Socialization and Gender in School

Lately, I've been feeling as though I have not been posting as many blogs as I should be this season. I've had a plethora of ideas, but can't seem to make the time to sit down and write them. So this is an attempt to break the monotony. It is a paper I had to write for sociology class. Hopefully, more entertaining stuff will follow.

When I was in grade school, the most out-spoken and rowdy children were usually boys. However, rarely did the teachers or principal ever dislike these children. I usually tried raised my hand to speak, but in the higher grades, fewer teachers held to this rule, and it was survival of the fittest as far as saying your opinion and answering questions. At this point, I have given up, unless I am having trouble getting my say in.

I did have a teacher who teased my friend and me once for getting sand in the sink, when earlier that week all the boys got in trouble for talking too much. The irony of the situation and reversal of expected gender roles was not lost on her. I also once had a teacher who divided the seating chart by having one side girls and the other boys. Few teachers did this because they thought it would cause too much trouble, but while she admitted to this fear, she decided to give it a chance in order to see what would happen.

When I was little, I always wanted to wear skirts to school, and didn't want to carry a backpack, because I had an ideal image of what a girl was supposed to look like walking to school. This consisted of girls crossing the crosswalk together, all wearing flowery dresses and carrying their books. I think this image came from whatever T.V. shows I liked to watch at the time. I suppose most of my ideas of gender standards that I learned from school came from the books we read in school and what I read outside of class. I figured the way the characters in books behaved was the way I was supposed to behave.

I also learned how I was supposed to act from observing what the other students, as well as the teachers, did. I had mostly female teachers during elementary school, except for the gym teacher. Many of the teachers I considered idols at the time so I emulated their behaviors. And most of my female teachers wore skirts and were relatively feminine although assertive.

Most teachers try to treat boys and girls the same, but it doesn't necessarily work. For one, boys and girls behave differently. There's the whole cootie situation; boys and girls don't want to be together under most situations, particularly when they are between the ages of about seven to twelve. Kids are afraid to be seen as “dating.” Besides, girls don't want to be seen as being tomboys, and boys don't want to seem girly, so they stick to rigid stereotypes and gender expectations.

Boys and girls are different than each other, and that will never change. Teachers need to be aware of that fact. Still, teachers need to hold both boys and girls to the same standards regarding performance and behavior.