The surprising lesson I learned from 4th graders on International Women’s Day
As many of you know, I teach 4th grade in my day job and am quite passionate about my subjects-Science and Social Studies. I often take attendance by asking a question of the day and today it was “Who is a woman that you admire?” Easy enough question, right? I was truly surprised by how many of my kids couldn’t think of anyone to name. The most popular answer was “my mom,” and y’all mamas know you totally earn that! The second most popular answer was Rosa Parks because many of them did research on her for Reading class last week. Which is great…but how are those basically the only two admirable women they could think of?
So here’s what I am taking from this lesson…We (including me) need to do a better job at modeling for our kids respect and admiration towards women. We need to teach our sons that they can and should have female role models and that it does not take away from their own masculinity. We need to stop criticizing women in public roles for their hair, clothes, and body shapes. Because when you reduce a woman down to her physical traits in front of others (especially children), you are telling them that her worth comes from those things, her accomplishments notwithstanding.
So I’ll pose the question to all of you…Who is a woman you admire and why? I would love to share you answers with my classes tomorrow!
-Mandy