I found Thorne’s article on gender separation is school’s very interesting. All throughout my childhood and I’m sure many other’s childhoods girls and boys have been separated. As I was reading the article I found myself remembering doing the same things that the children Thorne observed were doing. There was always a boy’s team and a girl’s team, boys and girls never really played together, and they almost never sat together at lunch. If a boy ever did venture into girls “territory” or vice versa he/she was almost always ridiculed and made fun of. This never really occurred to me as gender separation until I read Thorne’s article. I have to say I never really thought of it as gender separation, but what I find most interesting is that these groups are made without the enforcement of an adult. Boys and girls separate on their own without any second thought as to what they are doing.
Posted by Erin Ruane at October 6, 2005 01:56 PMI think that the way in which children are socialized depends in part on where they grow up. Breaking gender barriers for small children (allowing boys to play with dolls and giving little girls trucks) has become almost as trendy as "self-esteem" and "multiple intelligences" were several years ago. This conciousness is illustrated well by such articles as "What are little boys made of?" There seems to be a growing base of parents supporting the idea of re-examining how children's play is gendered.
Posted by: Morgan Keil at October 6, 2005 11:02 PMi think that boys and girls should because they will know how to communitcate with a boy when they see them. I kids grow up with the same sex then that's the only person they are going to talk to. So why not have them go to school together and that way when a boy wants asks do you want to have sex then she would know to say no.
Posted by: meme at March 13, 2007 01:48 PM