to be annoyed with this sexist reading advice sent home from school?

[morningpaper]

"Until the day your daughter expresses an interest in rocket science or your son gets into showjumping, you won?t go far wrong if you try them out with these kinds of books?

Boys...

• Enjoy books about their interests - especially dinosaur ones!
• Like books that are a bit scary, funny or have silly jokes.
• Often have a shorter attention span, so books you can dip in and out of may work better for them. Try comic strip books and non fiction.
• Prefer big, bold, colourful illustrations or things that can be moved or touched.
• Like reading to have a purpose, for example books that show you how to make things or tell you about things.

Girls...

• Enjoy series of books about the same characters.
• Like to listen to talking books and watch DVDs of favourite books.
• Enjoy a bit of fantasy, magic and make believe ? princesses, castles and so on.
• Like sparkle and glitter on the pages.
• Enjoy books that have props with them ? dolls, soft toys, dressing-up clothes."

I think it was very badly worded, but a lot of boys do not like reading (lots do)and they need to be encouraged with what is generally stereotypical boys things. Adventure and non fiction.
I think you will get far more girls reading what can be thought of as boys books, than the other way around. J K Rowling used her initials purely because it was thought that boys wouldn't read a woman author!!

what really winds me up is when people accuse those of us who object to this stuff of being wilfully blind to differences between girls and boys...that's not the point. my dds can wear fairy outfits if they like. of course they can. and I won;t pretend that they don;t like something they do - I don;t have preconcieved ideas about what they'll like and what they won't. and that, rather, is the point - because the rest of the world,it would seem, does.

There's a brilliant description of a huge toys r us type shop by Ian McEwan, I won;t get it word for word, but he describes the aisles as going from bloody warfare to domestic drudgery. and he's so right.

My friend has 2 children 14 months apart and she was adamant they would both be brought up the same (DS and DD)she wasn't having any sexist nonsense! Despite her best efforts the boy was into construction toys, sport and riding his bike. The girl was into dressing up and pink. My friend was not happy!

so why pretend that most boys/girls don't prefer one type of book to another then???

I don't suppose this letter was aimed at those parents who have a shelve full of novels at home which the mother and father sit down and read regularly, it's aimed at a increasing number of households where sitting down to read anything is a bloody miracle.

And you know what - I don't care WHAT my children read, whether it's a pile of shite (imo of course) or whether it's a classic masterpiece, as long as they read I couldn't give too hoots.

Although I did have to stifle a giggle when DS1 was reading outloud the Cumbrian way of counting sheep

"Yan, tan, tether, mether, pimp.
Sether, hether, hother, dother, dick.
Yan dick, tan dick, tether dick, mether dick, bumfit.
Yan bumfit, tan bumfit, tether bumfit, mether bumfit, gigot."

Hmm... ok, my twopennorth.
If society gives us little choice in what we like (e.g., keeps producing the same old pink and blue bumfluffery) and - lets face it - at a young age children like to fit in with their peers... nothing will ever change.
Don't get me started on the gender pay gap and all the other sexist crap going on in the world (spend a couple of minutes watching MTV and tell me that the world's an equal place).
So I feel that combatting little things like this helps towards a collective effort of not pigeonholing EITHER gender.
Men and women, boys and girls - we're different thank goodness, and in other ways we're similar. But I feel that equality of opportunity is something worth fighting for. For BOTH genders.

OK will climb off my soapbox now

ps love the ian mcewan quote!

I know I'm going against the majority here, but to me there is nothing in the first sentence indicating that they think girls interested in rocket science are odd. On the contrary, I interpreted it as a deliberate attempt by the writer to go against stereotypes.

