Maine Nesties
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
gender free preschool
http://beta.news.yahoo.com/no-him-her-preschool-fights-gender-bias-122541829.html
Is this really the direction we need to be headed? Is a gender free society what we really want for the future?
I think that you can actively encourage everyone's interests without denying anyone's identity.
oh and,
having dramatic play next to blocks - check out 90% of preschool rooms and you will find blocks next to housekeeping - it keeps the loud activities together so that quiet areas can be next to each other.
Re: gender free preschool
I think that particular school has gone overboard (I think it's a good idea to also have books like Cinderella and other traditional stories because it opens up discussions with kids as well as lets them know of the other reality outside those doors), but I like the idea of at least thinking about not imposing gender roles on kids.
I was incensed when they first came out with diapers that were engineered to give more absorption to areas of the diaper based on where boys' and girls' anatomies made their pee go-- the girls' diapers had pink bows and the boys' diapers had blue pinstripes. I vowed I would NEVER buy a diaper like that for my kids because I'll be danged if I tell my daughter she should be "pretty" and my son he should be wearing a suit.
As a tomboy, I would have LOVED to have had classmates and teachers who would have encouraged me to play the games I wanted to play with-- instead of telling me that I shouldn't or couldn't play certain "boy" games. Those same teachers made traditionally female games (like kitchen toys, playing "house," etc) seem like punishment to me, so that in my stubborn refusal to define myself by their standards, I avoided those activities-- even if they were ones I was interested in exploring in addition to sports, building blocks, etc.
I think that exposing kids to all those activities without expressing bias or pressure is important and I applaud the teachers at that preschool for at least being aware of it. Maybe they went too far so that kids may feel pressure to do the opposite, but I think gender roles, identity, etc. are important issues for kids and I would want to know that my child is going to a preschool where s/he could feel comfortable doing whatever s/he wanted (as long as it didn't hurt someone, of course).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it helpful for little kids to categorize things? For example, Helen knows she's a a girl and that mommy is a girl and daddy is a boy. I don't see this as detrimental to her development. What good does it do to deny basic physiological differences?
It was when I was in preschool, kindergarten, all the way up through college. Ever had someone try to throw you down a stairwell because you were playing a "boys" sport? Ever have someone write "You are a man" in your yearbook because you had short hair and didn't like to wear skirts? And then have neither of those two people punished by the school administration?
Yeah. That's an extreme-- all true, but an extreme. Gender bias absolutely exists. Team Blue? Team Pink? The saga my sister and I went through to find her son red jeans (they only make them for girls) because he'd only wear red pants...
Oh I know it exists and there are issues. Not to mention kids are just plain mean anyways. I got made fun of and had many things happen to me in school too (fights, name calling etc)...not necessarily because I was a tom boy...but other things because kids can be jerks and will find a way to bully and make fun of other kids no matter what.
My point was in my original post was that I didn't think there was an issue in most schools where a teacher would come out and say "you can't play with this toy because you're a girl". Maybe there is...I just never noticed it and I always played with boy stuff. I guess every teacher is different though.