Genders Effect In The Education Setting
Throughout elementary and middle and high school I only attended public schools. In my elementary school, I only can remember 1 male teacher. His name was Mr.Erickson, and he was my 5th-grade teacher. He and his wife taught together at the school and both my sister had both Mr. and Mrs.Erickson. I remember him being such an amazing teacher. It really did not seem out of place to me though. Looking back I am more aware that he was one of the only male teachers in the whole school. We always had male principals though.
In the TedTalk by Amber Briggle, she talked about her personal experience with having a transgender son. She talked a lot about how she always knew that she had a son, not a daughter. Transitioning is hard for the child but can also be difficult for the parents. Briggle talked about how at first she still wanted to have her daughter but she could dress differently. She said, “it's easy to make snap judgments and discriminate against an entire group of people that we know nothing about”. She also talked about advocating for transgender students and colleagues. You have more of a voice than they might think they have. So many children feel this way and so many families go through this. In school, “Students who experienced high levels of gender-identity harassment were more likely to skip school for safety reasons and to have significantly lower grade-point averages than their peers who experienced little to no harassment.” (Carrie Kilman)
I feel like teaching is viewed as a feminine line of work, and I hate that. There should be no gender attached to any line of work. Anyone who has the patience and the drive to be a teacher can be a teacher no matter gender.
When it comes to students and gender having an effect in schools, I think it all comes down to acceptance. It does not change who someone is as a person because they want to identify as something else. Support all students, you never know what is going on inside their heads, studies show that 41% of transgender students attempt suicide. I want my classroom in the future to be a safe space where students know they can come and talk to me or just sit.
Transgender kids are just kids after all | Amber Briggle | TEDxTWU
Hi Abbey! I really enjoyed your blog this week! I also had very few teachers throughout my public school experience, though I do remember kids talking in my elementary school about how there were hardly any male teachers. Of course, we were so young we didn't think anything of it, just a simple observation. I hate that so many gender stereotypes exist in education, and it makes me sad to think the would could be missing so many great teachers just because it was seen as a feminine job. I like how you talked about how transitioning is also difficult for parents, because it can be hard to part with a specific way of viewing someone, especially their own child. I do wonder if there are also resources in place to help the parents as well as the children, as I feel that this could be a valuable resource in helping families avoid conflicts.
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