This text confronts the complacent assumption that "boys will be boys" which has resulted in blindness about the problem of boys in school. It challenges the culture of aggressive manliness within which most boys have grown up and the destructive masculinity that they learn later in life.

Acknowledgments, Acting Hard — A poem by David Jackson, Preface by Jeff Hearn, 1. Introduction: Why Should Schools Take Working with Adolescent Boys Seriously?, 2. The Secondary School as a Gendered Institution, 3. Boys’ Sexualities, 4. Sexual Harassment, 5. Violence and Bullying, 6. Media Education, Boys and Masculinities, 7. Language as a Weapon, 8. The Ideal Manly Body, 9. School Sport and the Making of Boys and Men, 10. Boys’ Well-being: Learning to Take Care of Themselves and Others, 11. How Boys Become Real Lads: Life Stories about the Making of Boys, 12. Playing War, 13. Fathers and Sons, Bibliography, Index