All I could think about was tumblr while reading this. Ugh, haha. This story is so ridiculous.
Kindergarten Teacher Bans Legos For Boys Citing Gender Equity
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All I could think about was tumblr while reading this. Ugh, haha. This story is so ridiculous.
Ziltoidia 9
Member
Ive post it twice on gaf so far, haven't seen it elsewhere tho. I don't want to ruin the pic so I'll stop it.
LegendofDragoonLives
Member
What a complete fucking nutjob lol
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Outrage culture. Minor anecdote about small town school that affects at most a dozen or so kids for a few minutes for one day... basically, if this story is 100% true, the story is "A Bad Teacher Exists". Okay. Now package it up into an article that has a politically provocative point and share across the internet, now people from all sorts of countries can get REALLY ANGRY about SOCIETY THESE DAYS.
Looking at the outlets that have posted this over the last few days:
The original story went minorly viral on the following subreddits 5 days ago:
/r/rage (111 comments, 629 points. It was posted by this guy)
/r/TumblrInAction (365 comments, 1,393 points, posted by this guy).
As you can see both posters are basically full-time contributors of social justice content that will make you angry. To give context to /r/rage, they do have a rule against "manufacturing outrage" but the current top weekly posts are a waiter receiving something mean on a receipt; a random person's facebook comment; a random person's tweet; an article from Tucker Carlson's site; and an animated gif of someone skateboarding while holding a baby. So I think I've established that it's mostly very small stakes stuff blowing up into viral ragegasms.
Although the original story died out, today the CBS story it got posted on reddit (presumably /r/news is the source for it being posted here). It was posted here 30 minutes ago and there are over 100 replies. Looked through the first 120 or so and here's what I found:
Posts less than 3 lines long but angry about this: ~95
Corrections: ~7-8
Other: ~10
So, mission accomplished. Outrage generated. FUCK THIS WOMAN, FUCK THIS TEACHING, UGH, FUCK, SOCIETY, FUCK
Looking at the outlets that have posted this over the last few days:
The original story went minorly viral on the following subreddits 5 days ago:
/r/rage (111 comments, 629 points. It was posted by this guy)
/r/TumblrInAction (365 comments, 1,393 points, posted by this guy).
As you can see both posters are basically full-time contributors of social justice content that will make you angry. To give context to /r/rage, they do have a rule against "manufacturing outrage" but the current top weekly posts are a waiter receiving something mean on a receipt; a random person's facebook comment; a random person's tweet; an article from Tucker Carlson's site; and an animated gif of someone skateboarding while holding a baby. So I think I've established that it's mostly very small stakes stuff blowing up into viral ragegasms.
Although the original story died out, today the CBS story it got posted on reddit (presumably /r/news is the source for it being posted here). It was posted here 30 minutes ago and there are over 100 replies. Looked through the first 120 or so and here's what I found:
Posts less than 3 lines long but angry about this: ~95
Corrections: ~7-8
Other: ~10
So, mission accomplished. Outrage generated. FUCK THIS WOMAN, FUCK THIS TEACHING, UGH, FUCK, SOCIETY, FUCK
DragonSworne
Banned
Don't let other posters PC your meme usage. If mods want to ban a meme, then let them.
SDCowboy
Member
Why get rid of the dolls? There is nothing wrong with girls wanting to play with girl toys. The school should let the kids make their own decisions on what they want to play with but make sure there enough of each type of toy so both genders can play with either or both of they wish.
This would work. Maybe also get a set of dolls/crayons or whatever for only boys then both genders get equal access to all sets of toys and junk.
This is true as well.
Maybe she could have asked the children why they would rather play with one set of toys over the other. Maybe it's not "Only boys like that" and more "I'd RATHER play with these".
You don't ask, you don't find out. *shrug*
I remember my preschool teacher did this once because when we all ran in first thing the boys did was run towards the DUPLO firemen (they had motorcycles!) I probably still remember it solely because I was pissed that we didn't get to play with them and the girls never touched them... probably not the formative experience the teacher wanted 
This is not true. I thought it was a meme at first, but some people really believe this.
