Creating a gender free/gender neutral/gender expansive society within your school

Definitions
Gender is a social contruct separate from a person’s biological sex
Gender neutral is defined as free of explicit or implicit reference to gender or sex
Social transition – when a person chooses wear the clothing of the ‘other sex’ socially so others can see what they feel inside 
Gender dysphoria – the distress a person feels when not identifying with the assigned sex or gender 
Transgender - a person whose gender is different from stereotypical gender norms
Nothing to do with being gay, homosexual!
 
Reason
‘The best way to treat obstacles is by using them as stepping stones’     Enid Blyton
Human rights more than gender…social justice issue
All children to be given same opportunities 
Education and health officials say more children are questioning their gender identity
Removing the ‘gender straitjacket’ usually created by age 10
Gender stereotyping increased the risks of mental and physical health problems
Some children struggle with their gender identity
How each gender behaves has become less rigid

Concept of gender is always evolving and predicted that eventually there will be an eradication of gender eg 100 years ago a woman couldn’t vote, 60 years ago men would never have been involved in child rearing
More and more families joining school with non-nuclear families eg same sex couples
We perceive this to be binary but some people feel they don’t fit into the binary view
A necessary step to eroding lingering vestiges of sexism
Focus is on being human, not male or female
More common for parents not to reveal gender of baby to stop people to project their gender ideas on the unborn baby, baby clothing grey, black, fawn, yellow, green 
Inclusive society – gender friendly teaching is a foundation for equity in education 
Culturally enforced gender roles are linked to increased risks of mental illness and physical health problems
Every person should have the right to be who they are, regardless of gender
 
Staff training
Adults at school are gendered beings, products of their society
Investigate all gender terminology to educate the staff on the reality of all gender types and the difference between gender identity and persuasion
Teach staff to be reflective – to become aware of their own biases
Ask questions like:
What is your comfort level with discussing gender diversity issues?
How have issues of gender and gender diversity shown up in your work?
Develop guidelines for new staff

Language used
Don’t make assumptions about someone’s gender or sexual orientation
Not boys and girls, use ‘pupils’, ‘everybody’, ‘folks’ or ‘friends’
Don’t make statements addressing one gender
Pronouns – ask the person without making assumptions HEN ZIE THEY THEM ZE
Check library books to ensure enough girl protagonists, books mentioning transgendered children and books of same sex couples having children
Boys’ and Girls’ bathroom passes…only need a bathroom pass
Challenge children’s language eg You’re such a girl! He looks gay! She dresses like a boy!
 
Adapting infrastructure
Get rid of urinals as they take too much space
Boys and girls’ toilets still or none
Gender-neutral bathrooms opening onto the passage instead of opening onto ‘foyer anti-room’ behind a door
Build field ablutions from all with showers and toilets
 
Traditional school practices
Never divide classes by gender eg registers, sitting in desks or at assembly 
Lining up – alphabetically, colour of clothing, birthdays
Avoid assigning tasks by gender
Media, FaceBook and promotions should include boys/girls doing non-gender conforming things like boys playing with dolls
Create deliberate opportunities for non-gender conforming activities  
 
Curriculum
Avoid gender specific words like fireman, chairman
Purposefully mix toys or books to entice both boys and girls
Look at your teaching materials through a gender-conscious lens – how is each gender portrayed
Look at poetry and books for gender linked ideas – why is a bear always male?
Include historical figures who were gender non conformist – Dr James M Barry
Ask specific questions in SS like ‘Did Mrs George Washington have a name?’ Why don’t they tell us her name?
Discuss ‘written by anonymous’ …… usually a woman who ‘couldn’t’ be named 
Don’t divide subjects by gender – Needlework, Woodwork, physical education, dance
Include stereotyping in teaching, start conversations about what it means to be a boy/girl
Include planned gender changes in class eg drama boy playing a girl and vice versa, heroine sweeping a prince off his feet 
Teach about gender diversity in Life Skills/health
Talk about biodiversity in Science eg fish that change sex when necessary
 
Uniform
De-colonise your uniform so children wear what they wear every day in real life
Blur gender boundaries to universal clothing
Don’t state what boys must wear and what girls must wear
Many high schools around the world have ‘banned’ skirts and adopted trouser only uniforms
If your hair touches your collar, it needs to be tied up
If you choose to wear earrings, you may one pair of studs, one in each ear.
 
