How can we prevent gender stereotypes?

In Rethinking Early Childhood Education the author talks about the gender stereotypes children are exposed to and believe. It is true that in many if not most toy stores toys are obviously designated for the male and felmale role, not too many genger neutral toys can be found. What is worse is that not all of these gender specific toys are sending children the right message. What really stuck out to me was the Barbie scale of 110 pounds. Do little girls really need to start worrying about weight issues so early in life? It may seem harmless but recently I met a young girl who was in second grade and she constantly made negative remarks about her weight. Sometiems she did not even want to eat and would just sit there clearly sad and hungry. When playing with her barbies she once told me, “I wish I looked like this, she is so pretty.” I had to tell her that she was beautiful too and real so she was more special.

Children have many ideas about the world and how things work but not all their ideas are even close to accurate. They observe and begin forming their view of the world. If they can be taught that yes boys and girls are different but both are equally competent then hopefully the children will grow up having a more open mind.

Since it is not likely that the toy companies are going to change the way they make toys we need to make a conscious effort to include both genders in all activities and create encounters where genger role stereotypes can be broken. For instance, woodworking centers are great for involving all the children and everyone can see that carpentry is for girls as well. Boys can also be encouraged to take care of the babies or wash the dishes. These are more realistic scenareos for many of the children who will grow up and have children rather than shoot imaginary bad guys.

How can a place be so greatly valued?

In Rethinking Early Childhood Education the author spoke so vividly of her appreciation for a sense of place. This kind of thinking goes along with the saying of stopping to smell the roses. Our world is filled with so many beautiful features of nature that are often over looked and under appreciated. Children can become fascinated by these things in nature on their own but with an adult’s guidance and knowledge they could learn so much more. For example, a child may see a ladybug on a leaf and run to tell the teacher. The teacher can either say something like, “That’s nice” or can take this interest and turn it into a learning experience. If the teacher does not take that opportunity to teach the children on something that they are interested in then the interest may fade and a learning opportunity would be missed.

There are many benefits for appreciating our natural environment. The author mentions that by caring and appreciating for even one place can cause a person to find the beauty in another simple feat of nature. For instance, if a child enjoys going to the beach and playing in the water they can come across feelings of happiness that they may not find in other places. Their passion for the ocean may cause them to keep the surrounding environment free from things such as cans and plastic bags (often found at the beach). Later they may go to a waterfall or river and feel a similar happiness as the beach and may want to also take the same kind of care of that place as well.

In the classroom there are so many different types of lesson plans and many of them do involve nature, but how great would it be to be able to introduce a passion and eye for the simple beauties in nature. There are many resources out in our earth such as leaves, sticks, and sand that can all be used in the classroom. One idea would be to have a garden with the children. They would be able to practice science with growing seeds, commitments and responsibility from taking care of the plants, cooking skills with preparing edible plants, sensory from smelling the earth and the greenery, healthy eating habits from eating the seeds, fruits and vegetables and self-confidence from growing something that can be enjoyed by everyone.

In the New Possibilities book the author talked about the class being a valued place for the women in it. It was in the class where many of them had a chance to broaden their view on the world. It was difficult for many of them outside of the classroom but in the classroom was their chance to learn to hopefully better their lives.

Another thing that caught my attention was the mention that bookwork and tests do not necessarily prove that a person is qualified to work with children. A person’s temperament and personality plays a large role in the kind of teacher they are going to be. It was suggested by one of the students in the author’s class that things such as observations with actual children should be required beyond bookwork. I agree that just because a person passes a college class does not mean that they are ready to become a teacher. There are some people who are smart but I know that I would not want them teaching or being a part of my children’s class. There is so much more to being a teacher than people realize.

Why do we try to hide things from children?

In Rethinking the school did not want to spend too much time and effort on tragedies such as death. The school was hoping that after a couple days of mostly ignoring the subject, the students would just drop it. However, this does not seem like a very healthy way to deal with the tragic emotional damage as well as fear and confusion that may be going on within the students. We often fear what is unknown to us so if death is not something that we have ever dealt with it can be very scary and confusing. Feelings are real and suppressing them or changing the subject does not acknowledge those feelings nor does it help a child deal with such feelings. I really liked how the author had a discussion with the children and provided them with opportunities to share their feelings, questions and concerns. She even saw the opportunity to have two girls facing similar tragedies to talk with each other and a friendship came out of it.

What was the purpose for the other staff wanting to ignore the subject? Maybe it is because they did not have answers or maybe they were afraid themselves. Whatever the reason, death is real and is a part of life, the more a child understands about it the better they will be able to process the situation should it ever happen to them.

Also in the Rethinking reading the author speaks about a conflict concerning the Christmas holiday. One of the things a teacher said was that they do it this way every year. Just because something is done every year does not mean that it should continue to be done. I love the idea of learning about other holidays around the world. Not only is it a study of social science, but it also broadens a child’s view of the world. Everyone has different cultures, beliefs, religions and ways of doing things. Why not learn about the ones’ relevant to the class. Children should learn to celebrate their differences and teaching children about their own and other’s cultures and build a stronger sense of self-esteem.

Perhaps we as adults need to broaden our view of the world and learn more about others cultures and ways of life so that we could share them with our students. We are supposed to be preparing children for the world. Well the world is huge and filled with diversity. If children understand this early on they are more likely to be accepting of others differences.

The New Possibilities author sums it up pretty well when she says, “Educational philosophy is always a work in progress.” Things and times are changing. Just as we must be sensitive to the diversity of each child’s family set up, we must also be sensitive to their cultural and religious diversity as well. Years ago we may have been unaware of how important it could be to discuss things such as death, AIDS and different cultural practices. However, now we know that children are people and they must deal with difficult situations. We can help them by teaching them about unfamiliar, scary subjects such as death rather than trying to hide things and pretend as though everything is okay when often it is not.