Wm just finished up two weeks of at STEM camp at his school. He had a great time learning about basic electricity, Lego robotics, computer programming through Scratch, "non-Newtonian" substances, etc. Really his only suggestion was that they needed more time to play sports (can't get that kid to sit still for too long!). My complaint was that the first week, his camp at 16 boys and 2 girls. The second week was 17 boys and 1 girl. As an almost-math-major and from a family with women who "do math," I found this really disappointing.
The same week, I received Pottery Barn Kids back-to-school catalog. Wm needed a new backpack, and his $15 Target Planes backpack from last year (which he loved despite never having seen the movie?) was totally dead, so I thought I'd splurge on a more expensive one to see if it would last longer. I opened the catalog to find 21 different backpacks with pink and purple and only 9 for boys, all blue.
Between these two things, I've been fired up all week about gender differentiation. Some friends posted on my FB rant that the camp should offer a girls-only camp -- which, by the way, it does. BUT, as a mother of three boys, this doesn't satisfy me. All it does is show my boys that girls can only "do science" if they're in a special program. Same at Target where, apparently, girls can only "do Legos" if they are pink and purple and involve ponies.
And what would happen if a girl wanted a red backpack? Or of my son wanted an orange one? Not a single gender neutral option available! (in fairness, I did just check the PBKids website and, under the "Boys Fairfax" collection, they do offer navy/red/green solids and stripes ... but apparently a solid red backpack is only ok for boys? Girls colors are powder pink, lavender and baby blue)
I brought these concerns up with a neighbor (who has one boy and one girl) to see if I was over reacting. She shares a dislike of pink Legos. She also said that after Google's diversity report, she's relaxed restrictions on her daughter's "productive" screen time and asked her husband (who is a programmer) to spend extra time on the computer with their daughter, to make sure their daughter has a basic working knowledge.
Kudos out there to parents of girls who are trying to bring up women with confidence that they can "do science" without having a "special" set aside from them. And I'm on the hunt for more gender balanced science camps, so my sons can passively understand that gender doesn't play into STEM ability.
The same week, I received Pottery Barn Kids back-to-school catalog. Wm needed a new backpack, and his $15 Target Planes backpack from last year (which he loved despite never having seen the movie?) was totally dead, so I thought I'd splurge on a more expensive one to see if it would last longer. I opened the catalog to find 21 different backpacks with pink and purple and only 9 for boys, all blue.
Between these two things, I've been fired up all week about gender differentiation. Some friends posted on my FB rant that the camp should offer a girls-only camp -- which, by the way, it does. BUT, as a mother of three boys, this doesn't satisfy me. All it does is show my boys that girls can only "do science" if they're in a special program. Same at Target where, apparently, girls can only "do Legos" if they are pink and purple and involve ponies.
And what would happen if a girl wanted a red backpack? Or of my son wanted an orange one? Not a single gender neutral option available! (in fairness, I did just check the PBKids website and, under the "Boys Fairfax" collection, they do offer navy/red/green solids and stripes ... but apparently a solid red backpack is only ok for boys? Girls colors are powder pink, lavender and baby blue)
I brought these concerns up with a neighbor (who has one boy and one girl) to see if I was over reacting. She shares a dislike of pink Legos. She also said that after Google's diversity report, she's relaxed restrictions on her daughter's "productive" screen time and asked her husband (who is a programmer) to spend extra time on the computer with their daughter, to make sure their daughter has a basic working knowledge.
Kudos out there to parents of girls who are trying to bring up women with confidence that they can "do science" without having a "special" set aside from them. And I'm on the hunt for more gender balanced science camps, so my sons can passively understand that gender doesn't play into STEM ability.
2 comments:
Yay, Pam!
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