to object to this reading book

[Itscurtainsforyou]

My 5 year old brought home a reading book about "man on the moon". It talked about the 12 MEN (not people, men) who have walked on the moon. I could let that one go as it was talking about past events and they were all men.

However at the end of the book it says something along the lines of "maybe men will walk on the moon again" - IABU to think that they should have used non-gender words (such as "people") or worded it differently? I felt the need to explain to my 5 year old that in the 1960-70s most astronauts were men and of course these days women were equally likely to walk on the moon/go into space.

Maybe I'm just easily wound up but this just seems like subtle sexism and there should be no place for it in schools.

Not just at the lower end, at the older end too (i.e % of children at level 4 at the end of year 6)

What you did at home wasn't wrong at all. As I said it has huge advantages in terms of vocabulary acquisition and writing which are very important in terms of education outcomes. It's just that being read to has very little advantage in terms of the ability to decode the words on the page.

I thought you were saying that the children you were listening to were struggling to read the words on the page fluently or at all. That isn't necessarily caused by parents not reading to children or with their children.

I'm quite militant, potatoes. I'm a radical feminist, which some ignorant people think is a synonym for extreme. I'm not sure what extreme feminism's supposed to be, but perhaps it might involve some sort of sex-based supremacy, like patriarchy the other way around? It's fun to think of, but it's not what most feminists aim for.

I am militant because the only way to change important things is by fighting for the change.

You'll no doubt be reassured to learn I don't give a shit what you think of me or feminism. You've expressed some arrogantly bigoted opinions here, so I assume you're not amenable to reasoned debate.

Also, you resort too often to logical fallacies. Always an indication of weak thinking.

This thread's quite funny now, though, with two separated conversations happening at once

I obviously wasn't explaining myself very clearly rafals.

I was thinking that too garlic!

How old is the book? We have some books that come home that date back to the early 80's. Sometimes that means the content is a bit 'on the nose' for 2016. I've highlighted this to the school when it's happened.

My daughter recently brought home a book about the life cycle of chickens. It contained the sentence 'This is a cock' which I just about got through without dissolving into giggles.

but perhaps it might involve some sort of sex-based supremacy...It's fun to think of.

Yes, matriarchy.

Fun to think of? Really? Think your comment says more about your way of thinking than I have A great demonstration of your bigotry and ignorance

Happily your type seem to stay confined to the internet so yes, you're right, I couldn't really "give a shit" as you so eloquently said.

There is another blatent piece of descrimination that went on with the moonwalks and Appollo missions. They were all white American males.

Ah perhaps I wasn't clear enough either. I taught mine phonics and read to them but we did it in an enjoyable playing sort of way. The children who were a bit behind at school hadn't had either. It was an unusual school really, very leafy, but with a significant minority whose parents had English as a second language.

A bit of nature and nurture I suppose.

Don't really know why people on this thread are getting so angry. Focus on the substance rather than the perceived sleights and results will improve. Race you to the boardroom .....

they were all white american neuro typical able bodied heterosexual gender typical men

im surprised the rocket could take off with all that discrimination on board

Yes, but at that time other groups of people weren't represented in the demographic that had the skills to become astronauts. The same can be said of academia now. How many black professors are there? Very few but there are increasing numbers of BME graduates and post docs now and this will filter through the system. It's difficult to escalate it because a level of expertise and opportunity has to be laid down first.

I'm suggesting that in the 1960s American Society was not sufficiently enlightened to have allowed black people to develop the skills required for the space programmes and so the pool being selected from was limited to white men. Just like in the UK in the 18 and 19 centuries Quakers weren't allowed into the professions they founded manufacturing industries: Cadburys, Rowntree, Clarkes.

Fortunately the world has come along rather a lot since then and anti and positive discrimination is widening participation.

"Don't really know why people on this thread are getting so angry"

Why is it that not agreeing with what somebody else says always called "getting angry"? Nobody's angry. Well, herecome seems a bit cross-unless flinging accusations of being a feminazi and plotting to set up a
Matriarchy are part of her daily discourse- but nobody else is.

quakers were no good at buns or chandling

hence, the famous saying

Yes, I did know about banking and originally was going to refer to quakers and Jewish people but decided not to be provocative. Always brings a sigh to my soul when I remember rowntree sold out to Nestle!

Me too six

the quakers, the bakers and candlestick makers

wasn't it 'Butchers and bakers..."