Failing at Fairness ... and Blogging!

It's been a while ... again! But I have a better excuse this time: For at least part of the time since my last post I've been "South of the Border" down Mexico-way visiting mi hermano in Guadalajara, where he's teaching English. As for the rest of the time, I don't have a lot to say about that.

I have, however, been able to continue reading and just finished "Failing at Fairness" by Myra and David Sadker, a husband and wife team of education researchers specializing in sexism in education. The book was interesting in a lot of ways but also seemed to be fairly out of date ... probably why they've updated it with a "sequel": "STILL Failing at Fairness." I'm curious to start SFAF, but some of my reflections on the original ...

The Sadkers explore sexism in schools from early childhood through graduate school and identify blatantly sexist practices, barriers, and attitudes at every step along the way. Many of these challenges (and the most interesting, to me) are those perpetuated by well-meaning educators and administrators who don't even know the impact of their actions.

I don't remember elementary school as crystal clearly as I wish I did, but many of the attitudes described regarding school boys' perceptions of girls and what it would be like to be a girl (that is to say, the "I'd rather die!! mentality" struck me as very true and reminiscent of my own childhood. Interestingly, girls are much more open and positive about the idea of what it would be like to be a boy (either for a little or long while), and some said they even wish they could make the change. (There is no real discussion of gender identities beyond heterosexual male and females in the original FAF ... perhaps SFAF?)

Another discussion that resonated with me was that of female protagonists in children's books (at the time of publication, vastly outnumbered by male protagonists) and the very limited role of women in textbooks of all kinds. When I was in high school I remember a new history textbook coming out that featured special text "boxes" or "sidebars" discussing the "important" role of women during each era in history and even remember thinking then that if the role was really so important, why wasn't it just included in the general text of the chapters?

The Sadkers also pointed out flaws in teacher education through the years (for instance, encouraging teachers to stock more books with male protagonists because "girls will read books about boys but boys won't read books about girls") and the various challenges faced by women attending college, graduate schools and professional schools (including a very interesting section on women in medical school in the early 80s -- around the time both my mother and aunt attended). They explore "controversial" ideas like single sex schools which -- though equivocal in their endorsement -- they seem to find more good in than bad.

The Sadkers also point to many things that teachers can do to stem the tide of sexism in their classroom. For instance:
-ensuring that books with strong female protagonists are prominent and in abundance
-making an effort to call on and interact with girls at least as often as boys
-interacting with girls in a way that values their achievements, actions and input
-discussing sexist texts, practices or other challenges openly with students
-exposing girls to traditionally masculine subject areas and careers, identifying role models, and encouraging exploration of these areas

... and many more. As a future kindergarten teacher, I'm very glad to have read this book. While talking to several people about it, I got the impression that many people believe this to be a problem of the past (another reason I'm very glad to read SFAF next!) or a problem relegated to communities of color and/or poverty, but it is clearly an important issue and one that I hope I can address in my own future classroom.