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I must be out of the loop, because I didn't realize that gender was once again a hot news topic, as this article states. The two main examples of efforts to combat gender stereotyping mentioned in this article seem quite extreme to me: a couple in Canada who refuse to reveal the gender of their 4-month-old baby; and a preschool in Sweden that does not allow the words boy, girl, him, or her, instead using "friend" and "a newly minted Swedish word, the genderless 'hen,'" according to the authors of this article, Caryl Rivers and Rosalind Barnett.
I realize that there are many legitimate concerns regarding gender stereotyping, both in schools and in society at large, but I'm not sure that either of the above examples provides the answer to the problem. I feel that educating society about the negative aspects of gender stereotyping can be our best defense against the problem. Of course, I am aware that efforts to educate the public have been going on for years, but sometimes those efforts have been too sporadic, or too extreme (as in the above examples). When the efforts are sporadic, some people may mistakenly believe that the problem has been "solved" and cease to worry about it. When the efforts are too extreme, I think people tend to scoff at the ridiculousness of it, and then disregard the importance of the larger issue.
In my classroom, the question is often on my mind: "Do I treat both the boys and the girls in a fair and equitable manner?" This is a very difficult question to answer, because I don't believe that fair treatment always means the same treatment. Sometimes what's best for one student, or even one gender, is not best for another student or the other gender. I even wonder if you can hope to expect the same results when the same treatment is given to everyone.
Part of the problem with gender stereotyping, too, is that it's almost impossible to separate the behaviors and attitudes of a child that are genetic from those that are imposed by society. What if you had an entire classroom of students who were raised like the 4-month-old mentioned at the beginning of this post: their gender was never revealed to society? (Yes, impossible, I know, but play along). Would it really be impossible to tell the boys from the girls if they had similar haircuts and clothing? Would we even want males and females to be so similar that we couldn't tell them apart?
Again, I agree that gender stereotyping is a dilemma in our society, but I don't agree that measures as extreme as the two cited by Rivers and Barnett are necessarily the best way to combat the problem.
The complete article, "Confronting Gender Anxiety," posted August 5, 2011 by Caryl Rivers and Rosalind Barnett can be viewed at: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/08/05/37rivers.h30.html?tkn=NVRFePrMLlEqE%2BJQOJi8J3JJaimDbIvDxfbN&cmp=ENL-EU-VIEWS1
I think combating gender stereotyping is a good idea especially when you are dealing with students in the classroom. I think it is good practice not to make assumptions when it comes to dealing with your students. I think it is a great idea to grade student papers without reading the name on the paper and a teacher should make every effort to limit any bias when grading on other activities. Unfortunately, I think we are all influenced by our social environments. The best approach is not to jump to any conclusions and try to keep an open mind about what any person is capable of achieving.
ReplyDeleteI too think combating gender stereotyping is a good idea. I also think the measures that were in the article were extreme and are not the best ways to deal with the problem. I think that it is difficult for us to not have biases as much as we try not to. Grading papers without looking at the names is a great idea.
ReplyDeleteAddressing your questions, it would be interesting to see if people could tell the differences between boys and girls if they looked and were dressed so similar. In my observations I have noticed that boys seem to be more active than girls, so I think you could separate them by gender. Maybe not all of them but the majority. No, I don't think that we should want boys and girls to be so similar that we couldn't tell them apart.