Sport
Same uniform – tshirt and shorts
Mixed gender teams
All pupils can play any sport – challenge league matches if needed 

 
Policies 
Check all for gender discriminatory language
 
How to challenge gender stereotypes in the classroom
·       Change your own mindset
·       Create a safe place – okay to be different, create culture of acceptance
·       Challenge stereotypes when you hear them voiced and correct them
·       Talk about stereotypes
·       Don’t label a ‘good’ girl’ or ‘good boy’
·       Create classroom signs like “Girls are strong’ and ‘Boys are sensitive’
·       Use theatre - provide a range of role models by using real life examples that challenge the ‘norm’
·       Make the most of books
·       Watch who uses which equipment, which space
·       Make sure there aren’t boys’ jobs and girls’ jobs – ‘3 strong boys to move chairs’
·       Divide children differently eg alphabetically
·       Use inclusive language – children, pupils, everybody
·       Deliberately call children by their first names
·       Rewards and sanctions – do you treat boys and girls differently
·       Arrange talks from inspiration women and mixed sports’ teams
·       Model ideas don’t confirm them stereotypically
·       Explore the modern world through current leaders…Does gender affect Theresa May? How? Why? 

       Does it define what she can or can’t do?
 
Good Books for children
Jacob’s new dress – Sarah and Ian Hoffman
The Boy with pink hair – Perez Hilton
I am Jazz – Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
And Tango makes Three – Justine Richardson and Peter Parnell
 
References
IREX – creating gender friendly learning environments
UNESCO - Gender responsive pedagogy: a teacher’s handbook
Asian Development Bank and Government of Australia – Toolkit on Gender Equality results and indicators
Sweden: Egalia Preschool, Nicolaigarden Preschool
BBC 2 documentary: No more boys and girls: Can our kids go gender free? 
Google: gender-neutral toilets, gender neutral schools
Education Update April 2018 Volume 60 Number 4
An introduction to creating gender inclusive classrooms – Alyssa Broomfield 
 

Possible problems in the future?
Danger of a child identifying with the ‘other’ gender and then not being supported by the family 
Risk of confusion and shame for this
Western society is saying Sweden is denying biological realities and imposing artificial sameness in a ‘dangerous’ experiment
Not equality but erasure
Could create an issue where no issue exists

Children self-educate if we let them!

In the late 1990s, Sugata Mitra initiated a series of ‘experiments’ on children to assess their ability to self educate. He placed a computer in a wall of a slum in New Dehli, turned the computer on and placed a video camera close by to watch what happened. He was astonished that children came and taught themselves, and others, how to work it and within days were surfing the web, downloading music and playing with programmes like Microsoft Paint. Because of this he added many more computers in the streets and the result was the same – every time children of all ages arrived and taught themselves, and other children, anything that a teacher might have wanted to teach about the computer! (For more information about Sugata Mitra’s research, see the TED Talk Kids can teach themselves, for which he won a TED prize!)

He concluded that children innately have curiosity, playfulness and sociability, all essential items for self-education!

Curiosity

This drew the children to turn the computer on, to play with the controls and to find out more and more.

Playfulness

As the children ‘played’ with the programmes they became more and more skilled until they went straight into Microsoft Paint, for instance, to ‘play’ every day. As they played they created more curiosity and the cycle continued.  Albert Einstein said, “Play is the highest form of research.”

Sociability

As individual children played and learnt, they passed the learning on to others. Their learning became everybody’s learning because they excited each other and the learning spread.

So why is this important for schools? Well, my question is ‘Why don’t school lessons spread like ‘wildfire’ like these ones did? Schools need to allow children to self educate as much as possible, because then they will be excited to learn at their own pace. Here are some ideas….

