No 'Him' or 'Her' in Preschool. Wait, what?

Heartcafe

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The title comes from this article which is also the basis of this topic: http://beta.news.yahoo.com/no-him-her-preschool-fights-gender-bias-122541829.html
(recommend reading it)

Alright, so the idea of things in this preschool is to encourage the break down of gender stereotypes (aka girls gotta love make up or boys love cars) by trying to implement "gender neutralization" attics. For example, "Lego bricks and other building blocks are intentionally placed next to the kitchen, to make sure the children draw no mental barriers between cooking and construction."

But then it gets ridiculous!
"A story about two male giraffes who are sad to be childless ? until they come across an abandoned crocodile egg. Nearly all the children's books deal with homosexual couples, single parents or adopted children. There are no "Snow White," ''Cinderella" or other classic fairy tales seen as cementing stereotypes." What I don't get is how Cinderella is going cement stereotypes?

They even try to get rid of the words "him" & "her" (han/hon in swedish) and replace it with a made-up word. That is not breaking down gender stereotypes, that is just being unreasonable. What will happen to these children when they get older and realize that there is no subject term called "hen" in the real world.

I support equality, but I find these antics over the top. A boy is a boy and a girl is a girl. Nothing will change that. (unless they get a sex change, but they are preschoolers for heaven sake.) To make choices on sexuality and gender when they are this young is unnecessary.

What do you guys think?
 

Sneaky Paladin

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A bit over the top yes, and I see how SOME fairy tales could reinforce stereotypes like girls are princesses to be saved men are heroes but they may have taken it to far.
 

lacktheknack

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DERP.

This reminds me of a customer at a grocery store I work at... he complained about the "Moms and Tots" parking spot being discriminatory against single fathers. The best part is that his wife was right there.

Nope, I don't understand why people get hung up on gender. Where'd they come up with this idea, anyways?

Also, is depicting stereotypes really a bad thing? When 90% of the population (or so) is straight, and about 60% of them married, then how is depicting a straight marriage "reinforcing a negative stereotype"? (I'm assuming it's somehow negative, otherwise they wouldn't take umbrage to it.)
 

zehydra

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Deschamps said:
Equality and tolerance should be achieved through education, not ignorance.
this. They're not teaching children to accept differences, they're refusing to teach that the differences exist!
 

Smooth Operator

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A bit over the top but worth a shot, like I always said start teaching kids for a better world we old goats can't accept new concepts anymore.
 

lacktheknack

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Deschamps said:
Equality and tolerance should be achieved through education, not ignorance.
OK... so how does that relate to this story?

Is somehow having classic fairytales available or using "him/her" promoting equality and tolerance via ignorance?

If anything, this looks uncomfortably like brainwashing.
 

Swifteye

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lacktheknack said:
Deschamps said:
Equality and tolerance should be achieved through education, not ignorance.
OK... so how does that relate to this story?

Is somehow having classic fairytales available or using "him/her" promoting equality and tolerance via ignorance?

If anything, this looks uncomfortably like brainwashing.
Well preschool is a school.
 

CM156_v1legacy

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Mar 23, 2011
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What can I say other than I'm glad I don't live in Stockholm.

And I would never let my kid go to a school like this. Sorry. Just, no.

I don't mind the story about giraffes, but the other stuff they are doing is not helping. Difference exists. Sorry if that hurts your feelings, but it does. This is not going to be good for the children.
 

Astoria

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And they wonder why kids are acting worse and worse. They are PRESCHOOLERS! They shouldn't be taught about homesexuality and adoption or anything like that until they start asking questions about it which probably won't be for years. Let kids be kids for heavens sake!
 

Kakashi on crack

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Deschamps said:
Equality and tolerance should be achieved through education, not ignorance.
I was trying to think of a way to put it, and this kinda sums up my whole view.

