For this blog, I am taking a different approach. I might not use quotes and specifics about the readings, but I want to just speak my mind. I originally thought that I would concentrate upon the technology usage in the classroom, but after reading about the gender profiling and specific books being given to boys and girls, I am choosing to speak about that instead. I may go back to the technology piece, but need to vent about the second topic first. I do believe that this gender typing begins with the very first poems that we are taught. One, for a girl and one for boys. They go something like like, "little girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice, and little boys are made of puppy dog tails, and ...." If we start these stereotypes from when we are pregnant, then it's no wonder that we have girls reading romances, and boys reading science fiction and other action novels.
This week’s readings from Stanley and Williams really brought open the ideas that are stereotypical in schools. It is inherent that girls read romance and boys read about action stories. As an avid reader of all genres, I find this appalling. Do I think it goes on, yes, but I think it is our responsibility as teachers and parents to get children/students interested in good literature, no matter who the main character is. These students need to know that a “girl” can be a heroine, and a boy can fall in love too! They need to see that literature can be interesting when combining all of these themes too. I think this is why the Harry Potter books are so popular. Before these books came out there was nothing like them before. There was a division in the types of books that girls liked, and the types of books that boys liked. In the Harry Potter series, the main character is a boy, however, his sidekicks include an extremely smart girl, and another boy. Through their stories these characters have romances, solve crimes, and use magic. It appeals to both genders and covers a wide range of interests. These books appeal to children and adults. How amazing is it that there is a series of books that keep the main characters and you grow to care about them whether you are a boy or a girl. We need more people to come up with books like this that give any reader, no matter if you are a boy or girl, a chance to read, and imagine and to be able to talk about themes, characters, and settings.
I have been reading JD Robb for a few years now and I think as an adult, it is also a great series. It is purely for entertainment, and would not be considered literary works of art, but it is engaging and again, it completely breaks down gender typing. The main character is a woman who has overcome childhood abuse; (mental, physical and sexual) to become a police lieutenant in the homicide division. The series is set in the future. There are cars that fly and food machines that make food for you like the Jetsons’ used to, but they don’t get into the way of how good the series is. Her husband is a wealthy tycoon, who will help her solve crimes, only if she asks for him. So, you have a female lead, a male sidekick, and then she also has both males and females who help solve the murders with her. I think this helps break down stereotypical careers, and barriers. As I look at the readings from this week, I see that these types of books need to be written for younger readers. The lines of careers need to be broken away from male and female, and we need to see that both genders can be successful no matter what career they choose.
This week I started a new course, and when we were talking and introducing ourselves to each other, I met another Family and Consumer Science teacher. I bet in your minds you are saying, I wonder if “she” is nice, etc. However, notice, I never said that this teacher was female. In fact, he was very nice and we had an amazing conversation about the fact that he went into this field despite the fact that it was predominantly female oriented. I asked what made him go into FACS? He said, because he liked to cook, had fun when he took it, and wanted to help teach students life skills. My response to the same question, was almost identical. In fact another student in the class mentioned to me the following class session that he wished that he had known that males were in that career, because he would probably have chosen that road. I talked with him and told him, why not put it as an option to pursue if you ever get tired of what you are doing? It is only a matter of a few classes and a few tests. When it comes to being happy in his career choice isn’t it more important to choose something that makes you happy? Shouldn’t we be able to choose what makes us happy? The slogan we teach our students about in careers is “do what you love, and love what you do.” We try to tell the kids not to look at careers as gender based, but to look at them as options for what they want to do. It’s sad when you think about the boys and girls around this country and others, who don’t pick what they want to do, but pick what they think they should do. With more and more school districts getting rid of Family and Consumer Science, and there being a shortage of FACS teachers across the country, I think it would be a great thing for the students, both male and female to see if there was a male teacher. Maybe more people would go into this field if they understood that it wasn’t a “female” job.
I always show the video “Eddie’s Million Dollar Cookoff” to my classes, because this Disney movie shows a boy who loves to cook, and how he hides this from his father, brother, and friends. It also shows stereotypical views that the Dad has about certain careers, and we discuss these statements made by the father. He says things like, “stopping running like a girl, or you throw like a girl.” One of the girls on the baseball team even calls him out on this by saying, “why is it that when I throw badly, you say I throw like a girl? I am a girl, so when I throw badly, I’m just throwing badly.” We have the best discussion about these gender stereotypes from this fun video. I won’t tell you more about the video in case you haven’t seen it, but it’s a fun way to show students about gender roles.
On Meet the Teacher Night, it always makes me happy to say, “both boys and girls take this class” as a response to the inevitable question, “When I was younger, only girls learned how to cook.” I also add in, one day both boys and girls are going to have to eat, and this class makes them both self-sufficient so that they move out of your house one day and can survive on their own. This usually brings about a smile, and very often a clap and cheer!
I know that for this blog I didn’t quote anyone from the readings, but just ranted a bit about gender profiling, but it really bothers me that we don’t help students with this. I can’t tell you how many boys come into my class, and tell me that they love to cook, but when we talk about careers, they never once say anything that is cooking related! In fact when I pointed this out one day, a boy told the class that “you know there are more male cooks on Food Network than female cooks” and this sparked an excellent conversation about careers and doing what you love to do regardless of what people think. It also sparked the whole, why are males mainly called chefs and females called cooks conversation, which was another interesting point made by the kids. I love having conversations like this with the kids, because maybe if more teachers or adults did this with them, then we wouldn’t have to worry about the gender profiling so much.
Maybe one day there will just be careers, and people will do these careers just based upon what they have an interest in, not because of what society views male and female. I guess if we each tell someone about this, and they tell one or two people and so on, then it will get spread out there to more people. Until we do try to break these unwritten codes, more children will run into problems with knowing their identities like the videos we saw this week.
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