Used to stomp my legos all the time as a kid. Unless they are making spikes now, I don't think they hurt.
perfectchaos007
Member
Force the girls to play with legos
Force the boys to play with dolls
"free choice" play with gender equity achieved!
Zoe
Member
Because "dolls offer little challenge or opportunity for growth."
Guess role playing is useless in her eyes.
Coffee Dog
Banned
What exactly is this woman guilty of? Trying to make things easier for girls on some small level?
I shouldn't be surprised that's considered so offensive, but I am.
I shouldn't be surprised that's considered so offensive, but I am.
styl3s
Member
My feet aren't made of concrete so i have hurt my foot many of times on Lego.
Usually when i left one on its shit and the middle of my foot hit the corner.
A lot of people find it more frustrating than offensive.
It's not your job to tell a kid what they can or can't play with. You want equality? Let them play with whatever the fuck they want to play with.
Classic backtracking and is in no way believable. I've meet people like this before, sure we all have at some point, where to build up one thing they purposefully hold something else back. That's exactly what she's doing here. Using "always" does not make me think she's just talking about doing it one month. That sounds like and very likely is an ongoing thing.
There is another thing happening here. Her actions possible erode trust those boys will have in her as a teacher or authority figures in general. If something happens often enough kids will catch on to it.
This as well. It could be an issue of not enough supply or just general interest.
Mammoth Jones
Member
Dude, they're 5. Five.
Can't they just be kids without having to atone for the fuck up those that came way before them implemented?
Not letting boys play with certain toys "because girls" is fucking ridiculous.
She want's to engage in social engineering but ran into road blocks because the girls still preferred dolls even with more legos provided.
So then decides to stop boys from playing w/ legos....because if the girls don't use them then the boys shouldn't either?
Fuck that. Let those kids be kids. If they wanna play with dolls, let em. if they wanna play with legos, let em.
As a parent I wouldn't want her teaching my kids. 5 is too young for indoctrination and manipulation.
She is guilty of depriving boys for the sake of "making things easier" for girls.
None of the children should be deprived of their educational toys. They should all have equal access and opportunity.
Zoe
Member
You don't make things easier for girls by taking away from the boys.
Impeccable
Member
One teacher.
This shouldn't even be news let alone something that goes viral.
This shouldn't even be news let alone something that goes viral.
Alcotholic
Banned
She should ban girls from playing with dolls and only let boys play with dolls.
I am not sure if this is satire or not.
Children in practically all cultures play with dolls. By emulating how the adults in their lives care for children, kids learn how to care for others. As play and imagination gets more complicated, dolls are a great prop for role play and creative storytelling. Dolls are great, it makes me sad to see western cultures associate them only with a rigid idea of femininity and then reject them as if its the dolls' fault.
GeordieMark
Member
Yep. Its just another way of saying "I know better than you". Its a really arrogant term.
Skellig Gra
Member
Talk about the blind leading the blind.
Crazyorloco
Member
She should Get the frozen lego set. Im getting that for my daughter. Im actually going to enjoy putting this together.
I feel that legos are for everyone. My daughter likes all of them. Even the ones not geared to girls.
I feel that legos are for everyone. My daughter likes all of them. Even the ones not geared to girls.
This is the sort of thing you only say if your ideology lines up with the person being accused of wrongdoing.
If it's anything like the class my wife teaches, the boys are far more aggressive about what they want than the girls(and some of the boys) are and will rush to the toys and fight for the ones they want. The little girls simply accept it and move on. So rather than institute a "no one in your gender gets to play with this" policy, she made weekly sign up sheets for the toys. So going into each day, each child knows what they're going to be playing with, and if they change their mind and another student wants to swap with them, they can do that as well. Unfortunately simply letting the kids go to the toys they want will often result in kids not being able to play with the toys they want to. It's easily remedied though without lying to the children.
Did you even read the thread title? Those kids are in kindergarten. That's about 8 years too early to play with their male privilege.
