Look what I found Creepin' on Teacher Tom's Blog!

Gender Roles in The Early Childhood

I started following a blog called Teacher Tom. It's about the adventures, commonly discussed issues in education, and his stories of being a father and husband. Tom is a Pre school teacher, which is interesting, because you don't usually see many males in Early Childhood. Which, brings me to the topic of the post I enjoyed on his blog, "How Dare they tell me I can't be a Princess".  You can find the post located here! 

The post talked about raising a daughter and how he tried to raise her very gender neutral. At age 3, he saw the change when she was playing with dolls, wanted long hair, and refused to wear overalls. He brought this to his classroom, talking about how when asking a group of girls to play in their castle, they told him he could only be a king or a prince. This brings me to the question, "How do you feel about Gender Specific toys in the classroom?" 

Obviously, in a Pre- School, or Kindergarten center oriented classroom, Do you think only girls should play with dolls? and boys should play with cars?  In the picture you see to the right, it is very gender specific. 

When I was younger I was the definition of "Girly Girl". It reflects in the room I have that would be any 5-9 year old girl's dream., in which I'm embarrassed to take any of my friends in today. I was all about pink, playing dolls, and playing house. I wouldn't say that I was brought up as a girly girl. Although, the shock on my parents face when I said I wanted to be a plumber in my Kindergarden play about what we wanted to be when we grew up, they still smiled and cheered on their daughter, the only girl on the stage singing about being a plumber when she grows up. I attended Kindergarten in 1997/1998. 11 years later, do you feel as though times are still the same? Or, would more girls be on the stage?

 If bringing gender neutral toys in your classroom is an option, then I feel like not every girl in your classroom would want to be a movie star, and more would want to be plumbers. It is important to me in my classroom that toys are very gender neutral. In Teacher Tom's blog, he talks about playing with the kids and asking to be mommy or princess, and fighting back when the kids say no. It seemed as though he did have gender neutral toys in the classroom, but he said he still sees the pattern of girls hanging on to the fringe, and boys to their cars. 

On the left is a picture of the type of kitchen I would have in my very own classroom. The colors and patterns are neutral, and I feel as though would attract both boys and girls. 

No, I don't think that trying to force my boys to play the mother role in house in necessary. But, I will encourage them to pick up a doll, and care for the doll. Also, I will encourage all my girls to pick up the tool box every once and a while and fix up the classroom. I like Teacher Tom's view on making sure gender is equal in the classroom. I feel with gender neutral toys, it clears the air of any gender discrimination thoughts in the future, and through out looking at other posts, I see that his classroom tends to run as smooth as a Pre-K class can.

After getting a chance to read this post and get my thoughts stirring about Gender Toys once again, I realized that the Pre-K Centers at my job (A daycare) have very gender neutral toys, and the children in the Pre-K are more prone to play outside of the stereotypical gender roles. Just the other day, a group of boys were in the kitchen wanting to make me breakfast, and girls had the play microscope out with bug slides, acting like they were looking at bugs they found dug out of the ground. It brought me back to the constant reminder that I think is always important for us to know as teachers;

Your children are a reflection of your classroom.

Peace, Love, and Happy Teachings

- Caitlin