Seventh Grades and Sexism

The chapter I chose to read was Seventh Graders and Sexism by Lisa Espinosa.  I decided on this selection because it stood out to me the most.  This is because sexism was always an issue and still is.  It is important to teach our youth about these stereotypes and false representations of females and males.

Lisa opens her article talking about herself and relating that to the topic.  When she wrote this, she was a new teacher who wanted to help her students analyze media stereotypes.  Growing up she can from a Mexican family which is also the majority of the population where she teaches.  She believes that women of color are greatly impacted by these stereotypes and is an advocate for them.    

When she was a child, she quickly came to a realization that there was a double standard, and there still is.  This is why she wants to analyze this with her students.  Boy were/are taught to be tough, strong, and independent.  However, girls were/are taught to clean, cook, and be nice.

Although Lisa knows she cannot fix this social injustice, she wants to make an impact and hopes to do so in her classroom.  As an educator, coming from a minority background, she believes it is part of her responsibility to address this topic with her seventh graders.

“I had become worried when, in answers to a question about their future hopes and dreams, several girls had responded “to find a guy to take care of me” or “to get married,” whereas nearly all the boys had mentioned either an educational or professional goal.” (Espinosa 154)

This quote above from her article made her come to the realization that she needed to teach her students about gender.  Hearing the terms “gay” and “faggot” being used in her classroom was not acceptable, nor should it be.  To start off a unit on this, she used a text selection of An Island Like You byJudith Ortiz Cofer. 

To examine stereotypes the children were familiar with, she began with two posters that said “Act Like a Man” and “Be Ladylike.”  The kids had to come up with words or phrases they have heard of for each poster.  After this part of the unit, she noticed the students were still struggling to think critically to understand this concept of stereotyping.

I can relate with Espinosa in her section on Finding Resources.  This is because she mentions that background information on this topic is not found in textbooks.  I have caught myself trying to teach my students things that are not found in textbooks and it is a challenge, especially when they are not yet critical thinkers.  She also continues to talk about having a large class size which includes some emergent bilinguals.

I really liked the author’s idea about Free Writing.  The free writing gave the students an opportunity to create a story based on what they have learned thus far.  I was happy to find that Lisa was surprised by some of her students’ work when she was discouraged at first for their lack of critical thinking.

Lastly, she analyzed media using magazines!  This quickly related me to our guest in class yesterday, Brittany Richer.  Brittany showed us great examples of her students’ work on analyzing magazines on stereotypes.  This is something I would like to incorporate in my classroom as a very basic project since my students are only nine years old.

This was a great read and I highly recommend it!