Vincent Grayson
Member
To be fair, your second point is supported directly by Lego: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...rds=lego+friends&sprefix=lego+friends,aps,118
Vigilant Walrus
Member
I've worked in a daycare for a number of years, and there was never a problem. We had a massive lego corner and as far as I remember it was pretty 50/50 Split between who played with the LEGOs.
but boys are always problematic. Or some of them are, because they have just too much energy. We couldn't always faciliate it. When our class rooms have 30+ kids and 4-5 boys who display massive ADHD symptoms we just have to tell them go outside because, we're 2 adults taking care of 90 kids, while still having to answer the phone, preparing meals, talk to parents.
boys lose out because they are not as good as sitting still and keep it down. Its just easier dealing with girls, because you can always sit them down, tell them to read, draw or play a game.
I've always felt bad about that because our solution to help these wild boys is just always give them ritalin. That is the right thing to do some of the time, but I don't think it should be this fire-sure solution.
But this has nothing to do with gender equality, feminism or anything. It has just something to do that our public school institution are not good enouge at egaging boys at a level that makes sense, and even when we are, by taking them out to play sports- we still loose other kids in the process who are not into physical sports.
I got heavy into roleplaying with them. making plastic foamswords in a workshop was a big hit, as was doing treasure hunting on the play ground. But it's really limited on how much we can facilitate their learning.
It leads to low self worth, that they are unwanted and cliques. it's weird seeing social hierarchy patterns forming in 6 year olds depending on how good they are at sport or how strong they are.
The other big thing from my workplace, was that DS and 3DS was just the king. when we really couldn't facilitate the kids, then we would roll out "gameboy playtime" and it would just be a sea of (mostly boys) playing mario, pokemon, batman and lego star wars.
but boys are always problematic. Or some of them are, because they have just too much energy. We couldn't always faciliate it. When our class rooms have 30+ kids and 4-5 boys who display massive ADHD symptoms we just have to tell them go outside because, we're 2 adults taking care of 90 kids, while still having to answer the phone, preparing meals, talk to parents.
boys lose out because they are not as good as sitting still and keep it down. Its just easier dealing with girls, because you can always sit them down, tell them to read, draw or play a game.
I've always felt bad about that because our solution to help these wild boys is just always give them ritalin. That is the right thing to do some of the time, but I don't think it should be this fire-sure solution.
But this has nothing to do with gender equality, feminism or anything. It has just something to do that our public school institution are not good enouge at egaging boys at a level that makes sense, and even when we are, by taking them out to play sports- we still loose other kids in the process who are not into physical sports.
I got heavy into roleplaying with them. making plastic foamswords in a workshop was a big hit, as was doing treasure hunting on the play ground. But it's really limited on how much we can facilitate their learning.
It leads to low self worth, that they are unwanted and cliques. it's weird seeing social hierarchy patterns forming in 6 year olds depending on how good they are at sport or how strong they are.
The other big thing from my workplace, was that DS and 3DS was just the king. when we really couldn't facilitate the kids, then we would roll out "gameboy playtime" and it would just be a sea of (mostly boys) playing mario, pokemon, batman and lego star wars.
GeordieMark
Member
2 adults looking after 90 kids? How is that even possible?
But isn't Lego influenced by the evil sexist society she's fighting against?
Coffee Dog
Banned
So...stick to the status quo? There is currently a massive problem with gender roles and unless actions are taken, it won't be remedied anytime soon. And we're condemning a woman for trying.
But really, considering the focus of all your posts are the absolute horror that boys might potentially not be equal in one singular, tiny microcosm of society (to the point of outrage!), I might be barking up the wrong tree here.
Thanks Stump came to say the same. This thread is embarrassing, nobody knows what stakes are anymore. At some point the threshold for reporting (or maybe for "going viral") went from "this thing matters" to "this thing simply exists".
Also for anybody who's actually been to Bainbridge Island this story is particularly funny. Median family household income is $100,000+. Somehow I think those kids are going to find a way to persevere in the face of this oppression.
Also for anybody who's actually been to Bainbridge Island this story is particularly funny. Median family household income is $100,000+. Somehow I think those kids are going to find a way to persevere in the face of this oppression.
Wikipedia said:
SDCowboy
Member
I'm glad kids are even still allows to play with fake swords honestly.
From the article, it sounds more like the girls in that class just don't give a damn about Legos, or building, since she straight up made a girls only Lego club and tried to give the girls their own and both ideas apparently flopped. So basically no one's playing with the Legos right now, right?
Bingo.
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