The Influence Of Gender Bias In Education

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For some, when they see girls they tend to think of them as princesses, and when they see the boys they tend to think of them as rough and tumbled. Parents, society, and the classroom contribute to these gender related messages by reinforcing the gender roles such as, what kind of clothing a child should wear and what kind of toy a child should play with based on one’s sex. In past centuries, the differences between boys and girls was measured differently by parents, society, and in the classroom based on one’s gender; today, this still holds true. First, for some parents when they see their baby girl for the first time think of pink, and when they see their baby boy for the first time think of blue. Pink and blue seem to have become the universal …show more content…

In Amanda Chapman’s article, “Gender Bias in Education”, Chapman writes that “the socialization of gender within our schools assures that girls are made aware that they are unequal to boys Every time students are seated or lined up by gender, teachers are affirming that girls and boys should be treated differently” (Chapman 1). In the past, gender stereotyping probably was more prevalent in schools because of the old way of thinking that boys should be boys and girls should be girls. Today, gender biases in schools still exist even if not on the same scale as in the past. Girls are swayed towards being cheerleaders and boys towards rough and tumbled sports. Another example of how some schools treat boys and girls differently is by actually having gender-segregated classrooms. In the article, “Gender Segregation: Separate But Effective?” by Teaching Tolerance, the article notes that “in 2002, only 11 public schools in the United States had gender-segregated classrooms. As of December 2009, there were more than 550” and that “the movement is based on the hypothesis that hard-wired differences in the ways that male and female brains develop and function in childhood through adolescence require classrooms in which boys and girls are not only separated by gender, but also taught according to radically different methods” (Teaching Tolerance 1). One of the methods used to teach boys and girls different in the

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