Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!aero!orc.olivetti.com From: jan@orc.olivetti.com (Jan Parcel) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: womyn-only space vs. men-only space? Message-ID: <49489@ricerca.UUCP> Date: 4 Dec 90 20:58:57 GMT References: <1990Nov16.162945.19383@iti.org> <1990Nov26.050132.24561@iti.org> Sender: nadel@aerospace.aero.org Reply-To: jan@orc.olivetti.com Lines: 45 Approved: nadel@aerospace.aero.org Status: R In article greg@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Greg Bullough) writes: >In article <1990Nov26.050132.24561@iti.org> dhw@iti.org (David H. West) writes: >>Do those soc.feminism readers who support womanspace see the above as >>a supportable instance of boyspace? >Seems to me that the decision of whether to provide single-sex >classrooms needs to be based on a balanced view of what will best >result in, after 12 years, the achievement of goals in both >effective and affective education. > >Greg I have read some articles in soc.men about how early education has become a virtual matriarchy, and I have found my friend with sons, as well as myself with a younger daughter who is developing more like a boy re: educaion (this includes neurological stuff like large motor first or small motor first) have a lot of trouble with a system that prizes "cute", and passive, agreeable, people. I think a lot of elementary school teachers are very devoted but love kids too much, i.e. they have an investment in the kids as kids but not as individuals. More male teachers, and more Montessori-style or Piaget-oriented education, would be a good answer. If there is a shortage of such male teachers, I can see giving them to active, non-conforming boys first, but I would like to see 2 things re: this. 1. Try to get team-teaching with men and women in all classrooms some day, and 2. In the meantime, it is very important that these boy-oriented classrooms are accepting of these kids' activity levels but DON'T perpetuate the old stereotypes. In other words, it alarms me that the administration is blaming the presence of girls as a distraction for the problem -- this is a flag that they are thinking in old, sexist ways, and may create sexist boys out of this environment. The truth is that the system needs to accomodate the needs of active kids, and of kids who develop myelination (sp??) later than average (which is generally true of boys), and not require them to compete with cute little girls in a passivity contest. This is not the same as freedom from girls, it is freedom from an environment where most girls are selected for, which is not the girls' fault. ( I am coming to the conclusion that the system selects for female traits in early elementary school, and for male traits in math, science, etc. in high school. All this has to change.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ jan@orc.olivetti.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com