These kids are having everything neutralized for them, but what about when they get to the real world? I would approve of the whole storybooks thing if they would have BOTH stereotypes and stories like the one about the Giraffe (btw Giraffes don't exist) but gender neutralization is only going to, pardon my language, fuck up their lives in the long-run. Encourage who they want to be, don't try and force-feed them what you want them to be...
 

WayOutThere

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"some say they amount to mind control"

No, that's stupid. All this is meant to do is remove negative influences from society. That's good.


"The kind of things that boys like to do ? run around and turn sticks into swords ? will soon be disapproved of"

Wait, what? Boys like to do that because they're boys not because of society. It's called testosterone. I thought you said you weren't going to ignore biological differences.


"We don't know if it's a he or a she so we just say 'Hen is coming around 2 p.m.' Then the children can imagine both a man or a woman. This widens their view."

That just doesn't sound like it will be effective.

Edit: Wait, do you mean you pretend not to know and don't tell the children or if you don't know you use a gender neutral pronoun? The former is bad, the latter good.

"Some parents worry things have gone too far. An obsession with obliterating gender roles, they say, could make the children confused and ill-prepared to face the world outside kindergarten."

Preparing a good enviornment is great, but it's also important to tell the children this isn't how things usually are. The two are not contradictory. Keeping children ignorant will not help them, but this school can be executed in such a way that it does no such thing.

"Nearly all the children's books deal with homosexual couples, single parents or adopted children"

Books dealing with homosexual couples is fine but there is variety in their reading selection too right? Why "nearly all"? Seems excessive.
 

marfin_

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I don't agree with this at all! So instead of children being taught to make intelligent decisions about the equality between genders when they are older they are force fed this crap
 

Erana

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CM156 said:
What can I say other than I'm glad I don't live in Stockholm.

And I would never let my kid go to a school like this. Sorry. Just, no.

I don't mind the story about giraffes, but the other stuff they are doing is not helping. Difference exists. Sorry if that hurts your feelings, but it does. This is not going to be good for the children.
Yeah, but at least they're making an effort. I wouldn't stick my kid through something experimental like that, but hopefully something will come of it.

Because of all the people I see on the Escapist alone who... You know, the "I know how to handle women," "Women are in it together rather than be reasonable" "women are bitches who take advantage of women's rights" guys who think that every gaming website is some sort of men's club or something. I haven't found a woman on here who does the female version yet, (due to there being significantly more men on the site) but its just as unacceptable.

Somehow we have to figure out how to teach kids that people are people, and that while sex and gender roles can make one predisposed to someth-

No. That's not what we need to teach kids. We need to teach kids that an individual's experience with something does not equate to the traits of a whole groups. If you add in being a half-decent person and not making stupid and snap judgements, that would cover everything they're trying to teach, wouldn't it?
 

Mr Thin

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Placing Lego next to the kitchen so they don't separate the two mentally sounds like a great idea.

So does having books involving more than just ordinary straight couples, though I think forbidding things like "Snow White" is a bit ridiculous.

Refusing to use the terms 'his' and 'her'? Now that's stupid.

There seems to be some good here, but I think it's a bit overwhelmed by the bad.
 

Chicago Ted

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lacktheknack said:
DERP.

This reminds me of a customer at a grocery store I work at... he complained about the "Moms and Tots" parking spot being discriminatory against single fathers. The best part is that his wife was right there.

Nope, I don't understand why people get hung up on gender. Where'd they come up with this idea, anyways?

Also, is depicting stereotypes really a bad thing? When 90% of the population (or so) is straight, and about 60% of them married, then how is depicting a straight marriage "reinforcing a negative stereotype"? (I'm assuming it's somehow negative, otherwise they wouldn't take umbrage to it.)
Just to clarify here, what exactly is a "Moms and Tots" parking spot? Does it mean that any single mothers get to have a parking spot close to the building? I understand the idea of having a spot for pregenant women, but if it's just because they're single mothers that they get the spot, I may have to side with the guy who brought it up on this.