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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask the school... WTF

458 replies

bookeatingboy · 01/12/2016 22:55

DS came home yesterday with a payment card for his first residential trip next year. The cards were blue and apparently all the girls got pink cards!

Some of the girls asked for blue cards and were told that blue is for the boys and pink for the girls Confused

OP posts:
NotYoda · 02/12/2016 19:08

Bertrand

A code is to communicate. So it's not whether one person can remember but whether everyone involved has a shared understanding

buttercup54321 · 02/12/2016 19:09

Does it REALLY matter!!!

SpeakNoWords · 02/12/2016 19:10

Yes.

NotYoda · 02/12/2016 19:11

Also, I always see this on threads "I wouldn't want my child being taught by // "

You are seriously reducing the pool of possible teaching candidates if you take such a unrealistic view of human nature

HeyOverHere · 02/12/2016 19:12

Blue IS for boys and pink IS for girls, isn't it?

And the other way around as well, so why stick to the typical pinkwashing and bluewashing that is already rampant? Why not at least use other colors?

Ballstowinplease · 02/12/2016 19:17

Blue IS for boys and pink IS for girls, isn't it?

this

Eolian · 02/12/2016 19:19

This is an administrative aid, colour coded, for the use of the parents. Not a toy for the child.

What utter twaddle. Why on earth would you need to have different payment cards for boys and girls? Is one sex paying a different amount or using different currency or something? It is purely that the person making the cards thought "Ooh I know, girls love sparkly pink things and boys like manly blue - let's do that!". Muppets.

MsJamieFraser · 02/12/2016 19:22

No spark I am not saying that at all! For me by reading your posts, that you think describing a boy/girl is blue/pink that it means your describing them, as yoda says it's like a code, however to me you are not understanding the difference between describing and defining.

Bert no that isn't the point, that's the teachers individual perception in thinking that way, that's what needs to be challenged!

MsJamieFraser · 02/12/2016 19:24

Sorry not describing them but defining them by colour.

BertrandRussell · 02/12/2016 19:24

"Also, I always see this on threads "I wouldn't want my child being taught by // "

Anybody in the teaching profession will have done training in gender stereotyping. I would not want my child taught by someone who ignored their training in this way. It's not a matter of character flaws, personality traits or human lapses.

NotYoda · 02/12/2016 19:25

Eolian

With respect, you and I don't know but you seem to be rudely asserting your view whereas I'm making an educated guess. I might be wrong. Might you be wrong?

Lorelei76 · 02/12/2016 19:25

Gravy - why do you see them as pink and blue?

Yoda - I can seeeee you! Grin

NotYoda · 02/12/2016 19:25

Bertrand

No, you said that you wouldn't want someone with a poor memory teaching your child

yellowpostitnote · 02/12/2016 19:26

It may have been admin staff so out if the teacher's remit.

NotYoda · 02/12/2016 19:27

Bertrand Here:

"Everyone would be saying : "Now, which is boys and which is girls, yellow or purple, I can't remember""

Really? Not sure I'd want my child taught by anyone who couldn't remember whether yellow cards were boys or not!"

NotYoda · 02/12/2016 19:28

Lorelei Grin

Yes, I seem to be arguing the toss, despite myself

MsJamieFraser · 02/12/2016 19:28

Anyway it's Friday night, I'm goo to drink wine, relax and have fun, my working week is hectic, I can't be arsed hic, tiz Friday anymore with this whole thing, I think you get why i can't be chewed to even worry about this issue.

staggers off Grin

BertrandRussell · 02/12/2016 19:29

So I did. I was being flippant. But, for heaven's sake. It wouldn't need Memo the Memory Man, would it? And if you did forget, a quick glance at the top card would act as a aide memoire.

NotYoda · 02/12/2016 19:30

Bertrand

Not if the first child was called Marley

yellowpostitnote · 02/12/2016 19:31

bertrand- sorry, I'm a teacher and we've had no specific teaching on gender stereotyping. But, In my setting, SEN, it feels obvious generally. But that's probably as we allow pupils to follow special interests.

We have got a play therapist who has advised on specific pupil situations and is very clear about the damage of gender stereotyping.

It's an area I do know is starting to be thought about as an area to trained on in my local setting.

In many mainstream schools esp secondary, I imagine it is an area some teachers may consider using within debates.

NotYoda · 02/12/2016 19:31

or Robin

BertrandRussell · 02/12/2016 19:33

Robin's are practically all girls now. It used to be a boy's name, but once people started using it for girls.........

CancellyMcChequeface · 02/12/2016 19:34

YANBU. It's lazy stereotyping.

I was a little girl who hated pink - probably, in hindsight, because everyone expected me to like it purely because I was a girl! I'd have been asking for a blue card in that situation. Yes, it's small and unimportant, but there are enough of these ridiculous gender messages without schools adding to them unnecessarily.

CauliflowerSqueeze · 02/12/2016 19:35

Ladies' Home Journal article in June 1918 said, "The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl."

NotYoda · 02/12/2016 19:35

Bertrand

That's an interesting point, one which I hadn't considered

I really am going now

I agree with you in many ways, on many threads but somehow I really can't bring myself to get upset by this one.