RubyAdams: The keynote speaker at the preschool teacher's conference yesterday talked for two hours about how to interest more boys in preschool. I thought interesting but the more I thought about it, the more I feel it was based on gender stereotypes.
For example, in the miniature house play area, he said to interest boys, instead of having a pretend kitchen and dolls for babies, we need to have little toolboxes and a firehose. Please tell me if you have a firehose in your house.
Personally, looking at the same thing, my thought is why is a pretend kitchen seen as the girls area? Most people know how to cook.
I'm kind of thinking his entire speech was based on gender disparities and stereotypes. Instead of adding a toolbox to the kitchen, I'd rather ask myself why the boys don't think the kitchen is also their space.
In our preschool, girls don't tend to go to the block area. So isn't a solution to just paint some blocks pink and add glitter? I'm just going with gender stereotypes.
The speaker also said instead of taking away sticks that boys use as pretend guns, we should encourage them to use the sticks as swords. Wtf?
Please share any thoughts you might have cause maybe I'm overreacting.
EmmEffinPrincess: What's wrong is more of their identity is hinged on their gender than their age group, their own personal interests, or their personality traits. I love the Montessori method. Let children be children first, and not boys and girls or students. Just. Children.
lightinthedark: Parents need to raise their kids to be self efficient ... at an early age I was taught to cook, sew, and do laundry. Survival skills. As I got older, my mechanical skills developed and I trained to fight. In turn I've raised both my son and daughter the same way.
For example, in the miniature house play area, he said to interest boys, instead of having a pretend kitchen and dolls for babies, we need to have little toolboxes and a firehose. Please tell me if you have a firehose in your house.
Personally, looking at the same thing, my thought is why is a pretend kitchen seen as the girls area? Most people know how to cook.
I'm kind of thinking his entire speech was based on gender disparities and stereotypes. Instead of adding a toolbox to the kitchen, I'd rather ask myself why the boys don't think the kitchen is also their space.
In our preschool, girls don't tend to go to the block area. So isn't a solution to just paint some blocks pink and add glitter? I'm just going with gender stereotypes.
The speaker also said instead of taking away sticks that boys use as pretend guns, we should encourage them to use the sticks as swords. Wtf?
Please share any thoughts you might have cause maybe I'm overreacting.