Everyone has a gender; we are either a male or female. No matter what we wear or the things we enjoy doing our gender will not change. Children learn their gender identity in their very early years. They start discovering differences in their bodies, and they learn what is expected of each gender through their families and communities. In the media presentation, Start Seeing Diversity: Gender, we learn that we need to listen and watch children during free play to learn the biases that children have about the roles of gender (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011b). After listening to the media presentations and reading our resources this week, I have been really paying attention to what children are saying and doing in my classroom. I had a child tell me that only girls can wear a certain straw hat and only boys can build with blocks. I could see that she had learned gender bias roles. I clarified to her and her peers that both boys and girls could play with any toy in the classroom (there are not any only boy toys or only girl toys).
Children learn so much through their family, books, movies, television shows, commercials, cultures in early childhood centers and schools. A lot of children’s favorite stories and television shows to include movies depict gender roles as well as family types. Most stories and children’s shows demonstrate a family as a mother, father, and children; however, in reality there are many types of family structures. Television shows are starting to show more single parent families. Though you do not find many books or television shows for children that demonstrate the lesbian or gay family structures.
I believe that it is important that centers include books that include all family structures. We need to help all children learn and value their identity not just the few that in the “normal” family structure. Children need to be able to see and hear about other families like theirs. They need to know that have two moms or two dads is part of who they are. As early childhood professionals we need to help all children value and respect the diversity of family structure as well as helping society to understand and value all children no matter what their family structure is.
The term tomboy is used a lot. I was called a tomboy when I was a child and teenager. I really never thought much about it. After reading the resources and watching the media resources I realize that this is a stereotype given to girls that do what society considers boy activities. Some examples that I did that was considered to be boyish are climbing trees, swinging on grapevines, riding stick horses, and playing with cars. To be fair my brothers played school and house, we had a whole city in our play and our stuffed animals were the residents this could have been considered kind of girlish. Being called a tomboy could have given me a gender identity crisis. As Tina in the media presentation Learning from Another’s Life Story, learned through growing up being forced to follow society’s roles of a girl and then allowing her children free to decide what they want to wear and play (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011a). It is so important that children realize that gender will not change no matter what they do. We need to teach children about stereotypes and how our words hurt people even when we do not mean to. Sexual orientation comes up when we talk about our families, according to the media presentation, Start Seeing Diversity: Sexual Orientation and we need to validate our families through pictures, drawings, and stories (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011c).
References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011a). EDUC 6357-6 Diversity, Development, and Learning [Webcast]. Learning from Another’s Life Story. Baltimore, MD: Author. Retrieved from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6357/CH/mm/audio_player/index_week3.html
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011b). EDUC 6357-6 Diversity, Development, and Learning [Webcast]. Start Seeing Diversity: Gender. Baltimore, MD: Author. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_2651072_1%26url%3D
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011c). EDUC 6357-6 Diversity, Development, and Learning [Webcast]. Start Seeing Diversity: Sexual Orientation. Baltimore, MD: Author. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_2651072_1%26url%3D
