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I agree with you, Angela. I, particularly, have became aware of feminism and the benefits it brings only when I was in university, and by this time, I looked at my books and realized that only a few were written by women. I think that before establish a discipline about gender equality and sexuality (also important), students must be familiarized with all the accomplishments by female figures and how they influence our lives, our habits and our behavior, in so many ways. They need to grow and get to college knowing that sexism retards society.
And it's not difficult to introduce women and their importance in literature, history and science in the earlier years of school. It can starts by offering children books written by women, show portraits in slides of females who conquered achievements in science and, off classes, establish uniforms which don't separate gender. I think these earlier yeas of education (which includes family influence) are essential to develop a conscience in children about gender equality.
At high school, at this point, the students are already prepared to understand the importance of this type of discussion in class, simply because they recognize the huge contribution females have done over history, in all kinds of study.
Hi!I agree that school has part of the fault. I'm from Mexico and we hace so many important women in our history but in the elementary school, I only learned about two! Two! One was a independentist from the Spanish Empire and, without here, Mexican independence would have delayed for years. The other one was La Malinche and I always thought that the way teachers and people in general talked about her was completely wrong; she was a slave, and the Tlaxcaltecas sold her to Cortés, so she helped the spanish to conquer Mexico... And, although at that time she had no choice, the people still blame her. Five hundred years later.
So, yeah, I think that schools should talk more about important women in all areas. The representation is really important: when I was in elementary school many girls thought that we cannot be scientists, presidents, people in politics, etc. And that tendecy continued for a very long time in my school: all the books I read as assignments were written by men, except Anne Frank's Diary; some book were awesome, some weren't. I think I should have read more books written my women, but maybe I expect miracles from my elementary and middle school: the principal even said one time that women only should work as teachers to take care of their children and nobody said anything at all.
Mine it's just one example, but I bet I'm not the only one that has this kind of story. Gender equality has to start in that early years.
An example from my school: Couple of days ago a teacher gave us a "test" where we should fill the blanks with a female and a male famous person each time. And there were a blank that we should have filled with a female famous scientist and except Marie Curie we couldn't think of any other female scientist. Twenty students and we couldn't think of one! Just one! I know that there are too many but no one ever taught me about them and that made me really sad! I just couldn't believe it.
Angela, the problem here is that most of the teachers don't know any themselves.
In science, specifically, there has been quite a lot of appropriation of credit. Rosalind Franklin should be credited with Watson and Crick in their discovery of the DNA helix, but she isn't. They took her ideas and gave her no credit, and we are still finding out more about those lost moments of credit. She would have shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, likely, if she hadn't died before it was awarded to her teammate.
That's also true but usually is not that strict that it would not be possible to mention important women. Nevertheless, it is necessary that the curricula are changed leaving more space for teaching about women in history
I don't necessarily believe it's the schools fault, the schools offer what's in the text provided by the state. I feel like there is not really awareness about feminism, it's like what I was told about it was that feminism is trying to belittle men in every aspect and it's not about that it's about gaining equality for all and empowering women. it's misconceptions and the generalization that it's a bad thing which its because people aren't really aware of what it stands for and what lengths women have gone to in order to gain some momentum and the progress so far.
School system is a reflection of society. I don't think we can expect schools to give proper education in any way while society is rotten.
But obviously schools have a big influence and they should do much better than now.
But obviously schools have a big influence and they should do much better than now.
Teachers must follow the schedule, but they at least can mention some women who contributed to that discovery ou study, for an exemple. Besides, much more larger than that, the schedule must change in order to fill those blanks. As an example, a deputy here in Brazil has promulgate a law which inserts the teach of our Federal Constitution into the middle school program. That is a huge step for democracy, since here the only ones who knows the law are those who have a job related to it.
I feel the same way! The only time I really ever learned about feminism was in college. I took some Eng. Lit classes where we read some good fiction novels about it and also a fantastic American History Class, where I got a much better and deeper understanding of not only feminism, but also, civil rights movements and gender equality. Other than that, in high school, I didn't know that much about feminism at all, especially not in junior high. I wish I had known more about it sooner, I ended up enjoying those classes.
It's true that teachers must follow a schedule, but it's not impossible to mention important women or being inclusive. In my current society, I think asking for feminism/gender equality in school it's almost impossible, a miracle, but in the last years I've met wonderful teachers that try to be more inclusive, or to mention more important women or to make sure that girls and boys in their class don't follow the stereotypes. So, maybe change everything completely it's impossible, but a change has to start in some place and maybe by making little changes something can be achieved.I remember that my history textbooks (which the state provided) always include things about Frida Kahlo, the "adelitas" who fought in the Mexican Revolution and other women, but, for some reason my teachers never ever mentioned them.
The only women I remember learning about in the grade school level were Marie Curie, and Betsy Ross. I think History classes should do a two-set essay session. First all of the students should do an essay on a famous man in history, and in the second essay they should have the students write about an historical woman's contributions. If both male and female students have to write about both male and female historical figures then at least they'll be given some kind of gender equality.
I actually had amazing teachers in junior high & high school. One teacher taught a Woman's author's class & Ms. Crass is one of the reasons I am where I am today. Yes, history needs to be taught with an equal lense for sexes & cultures.Tonya, your idea has (kind of) already happened in at least one class! A 2nd grade teacher friend of mine had her students write an essay comparing & contrasting Mother Teresa and her work in India with LeBron. In a guided discussion about empathy, the 2nd grade class studied Mother Teresa & learned that LeBron James' foundation is funding the college education of 6,000 students in Ohio. The students wrote about how and why both were empathetic people. I will borrow this lesson one day.
I agree that more conversations in schools need to happen, but I also see women & men who are helping change that lense, which is an encouragement. As an educator myself, it's part of my goal to minimize the experience of someone getting through 13 years of education without learning about the impact women have had in history and the impact they will have in the 21st century. There is a ton of literature to use in addition to the curriculum given :)
AngelaWhen I was a student in school, teachers had a lot more power in choosing what they taught in school. But in the last twenty years, state governments have taken more control over the curriculum and through testing, made teachers more accountable for teaching the state mandated curriculum.
Since what teachers teach in U.S. public schools is a curriculum created by each state's government. It should be no surprise that a curriculum created by governments controlled by men fail to recognize the need to teach women's issues, both domestic and international. As a social studies teacher, I agree that students need to be taught these issues and would welcome a change In the curriculum. Curriculums change when the public demands they change.
The problem with school is that it seems that there are people who are divided onto smart ones, and those, ... not so smart, ... The real truth is that in our age, the school is high accomplished Reason Foundation. If someone don't know what I am talking about, you can read more at here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...We are divided onto 12+1 different thinking characters. All of them can exist in women and also in men. Because school system prefer only Reasons values, there Instincts fall out as below average and Emotions who are more good at sports, will get more bad ratings.
The only people who retains on Reasons sieve, are the ones who think mainly with Reason values (1/4 of people), where Emotions and Instincts who are also born all over the world, cannot have a chance to reach important position because of average or lower grades.
The school system however look at everyone through his own established norms, and does not want to hear for some other way of thinking. In short, the school system looks like this:
https://d324imu86q1bqn.cloudfront.net...
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I'm looking forward to see your comments:)