Request for help on sexism inscription

[Amy L Sheldon]

There is something called an "Anti-bias preschool curriculum".  Materials
exist.  It is a well-publicized area in preschool education.  Have your
student contact NAEYC - Nat'l Assn for the Education of Young Children.
They have a journal -_Young Child_ - for practitioners which is also read
by and contributed to by researchers.  I know of at least one active group
at Pacific Oaks College in CA which has put together  Anti-bias
Curriculum materials (mentioned below).

My essay "Kings are Royaler Than Queens: Language and
Socialization" appeared in the NAEYC journal, _Young Child_ 45.2, 4-9
1990. It is written from the perspective of a parent of young children who
are picking up sexism through language.  Judging from the requests to
anthologize it since then, I'd say there's a lot of activity in
reeducation to antibias materials for the children as well as their
educators.

One place in which "Kings are Royaler..." has been anthologized is in the
Derman-Sparks anthology:

1992. L. Derman-Sparks (ed.)  Deepening Our Understanding of Anti-bias
Education for Children: An Anthology of Readings, 174-179,
Pasadena, CA: Pacific Oaks College.

Derman-Sparks would be a good contact person for these materials
and other info on how to promote change in a preschool setting.  In my
experience with my children's preschool, it takes
awareness, commitment, and long range re-education of the staff.  It can
be done.

Based on my research results on children's conversations, it is not a
guarantee that children will be immune to all sexism, but it is an
innoculation.  The children I studied were in an environment in which an
anti-bias curriculum was being implemented...

Amy Sheldon
U of Minnesota
 On Mon, 2 Oct
2000, M. J. Hardman wrote:

> A foreign student in my Language and Gender class reported to me that her
> little 4 year old boy is learning sexism at an alarming rate.  He is in
> preschool.
>
> Do any of you have suggestions on how to protect him from his environment
> here?
>
> MJ Hardman
>