Gender in the Classroom

I thought today’s presentation was great and really made me think about how I have or have not included gender neutral teaching styles and methods into my classroom. I remember in one of my grade 3 social studies classes we watched a video on Peru and the video showed a man making bread for his family. After the video I asked the students if they had noticed the man making bread and we talked about how different cultures have different roles for mothers and fathers. I guess that comment could be an example of gender stereotyping; generally mothers make bread in our society.

I was trying to think of other moments in my practicum that I have shown either use of gender stereotyping or purposefully reducing gender stereotypes. I don’t think I have purposefully avoided giving a girl and princess book or not given a boy a book on cars. But I think I try to focus more on students’ individual interests. If I girl is interested in reading a book on dolls, I’m not going to tell her that she can’t and should read a book about sports or tractors or something else boyish or gender neutral. If a child wants to read something in particular I’m going to encourage the child to read. I think we can get too hung up about gender differences and trying to make things equal. Maybe I’m too traditional but what is wrong with a girl wanting to grow up and be a mommy…it was what I wanted to do as a little girl. Is there something wrong with women wanting to stay home and raise their children? I think I’ve been trained to think that women should want more than that. We should want a career and compete for jobs that have traditionally been male dominated. But shouldn’t we encourage children to do whatever they are interested it, whether it is a traditional, stereotypical role or not?

I understand using gender neutral terms to encourage every child to think that they could do whatever they want. We want to encourage interests and abilities in all students. If a girl is interested in sports or wordworking I would encourage that student to pursue her interests even if she thought she would be the only girl in that class. Just like if I boy was really interested in cooking and sewing, I would most definitely encourage him to take classes in those subjects. I think it that way we should breakdown gender differences. But I think there may still be a place for some gender roles. Let girls be girls and boys be boys, if they want to.

Now let see what you think.