Over the past few months, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about standards. Not the kind codified in rule books, but the kind we used to carry within us. The ones that shaped how we looked, spoke, worked, and lived. Somewhere along the way, we’ve let too many of them slip.
When I was in school, young men were held to a higher bar. We were expected to dress with respect, show up on time, and carry ourselves with pride. You couldn’t just skip class or talk back without consequence. If your grades fell, you didn’t get a pat on the back and a participation ribbon. You repeated the class. There were prayers before football games, shirts tucked in, and teachers who didn’t flinch when they demanded more from you.
Gone are those days.
Today, schools add more electives, more stress, and more “awareness weeks,” but fewer real expectations. Truancy isn’t criminal anymore. Dress codes are optional. Accountability is negotiable. And we wonder why so many young men drift without direction.
The truth is, young men crave structure. They need challenge, discipline, and high standards to push against. When expectations are lowered, they don’t find freedom. They lose purpose. But when they’re held to something higher, they rise every time.
Take a look at Joe Liemandt’s Alpha School. They flipped the traditional model upside down and started expecting more from their students, not less. The results speak for themselves. Their kids are performing in the top one percent nationwide. Not because they made school easier, but because they raised the standard and refused to bend it.
That’s the kind of mindset we need to bring back at home, in the classroom, and in the mirror. Not perfection, but purpose. Not punishment, but pride.
As we step into Christmas, it’s worth remembering that the highest standard ever set came from a carpenter’s son born in a manger. Jesus didn’t come to make life easier. He came to call us higher – to live with humility, courage, faith, and conviction. He showed us that real leadership begins with service, and that the strength of a man isn’t measured in power, but in obedience.
This Christmas, maybe our gift to the next generation of young men should be a return to that standard. Let’s teach them that discipline is love, that expectations are opportunity, and that grace never means lowering the bar. Let’s stop mentoring to the lowest common denominator and start lifting boys toward the men they’re meant to become.
Because when we hold one another to a higher standard, we all rise. Every time.
Merry Christmas,
Michael G Ethridge
Publisher
From the publisher: a standard only means something if you hold it when it costs you. For the code that underpins it, read A Gentleman’s Code. And for what happens when the standard goes undefended, The Erosion Nobody Notices Until It’s Too Late is the case study.
