.

As a coach, he has worked with both boys and girls as young as four, through college. He has been running soccer camps, clinics, and coaching for over 20 years throughout the Los Angeles area. Many of his players have gone on to play at advanced levels of soccer.

He grew up in the San Fernando Valley. He is the youngest of five siblings, and is married and has a seven year-old son and six year-old daughter.

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