·      Children are seldom given the opportunites at school to follow their own chosen interest – they are told what they are going to learn about and then told all the teacher wants them to know about the topic.

·      At school children are usually expected to perform tasks in only one way or use only one method for calculating Maths problems. The excitement of puzzling out new ways is very seldom encouraged. At most schools children are divided into classes by age and often aren’t even allowed to play with children of other ages at break times. Opportunities for multi age learning creates many more opportunities for leaning and teaching, and when younger children teach older children in particular, the excitement of teaching and learning is so much greater. Much of what happens at schools today revolves around evaluating children and their work. This creates an emphasis on the product and pleasing the teacher, rather than on the investigating and excitement of the learning.

As parents you can encourage self-education by asking the right questions in your homes. Give your children opportunities to find the answer themselves if possible rather than just telling them an answer. This process is longer but much more sustainable and once children realise they can teach themselves and catch the excitement of learning, that will be forever!  

Who teaches ethics in our unethical society?

In a country where many of our senior leaders flout the law every day, it is difficult to teach children to be law-abiding and to perform their civic duty. Many parents are absent from their children’s lives, either because one parent is really absent or because one or both parents outsource the parenting to others; grandparents, au pairs or other family members, to work full time. This means that schools are increasingly becoming the sole educators of good citizenship.

We regularly discuss the attributes of good citizenship in assemblies and newsletters, predominantly to encourage parents to teach their children how to negotiate an often negative world. Here are a few tips to use at home: 

·       Have a conversation with your children about when it is a good time to ‘tell tales’. Re-enforce for them that they are not ‘squealing’ – they have the right to be ‘righteously indignant’ if other children offend them by the way they behave, by the words they use, etc. Discuss the kind of things that are wiser for adults to know about – that by ‘looking the other way’ they can be hurt or implicated in the act. If all children played ‘policeman’, many others would be protected from so much.

·       Have a discussion with your children about the need to be honest with their peers and with the adults who care for them. Often when dealing with issues in which children put themselves at risk, schools find that the children’s friends knew what was going on but didn’t tell anybody. Sometimes this can result in serious consequences, like death.

·      Protect your children from the ‘laissez-faire’ attitude within society today as you don’t want your family to be affected by the culture of not caring. Insist 

-       on sending a note and phoning if your child is ill;

-       that your child be involved in the extramural programme and remains committed for the term;

-       that your child leaves home in the full, correct school uniform, 

-       on homework/projects being completed by the due date;

-       that work done at home, is neatly presented and written;  

-       that all loose papers are filed in the correct place;

-       that all books are covered and treated ‘gently’.

·      The newspapers are filled with articles about parents and children “at war” with opposing teams in school sports’ matches. Continue 

       to insist on good sportsmanship behaviour like:

-       enjoying the game and not winning at all costs;

-       having a good attitude, not retaliating 

     when other teams swear or get physical;

-       applauding all goals, whether your own or 

     the opposing team’s;

-       congratulating and thanking the other 

     team at the end;

-       playing the game wholeheartedly, right

     until the end.

·      When driving in traffic, remember that your attitude to other drivers and your adherence to traffic rules is continually watched by your children. Set an example of good citizenry by:

-       obeying traffic signs and speeds;

-       wearing your seat belts every time you drive;

-       stop at stop streets and in time at red traffic lights;

-       never park on pedestrian crossings or in restricted areas.

·      Beware of what your children are watching or seeing. Obviously 

     things are far more explicit

     in the world out there so keep checking:

-       the programmes, shows and movies your 

      children watch on television;

-       the sites your children visit on their cellphones, tablets and computers, and whatthe sites are, as some innocuous sounding 

      ones show the most terrible things;

-       that your “Parental Guidance” is still active on your computer with the necessary passwords to prevent children from accessing unsuitable sites.

If all partners in the schooling system play their parts in moulding children, despite the reality of the world we live in, then our children are going to be positive role models in society themselves, and hopefully, they will continue the process with their children in the future. The world we live in is too important for us to give up on …. join the good-citizen crusade!