Over the last weekend I went away with my wife and two other female teaching assistants to look after eighteen 6-year old boys and girls on their first ever residential trip. I have done this trip before and thoroughly love it. This time I suppose I was more aware of stereotyping and was amused at what I found:
On arrival all the children are expected to make their own beds; they have been told this before they left. All they had to do was put a pillow in a pillow case and a duvet in a duvet cover (actually a big pillow case). All the girls got the pillows into the pillow cases and about half got the duvet into the cover, the rest needed a bit of help. But all were done within about an hour of arrival. About half the boys got the pillows into the pillow cases and about two got the duvet into the cover in a bundle at the bottom. Most then declared it was too hard and that one of the adults should do it. I showed them how to do it, to which the response was "Can you do mine now as I can't do it". When it came to getting into bed it turned out that two if not three boys had simply laid the duvet cover over their duvet so it looked ready and one had done the same with his pillow case!
The first activity was a nature walk. This was a failure as the rabbits which feed in the grounds were too inviting as some of the boys and girls decided they could catch them. Once in the wood some of the boys picked up the fallen sticks and a gun fight ensued.
Back to the big house and a chance to see how well they could get on without TV. Yes there was a monitor to show videos but no TV link. After explaining this to the group of four boys for 10 minutes they finally accepted I was telling the truth and went to play with Lego - another gun fight. The girls were crowded round the windows drawing the baby rabbits they could see.
Remember these are in year 2 at school and it's hard to say for certain but all had fixed gender stereotypes already. Where does this come from and why so quickly?
I will relate one more instance, after the second day we organise showers for the children. My group had four boys and five girls (adults always work in pairs). All my girls had shoulder length hair or longer. When I said I'd help with plaiting their hair the teaching assistant didn't refuse but was sceptical. One of the girls was happy for me to do it and was nicely surprise I was able to do it quickly and efficiently so she could get on with her drawing! Ok I didn't do French Plaits from the top of her head but she hadn't come away like that.
Josephine GreenSo on a site like this you state "children need to be taught what thier gender is"; sorry no they do not. Until they can express their own preference they should be brought up as gender neutral as possible. One last question, is gender binary?... moreSo on a site like this you state "children need to be taught what thier gender is"; sorry no they do not. Until they can express their own preference they should be brought up as gender neutral as possible. One last question, is gender binary? To me it is not so it is difficult to assign roles.
Cat XTut, tut, tut, children need to be taught whet gender they are so they know the differences between the two, just like when schools teach girls and boys about sexual education, they need to know if they are biologically a boy or girl so as to communicate... moreTut, tut, tut, children need to be taught whet gender they are so they know the differences between the two, just like when schools teach girls and boys about sexual education, they need to know if they are biologically a boy or girl so as to communicate a common bond with a fellow human, It's the same point as you can't have a male tell a woman all about child birth because only another female can relate to such matters, that's why this type of teaching still needs to be done. I am sure if you went to a woman and said you know exactly how a "monthly" feels, you would probably end up getting slapped, Do you understand what I mean now? men and women ARE different, and children need to be able to identify which catergory of gender they are. Don't be stuborn on this, let the person decide what THEY want to be, don't take it from them and don't try to enforce a certain veiw onto children before they know what "Choice" is, explain don't "tell" them from the outset what gender they are, and then let them make the choice to change. Thqat's the beauty of us humans, we can change if we want to but it's also good to know what gender we are so we can identify what one we are or what one we want to be.
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