Teacher will only let DS have a blue recorder.

[AmberForest]

DS has joined the school's recorder club. I payed a small fee (to cover everything) and the teacher gets the recorders, sheet music, etc.

He is the only boy in the club. There are boys in the other clubs (different years)... Anyway, she gave the girls pink recorders and him a blue one. He said he'd like to swap with one of the girls, so they did. He was told that it wasn't allowed, due to all the boys having blue recorders and all the girls having pink (including in the group that plays in assemblies!)

AIBU to think this is ridiculous?

Maybe she's trying to stop him.gettomg bullied for being the only boy in the recorder group - is it worse to be the only boy and playing a pink recorder? She might actually think she's looking out for your child.

If you're paying for her time, by all means make a fuss. If you're just paying for a book and a recorder and it's a teacher in her lunch time, you should just send a note saying you would prefer him to have a pink one thanks.

That's ridiculous! I would definitely be having a word.

Another one with boring brown here.

Although we did have a lovely teacher who we thought was sooooo old she was probably only about 60 and one day she just stopped coming. They told us that she had had to leave for personal reasons so we came to the logical conclusion that she had died. This in typical primary school fashion soon turned into she had been murdered.

Saw her 2 years later at a concert with another school (alive and well I should say)

It is a rather nice blue... The other girl wanted it... It's all stupid.

I can just see the thinking. We need to get some recorders. Look they come in colours. Let's get pink and blue ones

Other colours are available.

Oh - and if there are only 2 colours, your DS should be able to have the pink one.

Even the name 'musical instrument' is a stretch when you're on the forty second out of tune rendition of Hot Cross Buns.

Ah yes, not so fond memories of my children driving me nuts entertaining me with Hot Cross Buns.

I'd have kicked off if I'd have been made to play a pink one, I had a brown one but I always thought the dark brown with cream 'trim' sounded better.... probably because I wasn't playing them 😂

Lavabravacava, they didn't need to all be pink? However, pink is rather fashionable for the boys... DS says.

Go smiling in to teacher and ask if she would mind if you used the recorder issue as an example for the everyday sexism project:

everydaysexism.com/

as it's really quite interesting to find such a breathtaking example, most schools really have rooted out this level of nonsense some time ago. Don't worry, I won't use your name!!!

Maybe she's trying to stop him.gettomg bullied for being the only boy in the recorder group

The way to do that is to stop kids bullying if others don't conform to stupid gender stereotypes, not to reinforce them.

Ridiculous! Not fair on either your DS or the girls who would have preferred a blue one!

Either have the bog standard brown or black ones or - if you want to bring colour - get a variety of colours & hand them out according to seat order, thereby giving a pleasing rainbow of recorders to anyone watching the rehearsal/performance .

Madness

LOVED playing the recorder and still can after a fashion.

Ridiculous behaviour on the part of the teacher definitely raise it as outdated sexist nonsense.

I had a black and ivory plastic initially at school then I got a wooden one one Christmas.

Ugh. High time they give this sort of ridiculousness up.

She was probably worried more girls would want blue.

Recorders should be banned whatever colour they had. I had earache for a month after a school concert. Awful things.

Sky Blue colour in my view. Pretend he follows a football team that hates Man City or Coventry, so it would cause him distress to have that colour. Unless he is a glory seeking Man U fan in which case he should have the sky blue one.

Recorders played badly are still better than violins played badly. The middle school string ensemble practiced under my AP Latin class. It sounded like Siamese cats with their tails caught in the door. Recorders are much cheaper as a starter musical instrument.

Errol I'm not saying it's right but we won't be there to support him when he's getting a kicking behind the sports hall - or maybe that just reflects on my own school experience.

That's a lovely colour but each child should be allowed to pick their own colour or all have the same

Wait till he can play it through his nose! Now that is a skill I should add to my CV

I thought we got rid of this pink for girls blue for boys nonsense in the 1970s and 80s. No teacher of mine would have done that.

From Wikipedia (I know it's not always reliable but it does have references).

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_historical_sources_for_pink_and_blue_as_gender_signifiers

New York Times May 12, 1971 page 38
Using Toys to Free Children From the Roles Society Dictates by Nadine Brozan
...in the nursery? No more pink for girls and blue for boys, dolls for girls...

1972 USA The name on the White House floor, and other anxieties of our times by Judith Martin
Nicky can't announce a simple tribute like "Blue is for boys; pink is for girls" without getting a long talk about sexism.... [97]

1976 USA Urban, Social, and Educational Issues by Leonard H. Golubchick, Barry Persky, page 310
...while sex-role stereotyping is all-pervasive in society, starting, for example, with infants and toddlers who learn that blue is for boys and pink is for girls... [100]

1977 Australia Women and Politics Conference, 1975, volume 1, page 38
I blame the men, too, but social conditioning does start in the cradle, with pink for girls and blue for boys. [101]

Coloured recorders are usually horrendous. Appalling tone and often badly tuned. That's BEFORE you let children loose. And I'm guessing their 'lessons' aren't from anyone who can actually play. Recorders played well are fantastic. Why do so many people think you don't have to be able to play to be able to teach it?
And breathe.
Rant over.
I play regularly, had lessons from a superb teacher and love my recorders:)

Pink and blue is crazeeee.
It's a nice blue, I'd have ordered all the same colour or a rainbow mix, but never pink- for a- girl , what century are we in?

I'd go out and buy him a pink one to use at home and school. It was ridiculous of the teacher to not allow the children to swap if they were fine with it OR just bloody buy them all the same colour!

My DD would have been furious if she'd had to have pink..especially if she was the only girl and all the boys had blue.

It is a very nice shade of blue...please say something to the school, if only so some pink hating can can have the pleasure of the very nice blue recorder.

Seriously though, wtf were they thinking getting pink for girls and blue for boys.

The recorder is a proper baroque and renaissance instrument and a good recorder group sounds lovely either on its own or perhaps with a crumhorn and/or drum.

It was ruined for ever by the school motto that all music must be accompanied by a piano. That the piano somehow covered up errors and badness rather than being a bad error in itself. Otherwise it is really no worse than any other instrument being played by a novice.

Good recorders played well are a lovely sound. It's down to the teaching and the cheapness of these weird coloured things that they carry on sounding bad. :-)

Any beginner player is going to sound rough but the beauty of the recorder is in itself. A year or two of teaching and practice should be producing a tuneful, fluid sound.

I started at 6. By 9 I was playing through sight read Mozart quartets in concert with only a couple of rehearsals. I'm not especially musically talented :-)

Tell your son to bin both the blue and pink ones and buy him a decent brown one!!