Comments on: Why Feminism Should Be Taught In School

By: Weekend Link Love « The Feminist Texican

Weekend Link Love « The Feminist Texican — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 14:04:58 +0000

[...] Small Strokes: Why Feminism Should Be Taught in School [...]

By: Carnival of Feminists | Small Strokes

Carnival of Feminists | Small Strokes — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:39:08 +0000

[...] teaching feminism in schools series (well, actually this post) has been included in the newest Carnival of Feminists hosted by the wonderful frau sally benz over [...]

By: I wish my high school had offered a women’s studies course « Emily Heroy

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:26:53 +0000

[...] Ashley over at Small Strokes Big Oaks, writes about this in her series on Feminism in Education. According to Ashley, some of the benefits of teaching feminism [...]

By: Criss

Criss — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:53:12 +0000

I love this idea! What better way to empower young women than to involve them in the process of creating and leading the club?

By: SueBee

SueBee — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 05:23:51 +0000

If you can’t get more feminism into the curriculum – which I find alarming after being out of high school for 17 years!) I suggest encouraging students to set up a womens’ history after school club. When I was a teen in Houston, we had Amnesty International, a movie club, religious and music clubs, and everything else under the sun. It seems like – if there’s other stuff going on after school – a club dedicated to studying women would be possible as well. Also, if it can’t be done at school, Students could also host it at home.

Good luck out there, everyone!

By: Criss

Criss — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:01:37 +0000

You’re right, I do have a pretty negative view of things. I just left the classroom after working in a department where the two teachers with whom I was supposed to work closely were your textbook burned-out, waiting-til-I-can-retire teacher. our dictrict gave us all the tools we could possibly hope for to incorporate more technology in the classroom (every student was given a laptop, on the school’s dime; training was offered weekly for programs/apps that we could seamlessly incorporate in our lessons), and these teachers spent all their time complaining about the “unreasonable” demands the district was making, and poring through their contracts to make sure they didn’t “have to” comply with these directives from admin.

I think it depends on the school, and of course the teacher. There are tons of teachers that happily embrace new ideas.

While I may be bitter about my own (recent) experiences, I need to stay positive, and remember all those other teachers I worked with who love their jobs and go above and beyond for their kids.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:06:24 +0000

Wow… even in a women’s college you were not required to take women’s studies classes? That would be like not taking religion at a Catholic university… I’m sure it happens, but it’s surprising to me.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:50:13 +0000

You make some great points here, but honestly, I cringe a little bit while I’m reading this for a few reasons. First of all, as a teacher, I have enormous faith in the public school system. I also have faith in my ability to do my job well, and I would never complain about adding something to the curriculum. I may be an anomaly, but I think some of this depends on your school’s atmosphere, and I think it is sort of unfair to make assumptions like this about the entire public school system as a whole. I am very fortunate to work in a district where the curriculum is fluid and constantly updated to meet the needs of students. Do we teach knowing there’s a test at the end of it? Of course. Who doesn’t? But we also keep in mind what will benefit our student population in the long run. I absolutely do not “drill and kill” for the test and if I did I’d probably lose my job.

Maybe I’m just extremely fortunate, but I hope not. I hope this sort of open-minded educational reform is happening in more places than just my school.

I do agree with all of your overhaul ideas, though, in regards to history and English curriculum.

By: Amy Steele

Amy Steele — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:41:27 +0000

It’s interesting that I went to a women’s college and we were not required to take ANY women’s studies/women’s issues classes. I think it should be part of a core curriculum. I did take an African-American History class and the history majors asked why I was there. Why? I shouldn’t even have had to answer that. By being at a women’s college I would have thought that I would get a broad-based education but there were still classes devoted solely to Women Writers (I was an English and Political Science major). In general I think my teachers in high school did a fair job with my studies and college was very good (there was variety and mention about women) but I still found I had to do my own research and projects on women’s issues.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:38:06 +0000

Yes. I agree. Generally, when teaching a classroom full of girls, there is an assumption that they won’t enjoy masculine things like, for example, Catcher in the Rye. This happens to be my favorite book, so I ignore assumptions like that and teach what we’re passionate about.

However, there are methods to teaching girls that will not work for boys and vise versa. My classes of boys wouldn’t respond to my niceness and gentleness, but would totally respond to my sarcasm and bad jokes. Of course, I’m talking about the class as a whole, not each individual student, but that’s a whole other can of worms…

I feel another post coming on.