You may recall last month’s media tempest that swirled around the Toronto couple who are not revealing their third child's gender to anyone but their other children. Now we have an entire preschool in Sweden that is seeking to neutralize gender stereotyping as well.
The Egalia school in Stockholm places the Legos™ in close proximity to the play kitchen and when a squabble breaks out over the "mom" role being taken while playing house, it's suggested there can be another mom, or even three, says an Associated Press story detailing the school's efforts, which also include trying not to use masculine or feminine pronouns. Egalia is controversial even in a country in which gender stereotyping is taken seriously and “many preschools have hired ‘gender pedagogues’ to help staff identify language and behavior that risk reinforcing stereotypes,” the story says.
Blogger Tanja Bergkvist, described as “a leading voice against what she calls ‘gender madness’ in Sweden,” told the AP that “Different gender roles aren't problematic as long as they are equally valued.”
Whether you think they're dangerously radical or gloriously revolutionary, it seems the gender blender topic is on. Interestingly, two years before the Toronto parents did it, news emerged of a Swedish couple also choosing to keep the sex of their child a secret. And parents in Britain, fed up with the gender stereotyping in toy marketing, have now got two groups to challenge it: Pink Stinks and Child Rearing Against Patriarchy— CRAP.
No room for ambiguity there, is there?
The Egalia school in Stockholm places the Legos™ in close proximity to the play kitchen and when a squabble breaks out over the "mom" role being taken while playing house, it's suggested there can be another mom, or even three, says an Associated Press story detailing the school's efforts, which also include trying not to use masculine or feminine pronouns. Egalia is controversial even in a country in which gender stereotyping is taken seriously and “many preschools have hired ‘gender pedagogues’ to help staff identify language and behavior that risk reinforcing stereotypes,” the story says.
Blogger Tanja Bergkvist, described as “a leading voice against what she calls ‘gender madness’ in Sweden,” told the AP that “Different gender roles aren't problematic as long as they are equally valued.”
Whether you think they're dangerously radical or gloriously revolutionary, it seems the gender blender topic is on. Interestingly, two years before the Toronto parents did it, news emerged of a Swedish couple also choosing to keep the sex of their child a secret. And parents in Britain, fed up with the gender stereotyping in toy marketing, have now got two groups to challenge it: Pink Stinks and Child Rearing Against Patriarchy— CRAP.
No room for ambiguity there, is there?
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