first, has anyone noticed a few people, ahem, teachers, that have decided to forgo the normal grammatical conventions in favor of more loose, informal sentence structure? is this okay, especially on a critical literacy blog? let's hope that outsiders won't read too deeply into our irreverence for "correct" english register. eek!
more seriously, after rereading a chapter (six) from vasquez's negotiating critical literacies with young children, i came to the conclusion that my classroom had an interesting debate once concerning gender in relation to fame and renown. to give some background on said chapter of vasquez, elementary school students analyze the use and selection of happy meals toys from mcdonald's, and also attempt to uncover the chain's motivation behind giving away free toys. they come away realizing that mcdonald's targets young children to get them and their towed families into the restaurant; often, this is done through gender-aimed marketing.
on a painted, white section of the brick wall in our class hangs a banner emblazoned with the words "people making a difference". in covering a genetics chapter, we touched on the contributions of one scientist in particular, rosalind franklin (see the article we used at http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/franklin.html). additional questions accompanied the article, ranging from picking facts out of the reading to making inferences and predictions. one of the questions, simply asked "why do you think that franklin was not honored for her contributions while she was alive?" in writing their response to the question, most males in the class thought that it was because she was an unimportant person in the elucidation of DNA's structure. these responses glared in opposition to what most females in the class thought, that franklin was discriminated against due to her gender and the field in which she worked.
while we could not say for sure, there did seem to be quite a disagreement between what the sexes thought. in addition, when posed with the question of "if franklin lived today, do you think that she would be discriminated against and not honored?", most of the males replied in the negative, while most females guessed the opposite. the situation made clear to me that even at the high school level, people can be unaware of the power and privilege that is in their possession. to many boys in the class, it seemed that sexism was a thing of the 1950s and 1960s, maybe the 1980s, but certainly not happening now. further, the exercise clearly showed the lack of communication between sexes about how they were thinking/perceiving about society. unfortunately, preconstructed notions blinded many males in the class to read the article and consider franklin's 1950s situation and today to be completely disconnected occurrences.
3 comments:
Where is your Capitalization?! :p
It really is great that you brought gender equality awareness into your science class. I don't think I've ever really discussed it in my class within the context of math.
I've had opportunities though, I remember only having 2-3 female students in each of my engineering classes in college. Why is this? Is it the same for Science and Math majors at universities?
I believe this is a great opportunity for me to investigate and collect some data and present it to my class for analyzing... Data/Graphical analysis and gender equity lesson here I come!
wow, high powered microwave, i thought that this was a really insightful posting that reached me, as a teacher, concerning the inequities that i see in my classroom almost everyday. it was like you were reading my thoughts!!
communication has to be more open between sexes so that obstacles such as glass ceilings can be smashed to pieces via understanding. it's a bit disturbing to hear that the leaders of tomorrow, your and my students, are already mired in the backwards thinking of yesteryear. one problem, i believe, is that the stereotypes of society are so encompassing and sometimes subtle (or so overt that we just let them go or laugh them off) that children, young adults, nor adults are aware of their multi-modal portrayal.
you're a little long-winded, high powered microwave, but you do have some decent points here and there. you keep up the good fight; i'll be watching you!!
I definitely agree that communication between everyone, not just the sexes, is so crucial in our lives. You can never communicate too much, because all interactions create a better understanding between the parties involved.
It was interesting to read your post and then hear in the news the same day that still there is a gap between work compensation between the sexes. Right out of college the gap is about 20% and then ten years later it INCREASES to 30%!! We are passing on a false message to our ladies when they observe that they can put in the same effort to achieve the college degree and the good job but still be paid less than their male colleagues!
In terms of communicating...one big element that effects how different sexes communicate is how their families communicate and most likely the cultural norm in their lives. In certain cultures for example, where the woman is perceived as dependent (not working, taking care of the kids) students with those kinds of parents are going to be influenced by that. Therefore, the classroom is a good place to create a safe environment where students can observe, even if they have different messages at home, that women and men can have equal voices and should try to hear what the other is trying to say.
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