To think was a a bit wrong.

[Canthisonebeused]

Not sure why but this doesn't sit right with me, what are others thoughts. It's not a big deal but did bother me a bit.

7 and 8 year old girls doing handstands and cartwheels in the playground at school. Boys being silly laughing at their pants and did not die down after being told not to by playground staff. Therefore girls are sent in to put PE shorts on under their dresses.

I just think they are little girls FFS who care if their pants are showing and the boys should have been delt with. I just don't think it's a good message to sent to girls.

The girls at my kids school do cartwheels, hang upside down from the monkey bars etc and yes you ccan sometimes see their knickers and they are bit told to cover up.

If a child us wilfully showing underwear ie pulling trousers down or lifting up a dress they will be told its not appropriate. A flash of underwear when playing is not the same as deliberate showing their underwear.

As I said I asked about this today are school and no the girls would not be told to cover up.

Thankfully our head teacher realises victim blaming is not ok and that boys are responsible for their own behaviour.

Tabby you haven't explained what is so offensive about a 7 year old's knickers that they need to be hidden from view.

I actually think it's quite telling what you said about your childhood experience of being punished by a teacher for doing handstands in a skirt and you never did it again. It seems you are looking to reinforce this strict, puritanical outlook in the girls you teach/supervise now.

I find it disturbing that girls as young as 7 may be picking up ideas that their bodies or their clothes are somehow shameful and need to be covered up when they are simply trying to play. Leave them be.

Actually, that should be 'leave them be and focus on dealing with the boys who are pestering them and poking fun at them'.

I don't think you and I are at cross purposes tabby, I think from your last post that maybe you are at cross purposes with the scenario. One on hand you say children shouldn't be flashing their underwear at all and on the other hand you sympathise with the scenario that this sends a reinforcing message that the girls modify their behaviour to stop the boys laughing.

It sounds like you struggle to express why it's not acceptable for girls to be doing cartwheels if the show pants as a result.

I too am bemused at the notion that 7 year old's pants must at all times be hidden from view. Surely I can't be the only person round here who went to a primary school where it was the norm for children to do PE in vests and knickers up to at least the age of 7?

I was just remembering being in p1 and 2 and the class stripping down to pants and vests being slathered with sun cream and playing in the playground on bikes and seasaws while the upper school where still doing work. Handstands and pants were never an issue the whole way through primary for us either even up till we left. We used to see how many children could handstand piled up against the wall. Lots of legs and a pants and god knows what else splayed and on display.

We even had special PE knickers. Which were still knickers.

We had PE skirt and knickers.

The problem is, everything is too sexualised now. We've become so used to it, that we've started on 7 year olds. You're right, boys do snigger, sometimes, at pants and things like that. They should be told that its not acceptable. But there is no reason to shame little girls or stop them doing what 7 year old girls do. There is no reason to make them change their behaviour, or their clothing just because we've begun to apply adult rules to them, how they conduct themselves and what they wear. They should be blissfully unaware of ridiculous adult rules and boys should be taught how to behave while they're little enough for it to have an effect.

so, a teacher failed in disciplining the boys, so the girls were sent in to cover themselves up.

Slippery slope to girls/women 'asking for it' by wearing a short skirt and tight top, isn't it?

OP, YANBU.

We all did pe in vest and knickers in primary and even at high school we did or indoors in a t shirt and those horrid pe knickers that went on over normal underwear. I kicked up a huge stink and campaigned for girls to be able to wear shorts and trousers as the boys could. The while school signed my petition, the pe teacher hated me and had a right go at me... The ht then spoke to me and the rules were then changed and girls could wear shorts and trousers.

YANBU.
Start teaching boys at a young age that women can wear whatever they like without being harassed.
This is the start of rape culture.

Agree with Flexibility.

I think asking girls to wear shorts under dresses is ridiculous. the boys should have been told to stop being so silly and that should have been the end of the matter. They are only small children.

Part of the problem for me is the terminology being used here... "Modesty" and "flashing underwear". I don't think either of those terms are in any way relevant to seven-year-olds. "Modesty" for seven-year-olds ffs! And "flashing, implies some sort of deliberate display, not just some pants showing as a result of acrobatics in the playground.

I'm 100% the OP and Owlcapone and the rest about this. In fact this thread has made me so angry that I'm finding it hard to post coherently. When will girls ever be able to exist without having to modify their behaviour so as not to inconvenience boys?

Hmm, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I will continue to ensure that children (of both sexes) play appropriately in the playground.

Hmm, well that would be your take on appropriately, which given your job role I find a little worrying.

Hmmm a tough one.

Does anybody notice that even though the OP says that the girls were 7/8, no mention is made of the boy's ages that were doing the 'laughing'.

For all we know, this could be a primary school, where there is a BIG difference in age ranges and those boys standing around 'watching' could well have been 11/12 years old (with hormones kicking in?).

So, bearing that in mind, I think that the school did the responsible thing by asking the girls to wear shorts under their summer dresses.

The school has a duty of care, both towards the boys as well as the girls.

Surely the "duty of care", if older boys are sexually harassing young girls, is to remove or discipline the boys?

So no duty of care to teach those boys that their attitude to girls is wrong?

In a few years these are the boys that will be dating your daughters. Would you be happy with that? I wouldn't.

I agree that the boys are wrong to laugh.

And maybe the school IS taking the easy (and safest) way out by encouraging the girls to wear shorts under their dresses.

But I'm not sure what the answer is.
It's a tough one.

The way forward is to teach all children to have some respect.

It's not that tough. The school should have both anti-bullying and sexual harassment policies designed to address such issues in age-appropriate ways, and the teachers should enforce them.