Entry # 25: If teachers and schools
don't honor women, then who will?
It's Women's History month and I am painfully aware of how much I miss my
"Ask the Girls" club. We used to meet each Friday to talk, to
laugh, to learn together. No matter how tired I was by week's end, our meetings
always gave me a lift.
I'm happy to say the club is still going strong! About 25 girls are meeting
with a colleague of mine to keep the work alive. So far this year, they've
raised funds to support a visiting speaker about self defense and they're
continuing with their focus on non-traditional design and building activities
with K-Nex and LINX materials.
I sponsored the club for five years at Central East Middle, and last year
we branched out to two other schools as well. With the help of a good friend
and colleague from our central science department, we've been able to extend
support to this blossoming network with both building materials and texts.
My club's existence was always met with a range of attitudes from the faculty.
Some teachers saw it as my pet project. They weren't opposed to it, but
they thought the boys were in crisis and needed the attention more. Other
colleagues dismissed the club as missing the mark, saying things like, "the
girls are worse that the boys with their talk and their behavior in the
halls."
A policy in name only?
We never got around to a full staff discussion of gender issues or Board
Policy 103 , which deals with "Procedures for Processing Sexual
Harassment Complaints." The policy was distributed last year in the
small learning communities, but as a specialist, I was outside that loop.
I never saw or heard any evidence of a full school press for understanding
of the policy. I wasn't aware of any steps to infuse our curriculum or climate
with a more balanced approach in terms of either gender awareness or sexual
orientation.
The only time I ever heard the policy mentioned it was in reference to discipline.
Students were being talked to individually if they crossed the line from
acceptable to unacceptable behaviors, if they were caught or reported for
their actions, and we all knew that was a big "if".
Given this narrow, legalistic approach, I wasn't surprised when the girls
in my club complained about the ways they were treated and their confusion
about the best way(s) to respond. Nobody wants to be seen as being unable
to take a joke. Nobody wants to be ostracized for being a snitch. Girls
want to be popular and most want to attract boys. Let's just say that confusion
and mixed messages are the rule and not the exception.
Widespread neglect of gender issues
Before sitting down to write this entry, I took to my shelves. I was looking
through Turning Points 2000 for any specific mention of gender equity
or a special focus on the needs of girls, but I found none. I also pulled
down A Tribe Apart by Patricia Hersch to see what emphasis she had
given to the particular interests and experiences of girls.
Hersch does mention "Hostile Hallways," the American Association
of University Women's Report on Sexual Harassment in America's Schools,
and there are sections in her book where girls are talking about teen pregnancy,
abortion rights and safe sex, but there's not a consistent focus on any
of these issues.
It's as if reports and books either deal only with gender issues or they
skip any serious discussion of them altogether. I don't like the message
of this widespread neglect.
I also dislike the way we cut up the pie of concern. I want to focus on
gender issues without feeling like I'm belittling the importance of dealing
with racial and class bias. Just as I support looking at the integration
of the curriculum, I strongly suggest that we need to deal with the multi-layered
aspects of our students' identities.
I don't want to argue over which group is more at risk and then dole out
the crumbs we're allocated to meet their needs. Boys are in trouble in our
schools and boys of color are literally dying before our eyes on our streets.
Watching the nightly news and reading our data merely confirms our experience.
Yet I know that our girls are in trouble too. More girls do graduate, but
they do not realize their potential. Drug use and gang membership is on
the rise among females, as is their presence in the prison population. When
we talk about teen pregnancy we know it's the lives of girls that suffer
the greatest long- or short-term impact. And last, but certainly not least,
when we hear about domestic violence, we know that the overwhelming majority
of the victims are female.
Cameras and cops aren't the answer
In the New York city subways they are currently running a public awareness
campaign about domestic violence. The cars are filled with the bright faces
of women of all cultures and races. The pictures look like the kind that
should be boasting with most likely to succeed captions, but their message
is much more deadly.
Instead each picture is joined to a caption like, "most likely to experience
acquaintance rape" or "most likely to be beaten by a boyfriend
with a belt." After just a few minutes, I couldn't even look at the
ads. I stood looking at my feet instead.
Here in Phila., the Daily News ran an article a few weeks ago on "Peer
Predators." The story detailed the escalating assaults that young girls
were facing on the school yards across the city. In addition to the age-old
bra snapping, boys at one area middle school were now chasing girls to grab
and twist their nipples.
At an elementary school, boys were being taunted as "virgins"
unless they could punch a girl in the crotch in front of witnesses. Finally,
they talked about "freaking",
a process where a group of boys surround a girl and simulate unwanted sex
and grope at her, while others act as lookouts.
While I am deeply disturbed by these extreme examples of molestation and
assault and I support more adult supervision and security, I don't think
cameras and cops are the answer.
Until we truly celebrate our diversity and acknowledge all of our different
ways of knowing and contributing to our communities, our schools will continue
to reflect the ills of our unbalanced society. Until all voices are encouraged
and heard, the marginalization of females will continue.
Physical violence is abhorrent, but the day-to-day second-class status that
is afforded our girls can be just as deadly in the long run.
I plan to observe Women's History Month by pressing for the ongoing discussion
of these issues. I know I'll be put off until later, it has happened before.
I need to figure out how to stand my ground. I can't allow gender equity
to be seen as my "pet project" any longer. There's far too much
at stake.
" I would have girls regard themselves not as adjectives
but as nouns..." -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Here are some resources for Women's
History Month
[Editor's note: Deb is co-moderator of the
MiddleWeb listserve.]
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