In Karen Keller’s kindergarten classroom, boys can’t play with Legos.
They can have their pick of Tinkertoys and marble tracks, but the colorful bricks are “girls only.”
“I always tell the boys, ‘You’re going to have a turn’ — and I’m like, ‘Yeah, when hell freezes over’ in my head,” she said. “I tell them, ‘You’ll have a turn’ because I don’t want them to feel bad.”
Although her approach might anger some parents, Keller is sticking to her guns: It’s all part of a plan to get girls building during “free choice,” the 40 minutes of unstructured play time embedded at the end of every school day.
And why, you might ask?
Lego play, Keller found, has been widely attributed to accelerating development and helping children fine-tune spatial and math skills, two of the largest areas of cognitive disparity between men and women.
Short version: "The girls aren't playing the way I think they should, and Legos might help the boys, so screw the boys. And 'free choice' means you play with what I want you to."
I'll bet she bitches about public schools not getting the support she thinks they should, too.
4 comments:
Legos? Tinkertoys? We didn't have that shit when I was in kiddie garden. We had dirt and rocks.
Dirt and Rocks? You were lucky. We had broken glass and dead rats. We used to DREAM of having dirt and rocks to play with.
Sorry, I just have to since it's my favorite part:
"...and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah.'"
That kind of 'free choice' is like asking a six year old if they want broccoli, asparagus, or brussles sprouts.
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