This news talks about the assumption,
either of boys and girls, about boys being smarter than girls, at a
very young age.
The journal Science realized a study
on five-year-old children, boys and girls, and all of them encouraged
their own gender, showing girls saw themselves like as good as boys.
One year later, with six-year-old
children, the results weren't so satisfying. Both boys and girls saw
only the boys as powerful and strong, a fact experts think can be a
result of the influence of media, teachers and even parents.
This study consisted in different
experiments. One of them consisted in telling the children a story
with a “really, really smart” main character, but in which the
character's identity isn't shown clearly. Then, they asked the
children who they though the character was, and the results were
quite surprising: the five-year-old children answers are more or less
equalized between saying it was a boy and saying it was a girl; but
in the six-year-old children's case, practically all of them answered
it was a boy.
This study reveals that it is at the
age of six when girls start to underrate themselves in many aspects,
a fact that surprised many people. For example, Laura Lund, a primary
teacher, who was shocked when she knew this happened at a such young
age. She, talking about her experience with children, doesn't think
this happens at this age, but she agrees with the fact that it
happens, and that we should teach girls to value themselves.
A good way to do it is through books,
as it explains in this article. Books can have a big influence on
children, that's why it is important that they teach girls not to
underrate themselves. The article gives a list of some books that can
help empower young girls at a young age, and then it talks about an
activity held in a school. It consisted in rewriting Cinderella's
story to make it “more equal between women and men”. The report
says that kids enjoyed very much the activity and that they were so
enthusiastic.
PERSONAL OPINION:
As the article says, I think it is
important to teach girls the value they have, and it surprised me
that it is at this age when they start to underrate themselves. I
also agree with using books as a way to show this to the children,
and not only in books destined to girls, but also in books for boys.
Because girls guessed that a “really, really smart” character had
to be a boy, but boys also thought that, and I think we should try to
get to a point in which both, girls and boys, see that a girl can be
as smart as a boy. And also the other way, with things that normally
are identified with girls. For example, if they had said that the
character was very beautiful, maybe all of them would have guessed it
was a girl. So it is important to teach children that both, girls and
boys, can be smart and beautiful.
VOCABULARY:
· Bias: preferència, inclinació
· Loafer: mocassí
· Nurture: criar, criar
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