Seriously? All these poor first graders need is social constructionists trying engineer their recess time. I'd think that an educated person like you would understand the phrase "free play time". These kids get bossed around enough by parents, teachers and whoever else, a reasonably sane person would think they could at least be left alone for the thirty minutes or so a day that make up their recess time.

Trust me when I say that these little boys don't see not playing with girls as a "lost opportunity". I'm sure they're thrilled to be left alone. The girls can start their own game and knowing 1st grade girls like we all do I'm sure that if they feel they're getting treated unfairly they'll go straight to the teacher, recess monitor or whoever to narc the boys out, plead their case and get immediate positive feedback. What will then follow is the teacher or whoever inserting themselves into what should be a social interaction between peers, the girls getting the court or whatever and the boys going off to do something else as a group rather than be pushed into some wanna be social engineer's idea of playground equality.

First grade boys wanting to play ball with other first grade boys without interference from little girls or adult overseers isn't a pathology nor is it a behavior that needs to be somehow "fixed". It appears your son understands this reality, maybe you should ask him to expand on it for you. Perhaps there's another dissertation in there somewhere.

Monday, March 5, 2012 at 7:56am EST

Unfortunately, you%u2019ve completely failed to understand my argument. And frankly I%u2019m a bit surprised at your insistence on reinforcing traditional, stereotypical expectations of children%u2019s play. I%u2019m a huge fan of free play, as can be seen by my previous posts (http://fairgamenews.com/2011/02/our-tiger-life-15-minutes-of-recess-in-7-hours-of-kindergarten-whats-happening-to-play/, http://fairgamenews.com/2010/10/drafted-at-5-how-to-get-kids-sport-skills-without-burning-out/). If you take the time to read either my dissertation or Barrie Thorne%u2019s book, you would understand that in this patriarchal society, too many girls don%u2019t have the same opportunities as boys to develop athletic skills or even interest in sports%u2014both of which are necessary for participation. When boys dominate the space and equipment during FREE play time, girls are the ones who don%u2019t have the privilege of unlimited choices in what they can play. As I stated in my post, I%u2019m not arguing that we make girls play sports during recess, or even play with the boys. I%u2019m arguing that they have equal access to space and equipment to enjoy their free play time in whatever way they choose. Furthermore, girls more often need to be encouraged (especially early on) to play athletic games, rather than dismissing their interest in sports in deference to what grown-ups (and it seems, you) think they like to do. Limiting opportunities or allowing stereotypical ideas of girls%u2019 and boys%u2019 interests to prevail during recess does not make for a truly %u201Cfree%u201D play time.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at 2:27pm EST

Actually I don't think I missed your point at all you just don't like my take on it. The old "you just don't get it" claim is pretty standard coming from folks that are fully indoctrinated into the entire feminist / patriarchal society / social construct world. One of the problems with the academic echo chamber is that people spend so much time agreeing with each other and reading each others work they eventually believe it's true just by virtue of it having been stated repeatedly. That approach actually works for them particularly in colleges heavy in academically unchallenging, politically based interdisciplinary programs like Gender Studies.

I imagine that's why you think it's cool to suggest that "free" play time be engineered to meet your social agenda. That's probably also why you can say something like "When girls and boys play together, they both benefit and learn from one another" with a totally straight face and believe it's true. That's kind of like the old "feminism is good for both women and men" blurb that is frequently tossed around. The aforementioned statements are true only if a person has already signed up for your social agenda. They certainly can't be objectively proven by anyone capable of critical thought.

Let me net it out for you. Children are already getting exposed to many of your "social theories being treated as facts" in the public schools. To the extent they still have PE as a class I'm sure the teacher makes sure everyone is treated "equally". As I mentioned in the prior post, even in their "free play time" at recess there is adult supervision around prepared to help young girls if they need it. No one is stopping young girls from participating in recess activities except themselves and possibly their parents by not exposing them to sports in the first place. I frankly don't care if they play or not, but it's on them to get up, get out there and get in the game.

Um, I'm not reading any dissertations, thank you. Picked up enough from context. That and the fact you're a Gender Workshop Leader. I did however google Ms. Thorne and was unsurprised to find her to be a Feminist Theory prof at Berkeley. What I did find pretty humorous was that she has a 21 page CV hanging out there but when I looked at her bio summary on the Cal website it's riddled with typos. A head scratcher. I'm thinking maybe spelling takes a back seat to theory in her world.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at 4:41pm EST