Frankly, I just don't see why this article in the leaflet has been separated by gender (e.g., boys like x, girls like y). Kids are into what they're into.
Unless of course you're a company with lots of stereotype-riddled stock you want to push, and have no real incentive to get off yr bum and change things.
Hell, or not even change things - just don't slap the label 'for a girl' and 'for a boy' on them and send them to schools!!!!

i think you need to re read it emkana

"Until the day your daughter expresses an interest in rocket science or your son gets into showjumping"

Okay, have reread it. Where is the judging part in that sentence?

emkana - yes, i think that first sentence can be interpreted that way, e.g., at some point your daughter will inevitably become interested in rocket science [as an example topic].
But if that was the intention they've been very ham-fisted about it and it's certainly not being interpreted that way. Especially when followed by the girl/boy list.

I'm just trying to give them the benefit of the doubt and I think that it is at least a possibility that they were trying to say "your child will move past these stereotypes, but in the meantime this is what they might like"

notanotter, why don't you try to explain it to me instead of just making a comment like that?

"Kids are into what they're into"

Yes they are - and guess what - the stereotypes are often true no matter what you do to try and make it otherwise - boys often grow up loving "boy" stuff and girls loving "girl" stuff - that doesn't mean to say that they won't want to have a career in something that's not stereotypical to their gender - but that of course depends on the parents attitude.

Emkana, they are perpetuating those very stereotypes though.

I can never agree with the comment 'the stereotypes are often true no matter what you do to try and make it otherwise'

There are many things in the world that used to be considered unchangeable. And they have changed - e.g. look at the success of the civil rights movement and the Full stop campaign by NSPCC.
That the fight is hard doesn't mean we should give up trying to change things.

"the stereotypes are often true no matter what you do to try and make it otherwise'"

Sorry but if your DS is naturally into cars/trains/thunderstorms/racing - there's sod all you can do about it!

I disagree. There's always a way to introduce new excitement and interest with kids if you start early andkeep an open mind.
I'm talking about fighting the stereotype, not about fighting your own child's preference. My child, like so many others mentioned, liked barbie [Catemom vomits behind her laptop] AND cars AND various other things.
It's not innate that children have these divisions, it's socialisation.

so what am I supposed to do - keep waving dolls and princess stories at my DS's and telling them how fabulous they are (I'm gutted about selling all my stories from when I was little but I have no space and if they're not being used no point in keeping them) when they're blatantly not interested - and never have been?????

Or perhaps do what I currently do and challenge the stereotypes by googling for female Rally Drivers to show DS1 that it's not just woman that drive Rally Cars............

I think that maybe too much is made of what girls v boys like to play with or supposedly like to play with. Surely it's not as simple as "girl who likes Disney Princess will end up being a suppressed housewife". I let my dd's revel in the whole Disney Princess thing, now they are 5 and 7 and are losing interest anyway and widening their horizons. But I don't think it's purely socialization. My ds is the youngest and he was surrounded by pink and girly and baby dolls and all that. And what does he most like in the world? Cars. He just does.

hmm 5 & 7 and losing interest - I really have no hope wtih DS1 then do I - he's just turned 8 and if anything his obsession with cars/racing/F1/Rally is getting more intense

Well they're into High School Musical now, so only a marginal improvement

Sorry no time to read whole thread but I work in publishing and there is much hand-wringing over trying to get boys to be more interested in books - and there are series aimed at boys, and I've written a lot of stuff "for boys" so it's not a non-issue. By and large you can predict what subjects and styles will attract more boys.

I think the mistake they've made in this advice is to sound so prescriptive and sneery, as if all boys are the same and all girls are the same. But, helping parents understand what most boys (in particular, as more boys than girls tend to fall back with reading as they get older) might like to read isn't a bad thing. They just should have phrased it more sensitively and not made such sweeping generalisations.

They should have ditched the first sentence - it's almost sarcastic-sounding - and said "Many boys tend to.." etc not "Boys...". But I notice the advice didn't actually focus on science or say that boys like science more than girls do. It's more to do with the approaches, content formats, style and gimmicks they like and in that I see hard-researched/thinly veiled publishing data...