"He didn't read the book because it's for girls, he said." "He didn't read it. He didn't like it at all. " We received this feedback from the parents of two of the 4 year olds when they went home with 'Princesses Are Not Just Pretty' book after the Library Hour. The facilitator thought it would be interesting to get to the bottom of this 'boy-girl' bias for the book by reading it and discussing the same book in class. |
| When the preschoolers come in the morning to school, they have a play session (called Invitation To Play) where they are given a variety of things to play with to begin their day. Today, we decided to setup a kitchen set to play with where they were all to throw a birthday party for an imaginary princess which, they all happily agreed to. K and T: I am making tea for the princess. An: I am cleaning up, folding and ironing all her clothes. S: I am making chicken for the princess. Kr, H and At: We are all cleaning up ma'am for the princess! Together they all threw that princess the best birthday party ever and cleaned up after! |
F: Do you think this book is only for girls?
H: No it's for boys and girls. Because there are kings and princesses in the book.
K observing and nodding as if agreeing to the question whether this book is only for girls.
Aa loses his patience in the meanwhile and calls out to the facilitator: Ma'am can you please read the book?
F: Alright.
And the book reading began.
On the first page, it talks about how the three princesses were taking a break, drinking tea, after managing their kingdom. There was a discussion on what kingdom is, where a kingdom was compared to the size of a country where they all wowed and drifted off to an imaginary land.
F: What do princesses do?
T: Have lovely tea parties.
An: Long hair
…
This conversation didn't seem to go anywhere. So the facilitator decided to give the children another perspective on princesses as they were having difficulties imagining a princess to do anything else. Since there were lots of games being played in the class with a lot of superheores and robots and fire, the facilitator thought of it as a good connection to make.
F: Did you know there are princesses who can shoot arrows and fight with swords?
There was silence. There were no sparks. No connections.
So the facilitator decided to give an example,
F: Who here has watched Bahubali?
Most of them raised their hands to this!
F: Do you remember the princess in that movie who fought the bad guys with swords, bow and arrow?
Suddenly there were sparks in their eyes as if they were all in another land where they were witnessing princesses fighting wars and being heroes!
Both the boys and girls were completely in on reading the book after this. After finishing the book, they all collectively agreed that whether they are princesses or princes, kings or queens, we need to be kind, strong and compassionate and that it's not always about looking pretty.
Boys thing - girls thing is a very common distinction that's prevalent in our society today. It affects our children from such a young age and they refuse to participate in things that remotely resemble anything of the opposite sex, making children most of the time very inflexible and to start fights.
An amazing book as this would have gone unread if it wasn't read in class to everybody and broken the stereotype of this 'boy-girl' confusion. As parents and adults who work with children, we need to make sure that we let our children figure things out for themselves and not pass down stereotypes and belief systems that aren't productive. Children need to learn to look at the world and wonder, and not corner themselves saying they are limited only to certain types of things just because they are born in that gender! We need to teach them to be free and wild, just as how naturally they are!
Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.