Talking Point #9

Peggy Orenstein

"School Girls: Young Women, Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap"


Premise: (What is this About?)

1. Gender Equality
2. Sexism
3. Education/ Teaching

Argument:

I dont think there's a strong case for an argument here, but if i HAD to pick one i would think it's in the first two sentences that read,

"There is no single magic formula that will help girls retain their self-esteem. Scores of educators around the country are working to develop gender-fair curricula in all subjects and reexamining traditional assumptions about how children best learn."


My Thoughts:

First i wanna point out a quote from this reading that i found. It is by Emily Style and it reads, "Curriculum should be both a window and a mirror for students, that they should be able to look into others' worlds, but also see the experiences of their own race, gender, and class reflected in what they learn." More recently i believe this is becoming more prominant in schools, and is starting to be more of a preaching then a practice. To me it says that, what students learn should be a learning experience, all schooling requires some sort of learning, but it should also be reflective learning in which students can relate to based on their personal experiences. I have found this is be happening here at RIC in most of my classes, especially the class in which im writing this for, FNED 346.

But more on this reading, I liked how the teacher here, Ms. Logan incorporated here own idea on the curriculum of having the students present a monolouge on a FEMALE and MALE persona. She did this because she experienced this in which students had a choice and most of the time, female and male students would pick MALES. From my personal experience i have found this to be true. In my high school sociology class, the assignment was to give a presentation on ANYONE FAMOUS, teach everyone about someone who did something for society. Thinking back to it (we're talking like four years here) I believe EVERY one of my classmates picked a male (again i could be wrong) I personally chose a male comedian, Barry Horowitz a.k.a "Curly" from The Three Stooges lol. It's like in the story Ms. Logan said, "As long as it's required they accept it, But it wouldnt occur to them to choose it."

The point here, is when given the choice most students will pick a male because their seen as the heroins, the saviors that did everything for this country, but what about the woman who were by their side? or aided in their accomplishments because YOU KNOW they exist.

The story mostly tells about a classroom where the curriculum is centered around woman, and some males accept it, others dont like it. Same thing for girls in the class, it shows them how important they can be, but some also dont feel like their learning anything because there is no male involvement. In the end it, the students learn gender equality as one student said, "I dont see what the big deal is about women, I mean as long as they're interesting whats the difference if their woman, Woman are people too"