So, I'm at work on Friday. As I mentioned before, at a K through 5 public school in Princeton. I'm helping out in a classroom with 3 ESL teachers (no students were present at the time). They were making up canvas bags for their students with books they had purchased. Some of the students come from homes that neither of the parents speak English and are on a limited income to provide reading books for their children. Now that's some background on the situation.
Here's the Eureka moment; they would picking out the books, and the color/style of the canvas bag, based on the gender of the student. They of course were keeping in mind, the reading level of the student. But, I kept hearing statements like; oh that's too "girlish" for Jose or "Junie B. Jones isn't a good for Juan because it's about a girl. What's with that? I didn't expect this from these teachers, I don't even think they realized they were making these types of statements.
I think this happens in a lot classrooms with the teachers subconsciously having pre-conceived thoughts regarding gender and gender roles. As educators, we are required to take workshops and seminars pertaining to this exact subject.
So, my question is with all the knowledge that we have as educators, what does it still happen, now?
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We can take all the workshops in the world, but I believe it depends on the population of students you work with and what their pre-conceived thoughts are regarding gender. I had a similar situation at Christmas, when we made up bags for our 6th graders. I noticed that the bags were definately separated by boys or girls. I had nothing to do with the bags, but I did bring in all these beanie bags I have collected and gave one to each of the students. As I was putting them into the bags, I found myself being selective on what stuffed animals I put in the boys bags. This was mainly because of the bullying and teasing I have witnessed if something is to "girlie". Bullying is suppose to be zero tolerence, but it does happen within our school. So my thoughts are that you know your students and gear the books towards their interests. I do not know what grade you were making the bags for, but do now that there are many boys in my grade who would feel embarressed if they received a book about a girl and would probably feel the wrath of the other boys within the classroom.
ReplyDeleteRobin, This doesn't surprise me because I think most people do this. We are so inundated with gender-skewing media it would be more of a surprise if the people gave stereotypical girl stuff to the boys and vice versa. And I know I've said this before, there are books that are considered applicable to men and books that only women would want to read. When people would ask me what book they should buy for their father, I would just ask, "what was the last book he read that he liked." That usually solved that.
ReplyDeleteTaryn
Joan
ReplyDeleteThe grade level were K through 5. They were definitely picking the specific reading level of ability for each child, which is educationally sound. Some of these children are unable to more than a first grade level (more K and 1st graders were given just picture books without words). With this in mind, should they still be concerned about the child's gender or just assisting them in learning to read? That was my issue and also that the teacher with different number of years teaching and backgrounds; none of them addressed the issue of my concern. Which truly surprised me!
Taryn,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the child's interest should take precedence over the gender of the child, of course in a normal situation. As I said, the teachers were taking into consideration the child's ability - but was also "stuck on" what he/she would like as that particular gender, which I felt should not be a concern for a child to learn how to read.
Thanks for your input.
Robin,
ReplyDeleteAs teachers and educators of our children; this is very disturbing. Teachers should not be classifying their students based on their gender. All children should be required to read all different types of books and not just limited to their own gender. These teachers should know better because they are the ones that are educating the next generations.
I think I would have politely interrupted and questioned their behavior. It might not be my place to but changes can’t happen unless bystanders speak up in a situation. Everybody needs to voice concern when it comes to situations like this because they should know better. And maybe they would not have changed what they were doing at the time but maybe next time they would think about it.
Change in our society can happen if others “politely” question or show concern about why things are being done a particular way.
-Nicole
Robin,
ReplyDeleteThat's an excellent question that I'm sure each individual would answer differently. I would hope that the teachers judgement was according to what they assumed would hold the students interest. I encourage reading (in my opinion) you'd want to provide literature that a child "wants" to read. I know it's hard to assume that boys wouldn't want to read Junie B. or girls maybe about sports but having children in your class as a teacher you come to learn what sparks their interest. I hope that the teachers judgement was based off of that insight.
Nicole,
ReplyDeleteI understand how you feel, I am an inclass suport special needs instructional aide in my school. These were ESL teachers that I was helping out for the day. If it was my own cooperating teacher, I might have said something, but there definitely a "pecking order" in this school, as in other schools and it would not be a responsible thing to do in my situation as far as making a comment to these teachers.
Robin
Wow! I agree with Robin, as educators, you should think of the individual and not their sex. The books and packs should have been chosen on what each child would likely want to read or use and not on if it was too "girly" or "boyish". It's bad that these kinds of stereotypes are so ingrained in people. If my boyfriend wears a purple shirt or tie with pink in it to work he always gets comments. I'm proud that he continues to wear what he likes and doesn't let others make him feel wrong about it.
ReplyDeleteTonya,
ReplyDeleteI am in agreement with and glad you understand the situation. Although, I have learned as a previous preschool teacher about going out of my way to not use gender roles (while reading a book, say firefighter instead of fireman), I feel that the public school sometimes has a lot to learn. Unfortunately, in my capacity of my job, I can not verbalize the things that I see as subconsciously inappropriate, just cognitively think to myself to NOT do the same. I'm sure that these teachers meant no "malice" by their book choices, still if this is what they think, then what are they conveying to the students on a subconscious level?