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Your response to those who believe that early childhood centers
should avoid the inclusion of books depicting gay or lesbian individuals such
as same-sex partnered families.
My response to those who believe that early childhood centers
should avoid the inclusion of books depicting gay or lesbian individuals such
as same-sex partnered families is that you are you do not have to agree with it
you just have to respect it. Many people confuse that teaching or including books on different
types of families with teaching about sexuality. “But learning about
gay/lesbian-headed families is no more about sexuality than learning about a
heterosexual-headed family is” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2012, p. 123). We live
in a very diverse world and we will encounter many different family structures
we may or may not agree with. For example, I may be in the mindset that mothers
are the ones that stay home with their children and fathers are the
breadwinners and go to work. If a family came into my class where the father
was a stay at home dad am I going to exclude them, no. If there were single
parent families am I going to exclude them because I believe each child should
have two parents at home, the answer is again no. So why should a family be
excluded or made not to feel welcome if they have two moms your two dads. The
answer is they should not. As early childhood professionals it is our job to
make children’s potentials a reality. “Family is central to the life of every
child. It is through this earliest relationship that children come to view themselves
and others and find their place in the world. To truly reach all children,
early childhood educators must acknowledge, make visible in their programs, and
respect all the family structures that are real in children’s worlds” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2012,
p. 112). For children to thrive within our classrooms we need to not
exclude books depicting gay or lesbian individuals such as same-sex partnered
families but to include them with books about all the other types of family structures.
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Any other related situations, thoughts,
concerns, questions, and/or areas of discomfort you would like to share related
to children, gender, and sexual orientation.
If you have every walked into a toy store you would see the aisles
situated by gender. The “girls” aisles are all dress-up clothes, dolls, Barbie’s,
girl Legos and things to play house. In the “boys” aisle you have cars and
trucks, action heroes, Legos, tools, and kits to build things. This separation is
not just found in stores. This is not only found in stores you can find this separation
of the sexes in many homes, centers and schools. Boys who play dress-up or with
dolls are frowned upon. They are told they are girls toys and that they should
play with cars or blocks. I have been very gender natural with my children. I
have a boy and a girl but I have even herd it out of their mouths. “This shirt
makes me look like a boy” and “That toy is for boys”. They are picking this information
up through what they see on TV and what they hear from other adults and children
at school. “By age 3 or 4, children’s comments and interactions reveal the
influence of family and societal attitudes about gender behavior, coupled with children’s
own developing attempts at understanding the world. These ideas about what is
and isn’t ‘normal’ for a particular gender are powerful” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2012,
p. 92). Many times adults can inadvertently convey messages of stereotypical
gender behavior in their communications with children. It is important for
teacher to “model a range of roles and interests that transcend traditional gender
stereotypes, they encourage and support children in exploring a wide range of
cognitive, social, and emotional learning experiences” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2012,
p. 93). Children should be encouraged in activities that interest them not
on activities based on gender. I want my son and daughter to grow up to be well
rounded individuals. I do not want them to be limited by societies
predetermined gender roles of how and what they should do.
Brandie
References
Derman-Sparks, L., &
Edwards, J. O. (2012). Anti-bias
education for young children and ourselves. Washington D.C.: National
Association for the Education of Young Children.
Brandie,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post. When you talked about the separation of toys in stores, it made me think about a conversation my husband and I had. We have a 1 year old son, and were walking through the toy aisles of Target. We noticed that the girl side had only 2 rows of toys and the boy side had about 4 or 5. My husband was thinking about how fun it would be to play with Nerf guns and toy cars and trucks with our son and how boring it would be to play dolls and dress up if we had a girl. That makes me think that at such an early age, we condition our children to play with gender specific toys, rather than being open to letting them try other toys or roles. I currently teach in an elementary/middle school and I appreciate that the boys in some of the classes have the role of sweeping and cleaning up the room at the end of the day. This small task teaches that cleaning is not a role strictly for women and gives the boys a chance to try on a different gender role without criticism from peers. Small tasks such as cleaning opens the door for children to be more accepting of others and helps get out of the old traditions of "man's work and woman's work".
Junell
Brandie,
ReplyDeleteI love the comment that you made that you don't have to agree with something, you just have to respect it. I think this is great advice for teachers. Many teachers that I have come into contact with will complain about the extra work they have to do, etc. It may not be what you agree with but you must respect the duties of your job. This is especially true when it comes to teaching anti-bias behavior and ideas to children. You must respect the duties of being a teacher. A teacher may still have biases, but they need to accept views that are different from their own and not pass them on to their students.
Mary
Brandie,
ReplyDeleteYou made the following statement in regards to books showing a variety of families, “You do not have to agree with it you just have to respect it.” I agree with you that some families are not going to agree with gay marriage, but we need to teach the children in our care to respect others. I feel that we need to educate other early childhood professionals on issues like this too. Many teachers do not even realize that they need to make some changes in their classrooms! I plan to make some changes myself. I plan to write a few stories about different types of families. I write a lot of social stories, so it will be an inexpensive way to add some diversity in my classroom.
-Siera