What do people think of this going on at my daughter's primary school?

[DoctorBeat]

Nationalism with some gender stereotyping thrown in for good measure? Girls bring in something sweet?! 😒

I agree with the poster..You only want people to agree with you and see nothing good in this..

I think it is important to feel proud in our culture...Can I say our culture does include other cultures to as we are a multicultrual .. If you went to to spain would you not expect them to celebrate been spanish..

We celebrate davali at my son's school so why shouldn't he celebrate his culture too... I think the girls sweets is completely over thinking I really think that they though not much about it.

Mini one study doesn't mean most people. Everyone I know would not give it any further thought other than remembering to actually send the required food in.

I personally wouldn't be offended by it if it is the only occurrence but I do think that schools do often reinforce gender stereotypes and I probably would be inclinded to draw attention to it to the unthinking assignment. If you don't challenge these things then they continue. We had girls being given pink folders and boys blue, girls having to line up with girls and boys with boys. There are many more ways of dividing groups up. At least our school divides by key stage usually when it comes to food.

"You seem determined to be offended by this."

That's because I am. Sorry.

I came on to find out what other people thought. Now I know.

Doesn't change how I feel. And btw this is not AIBU.

Famous Britains? Famous Britons surely? I'd certainly be bringing that up. Pretty bad error on their part.

Good way to open up the conversation though. Error on the page and lazy thinking on the girls = sweet nonsense.

Schools have to promote British Values now by law.

And FFS, why can't we celebrate being who we are? You don't complain (i'm sure) when the school does something like a Nativity, or Diwali or Chinese New Year

What is actually offensive though OP?

I'd be annoyed by it, OP. You are not alone.

The only saving grace is that the sweet things are more frequently shop-bought.
Any bets that loads of the boys will turn up with crisps? Or perhaps pot noodles?

Annoyed... BY WHAT???

It's not like the poster says "Girls must bring sweet things, because they are girls"

We are having a multi culturalism day. Wish we could swap op ours sound wish washy trying to be right on would much prefer the British one. Sad that anything British now is seen as negative / far right.

Famous Britains? Famous Britons surely? I'd certainly be bringing that up. Pretty bad error on their part.

:) I, too, noticed this.
Our DC's school celebrates, Diwali, Eid, Chinese new year, despite having a very small (but not absent) number of Hindus, Moslems and Chinese, yet on 23rd April it has a "Spring Fair". I'm not nationalistic at all, but it is odd, don't you think?

Nativities are well offensive binary, didn't you know??
Diwali, Eid, Chinese New Year - fine!
Nativity with Jesus Mary and Joseph? Offensive to other religions!! You have to stick a load of weird characters in and do a completely different story, or you offend the professionally offended such as the OP

This exact thread is the reason I couldn't be in education. If someone came to me complaining about this I'd be inclined to run away. It's so...nothing.

I'm most offended by the boy/girl thing if I'm honest.

I can't help it. My first gut reaction to this whole thing is "yuck". And I am not professionally offended. It is very difficult to offend me. However I do get offended by gender stereotyping and low level sexism.

NewName,

Mini one study doesn't mean most people. Everyone I know would not give it any further thought other than remembering to actually send the required food in.

That was precisely the point the study was making; that nobody would give it any further thought.

I would have swapped the girl/boy/sweet/savoury thing around too

Mini people don't give it any other thought as there's nothing to think about. They probably have their food in their classes (this is how it's done at my DCs school), so boy/girl is the easiest way to make sure they get a mix of food. It's nothing to do with anything being ingrained, it's just quick and easy.

"You seem determined to be offended by this" - "That's because I am. Sorry"

But then

"I am not professionally offended. It is very difficult to offend me"

Bit of a contradiction. I don't understand why, by your own admission, you would be "determined to be offended". Why not just take something at face value and decide it if genuinely bothers you or not rather than looking for something to be upset by? I just can't understand that mindset, I'm not trying to be argumentative, I just really don't get it.

I said that I am offended. Not that I am determined to be offended.

Offense is an involuntary emotional response. I am however not dead set on being offended at everything.

HTH

What's wrong with celebrating being British?

Well, just because you are offended, does not mean that it is offensive.

I'm more offended by the "famous Britains"

Oops. Sorry.

NewStart, that's exactly why it's subconscious. Nobody gives it a second thought. Nor do they see anything wrong in the decision. Nor do they ever consider that they are subtly conditioned to automatically assign sweet to girls and savoury to boys. But if you looked at 1000 schools doing the same, you'd expect a 50/50 split between teachers who allocated sweet to the boys and those who allocated sweet to the girls. Would you not? Except, that's isnt the case where such studies have been done before. It's more like 90%+ assigning sweet (or the equivalent) to the girls.