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Original poster

Gender Stereotyping in Reception Class

29 replies

NumTumDeDum · 11/06/2013 22:45

Went to visit dd's new school yesterday. Had lunch in the hall, then the children went to meet each other in a classroom whilst the parents supposedly had a tea and a chat.

Lunch ended up being a boys table and a girls table. Not pre determined but like sheep the parents sat that way with their child. The tea and chat turned into a parenting class, which we were not told beforehand, and frankly I found patronising. During the talk the teacher came around with name slips on which she was writing each child's name so that they could practice it. Quite why this was necessary is another matter altogether. These slips had pictures on them. I chose a rocket, which elicited oh that's unusual from the teacher.

The talk culminated in a suggestion to put little notes in your child's lunchbox and the woman had printed out suggested notes. She then asked each of us whether we wanted boy or girl. She remembered I had a girl, presumably because of the rocket and automatically gave me one of those. It was full of pictures of tinkerbelle and flowers and said things like 'I put some fairy dust in your lunch box today because I love you'. I asked what was on the boys sheet and was told it was mainly football related. The head was present throughout this.

I very much wanted to pick her up on this but decided against it at the time because I had a very restless 6 mo and dd needed to be collected. I don't think this should go unchallenged. Dd already says things to me along the lines of I can't do that, that's for boys.

My question is, what do you think would be the best way to go about it?

OP posts:
steppemum · 12/06/2013 00:21

I think I would write a nice letter to school, support and challenge

eg

thank you for the parents session yesterday, we really appreciate the effort the school makes to welcome new parents (yaddah yaddah)

I did notice that they was more gender stereotyping than I would have expected in this day and age (give examples)

I have always encouraged dd to see all toys and opportunities as being open to boys and girls. I do trust that this is not something that occurs in the classroom, and that equality of opportunity in terms of gender, race and disablity are reflected in classroom practice as they are in your prospectus.

Thank you again for the opportunity to meet the teachers, the classroom looked very interesting and dd is looking forward to sept.

etc

I always find that those sort of letters get a good response form school. Positive, supportive, clear point backed by evidence in the middle.
I bet you will find it is changed PDQ.

SugarandSpice126 · 12/06/2013 00:04

Sorry double post, not sure how!

SugarandSpice126 · 12/06/2013 00:03

I can't believe some teachers, of all people, can be so ignorant.. I would definitely challenge. Do you think you could talk to some other parents who might agree, and those who generally would want to discuss ways to make sure things aren't so split by gender? You could always do some quick research to show that such attitudes have been proven to affect the way the children grow up to think about 'boys' and 'girls' things and therefore what they can and can't do. Have had a quick google and there is quite a bit of research on this.

If you can pick up any other examples like this that might also be good, and you could list them all when you arrange a meeting with the teacher/head if necessary. It is so important at this age that children aren't forced into the girl/boy boxes, so I hope they do take it seriously..

SugarandSpice126 · 11/06/2013 23:59

I can't believe some teachers, of all people, can be so ignorant.. I would definitely challenge. Do you think you could talk to some other parents who might agree, and those who generally would want to discuss ways to make sure things aren't so split by gender? You could always do some quick research to show that such attitudes have been proven to affect the way the children grow up to think about 'boys' and 'girls' things and therefore what they can and can't do. Have had a quick google and there is quite a bit of research on this.

If you can pick up any other examples like this that might also be good, and you could list them all when you arrange a meeting with the teacher/head if necessary. It is so important at this age that children aren't forced into the girl/boy boxes, so I hope they do take it seriously..