After
reading a few articles I came across one that sparked my interest simply
because of the title. The name of the article is Gender Free
Children: The Newest Fad in Public Education.
This article was written to explain “gender free” education by using
the British Columbia Teachers Federation Handbook. This handbook states that “gender is a
spectrum” and gender identity a state of mind.
The people who support this type of education believe that comprehensive
sex education is “the only way to combat heterosexism and gender
conformity.”
Psychologists
believe that a person’s core identity or sense of self is based on three major
components: gender identity, style of behavior, and sexual orientation. According to these psychologists, schools are
urged to establish a dress code to enable a student’s right to dress in
accordance with their gender identity and the right to be addressed by one’s
preferred name. They also recommend
that students in schools should have access to safe restroom and locker room
facilities that correspond to one’s gender identity. According to these gender-free
proponents teenage boys will be able to
go into girls’ locker and shower room just by claiming that they “feel like a
girl” today.
The
proponents of this approach to gender identification believe that schools should likewise hire staff with
diverse gender identities. Moreover,
students should never be addressed as
“boys” and “girls.” It is further
believed that the “gender is a spectrum” message should be infused into all lessons and subjects. The whole education experience is all about
encouraging students to identify with various forms of sexism, heterosexism,
homophobia, transphobia, privilege and oppression in their everyday lives.
The
campaign to create “gender free” children has already begun in the United
States in Oakland, California at the Redwood Heights Elementary School. In addition, schools that espouse this type
of philosophy now exist in British Columbia and Canada.
What
I would like to know is how you feel about this new philosophical approach to gender? Would you like to see this approach to
gender orientation take hold in more schools in the United States? Do you feel that there is a gender
acceptance problem in our country? Is
this type of school one that you would like to seek out for your own
child? If so, why? Do you think this approach to gender
acceptance and orientation will be successful
nationwide?
Overall I feel like there is an obvious gender acceptance problem in our country, which ranges on where you live obviously and am glad to see that someone took the initiative to enforce something that would make school a more accepting place for these students. At the same time though, I feel like it is invading these students personal life, during middle school and high school many students are not completely comfortable with themselves and still are figuring themselves out so why should we make them choose what gender they would like to be associated with. I would definitely like to see how this pans out since it is a fairly new idea to see if there is more help then harm with this concept.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that students should become aware of gender acceptance. When students are instilled with beliefs or values from a young age, it will be easier to accept; however I do not exactly agree with this approach. I think that when the students are older, it is inappropriate and they may abuse the fact that they can choose which gender of bathroom or locker room they want to go into.
ReplyDeleteI also do not agree that students cannot be addressed as "boys" and "girls." I understand that some people see themselves as other genders and change their appearance to present that vision; however at the end of the day the person is still their gender. I do not think a male student should be offended if he feels feminine and dresses more like a female to be addressed as boy or vice verse where a girl feels more masculine and is dressed more like a male to be addressed as girl. In a way, I assimilate it to a scenario where someone says to a group, "hey guys, lets go" and there are girls in the mix, would they be offended? Usually not.
This article is very interesting and I'm not sure how I feel about this school. I agree that everyone should be free to feel and be who they want, but I feel that in some aspects of this school, they are taking it too far.
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