Web Exclusive - Politically Correct Preschools and their Discontents: One Teacher’s Story
Politically Correct or “PC” thinking is a potent force, operating at all levels of education in the U.S. Even preschool play is not immune from censorship of traditional tunes and gender-specific toys. From super-heroes to imaginary shoot-outs, from holiday celebrations to board games, teachers run the risk of offending colleagues and parents. Society expects educators to inculcate its values, even when these values are not congruent: for example, we value individual freedom and we value conformity; we value competition and altruism; we value immigration and high fences.
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The King of Denmark and the Naked Mole Rat: Teaching Critical Thinking for Social Justice
Asking hard questions is just that – hard. But if we are truly committed to teaching for social justice, we need to encourage our children to find as many points of view as they can, and to ask questions we may never be able to answer, knowing that education for citizenship lies in the process of thinking critically about the many sides of a question and working toward addressing the inequities this process reveals. If we find everyone to be in agreement, if we quickly find a consensus, we should acknowledge that someone must be missing. Whose voice is not being heard? We need to actively seek out views that contradict our own, or we may never truly understand our own views.
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Men, Masculinities, and Sexualities in Education and Society: A Call for Evolution!
Stubborn societal prejudices persist that inhibit this enlargement of gender roles for boys and men. Portrayals of men in popular culture tend to be brutish, ignorant, and violent – often in sexual and predatory ways. Boys in school are subjected to homophobia, racism, classism, and shame, as a means of policing their burgeoning identities and stifling anything that may be construed as “feminine”, so that being studious becomes considered “gay” or “sissy” or even “white”. Such narrow social expectations and a lack of options for enacting socially acceptable masculinities are at the root of contemporary struggles for boys and men, and risk becoming negative self-fulfilling prophecies. Increasingly, researchers in the growing field of boys’ and men’s studies are challenging traditions that perpetuate a patriarchal perception of boys and men, and instead subscribe to “masculinities”, or validating varied ways of being “male”.
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