Date posted: 11/13/12
This article
is about a preschool in Sweden where the teachers avoid using the pronouns “him”
and “her, “instead they call their 115 toddlers “friends.” The article talked
about how girls are not urged to play with toy kitchens and boys are not
required to play with Lego blocks. Teachers give boys just as much comfort as
they do girls when they get hurt. Boys and girls are allowed to play with
dolls. They even have black dolls. The children are taught that girls aren’t
the only ones who can cry, boys can too. The models that are used in this
school are stemmed from Swedish legislators, who in 1998 passed a bill requiring
that schools, including care centers, assure equal opportunities for girls and
boys. The article talked about how the teachers filmed one another to see the
differences. They noticed that if a boy cries he is consoled, but for a shorter
amount of time. But if a girl cries she is held and soothed much longer. Filming the teachers also showed that the
staff members tended to talk to the girls more than boys, which would perhaps
explain girls’ later superior language skills. They were many critics of this
model that were attacking the “gender madness” of Sweden schools. In an
article, someone commented that she questioned whether the children were being
brainwashed or not.
I do not see
a problem with the way that they choose to teach children. I think that it is
okay to let boys do the same things or be treated the same way as girls and
vice versa. I just think that if the parents sent them to that school it is
obviously because they want their child to be raised in an environment where
there are equal or no gender roles. Just because children are taught this way I
do think that they should also be prepared for society and the way society sees
gender roles so that they will not be confused and looked at as different as
they get older.
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