Dad's reading week. Reinforcing gender roles from Reception?

[camaleon]

Perhaps I am being unreasonable on this one, but I am really angry with this concept. My daughter has just started reception. And here we go: invitation for dads and other males in the family to share a book in class with their child and 1 or 2 of their friends in the class room.

By the way.... if the dad/male has a particular talent (????????!!!!!) they can read to the whole class (more exclamation marks).

I may be wrong on this one but, do you feel this 'dad's week of reading' is just a way of reinforcing male roles? Does it happen in all the schools?

I think there is research that shows that a child is more likely to read - and therefore do well at school etc - if they have a male role model who also reads - this applies especiallu to boys. In a way, it is trying to reverse male roles as the bedtime story is traditionally a female role in many families...

Good God, get a grip.You obviously have too much time onm your handss.

I think you are missing the point OP, entirely

Which male role do you feel this is re-inforcing? I would have thought it the exact opposite, that school/education/reading is not a female activity but that males can be involved too. I'm afraid that children usually read to/with their mothers rather than fathers and the school is trying to invilve fathers more in their childrens education, good on'em!

I think I say your point. 1.) That reading becomes a gender issue and 2.) Having dads in rather than mums or parents is considered preferable and a bit special.

But I think it's probably a good thing. Anything to get dads involves with their kids education and esp. reading and for kids to see this is good.

However, it would be nice to think that one day there will be an invitation to PARENTS and as many dads as mums will turn up. One can dream...

The sad reality is that in most households any invitation addressed to "parents" is read as though it says "mum".

This is an old article but covers some of the subject area:
www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachers/issue26/primary/features/Involvingdads_Primary/

I think the idea it to reinforce the idea that men and woman read. There has been loads of research about it all. This is one of several ideas to try and readdress the issues.

There is research out there on this if you google no doubt.

Truth is most adults primary school children come across in school are female - teachers, TAs, parent helpers, dinner staff, volunteers - almost always female. Very few males appear in primaries on the whole.

And research shows that it is mainly mums who read with children. It is mainly mums who are seen reading in homes.

Little boys in particularly beneft a great deal from this kind of thing - again it has been evidenced and researched.

Thank you for your responses. I genuinely believe I am missing the point on this one. This is why I asked. As it has been said before I find it strange (my daughter too) that there is a special emphasis on dads being involved in this one instead of being generally involved.

I do not have much time on my hands. I am lucky enough to have a flexible job: I leave at 5 am, pick them up around 3.30 pm. My husband drops them in nursery and school at 8.45 and comes back at 6 pm. We both do baths, dinners, clothes, story time, playing in the evening... all the normal stuff. There are no gender roles regarding kids (however, there are others underpinning our relationship anyway)

All this to say that as I saw it, this seemed to me a big attempt to make dads involved for half an hour as a big treat.

Thanks again for your views

camaleon - you only have to go in aprimary school playgrund to see that it is generally mums, or females, doing drop off and pick up in primaries. Of course there are exceptions, but in many many households dads are just not part of the school scene for various reasons.

Seriously though - lots of research shows that these activities are very ebenficial to all the children, and especially to boys.

It might be an attempt to get more men - dad/grandad etc - to help out with reading at school. My DH is a reception teacher and he can never remember having a male volunteer reading in his school. Boys respond well to having a male role model reading.

Agree completely with Hulababy. It's about having more adult males in the classroom, if only for half an hour at a time.

Just to clarify... the moment the note came home, my husband and daughter spent a good while deciding which book he was going to read.
Perhaps I am jealous he has the opportunity to be in her class reading to all her peers (shall I say that if it was an open invitation to 'parents' my husband would have gone anyway owing to my stron Spanish accent? would never feel confortable reading for the whole class) However, I cannot see how dads who cannot normally do this kind of things, can get time out of work or whatever to make it for Dad's reading week.

I guess when it is a one off special invitation like this the dad's may try and make more of an effort to do it for half an hour, b rearranging appoinments, moving lunch breaks, etc. I guess it depend son their work situation.

Plus those dads who are around but wouldn't think of doing this nroally - they might be roped in my enthusiastic children.

OP - I think if you spend a while looking at all the adults that your child meets during the school day - teachers, classroom assistants, sessional teachers (eg music), lunchtime supervisors, parent volunteers, and so on - you will notice that almost none of them are men. That's why some schools make a particular point of inviting in the dads.

Are there no other opportunities for mums to help out?

I can see both sides of this. Great to get dads involved. Not sure of the best approach though.

Bit of a related gripe:
There is a children's centre full of wonderful facilities near us that has stay and play sessions for children and dads on saturdays. Mums are banned on Saturdays. Mums and dads can go Monday - Friday. Due to work I could only go occasionally, but if mums were allowed on Saturdays I could have gone most weekends. So basically my children missed out on getting to go because I am a woman who works during the week, which seems really unfair to me. They always defended the policy saying it was the best way to support dads.

Thanks again.
The article from Toffepopple was very interesting to understand the rationale of it all. I was looking at this from a complete different angle: mums are meant to be there all the time, so we create a special event for dads. Like a replicate of what happens in many households: mother always there and dad to play for half an hour from time to time.

Would have been interesting to have a male view on this... but where are they?

Sounds like a great idea to me.

Research certainly shows that boys are more likely to read if they see a man (often their dad/step dad etc) doing it too.

So dads should hear their DS read, read to them etc. Lots do I am sure but equally plenty clearly don't.

Hula, my DH was able to help in school last summer term in a gap between jobs and he was very popular

The kids still ask me about him. Bless.