Sexism in Schools

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Sexism in Schools

When you send your children off in the morning to go to school, no matter what grade they are in whither it be elementary, junior high, or senior high, you expect that they will receive the best education that they can get. They should be asked challenging questions, encouraged and called upon to participate in class, they should also be given as much help as they need to secede by the teacher. However, this is most commonly not the case. Parents and the children themselves are unaware of what is going on because gender bias is not a noisy problem. Most people are unaware of the secret sexist lessons that occur every day in classrooms across the country. In this essay I will use two essay's from the reader: Failing at Fairness: How America's Schools Cheat Girls written by Myra and David Sadker, and Tracking by Mary Kennedy Carter. I will also use my own personal experiences and the experiences of my parents and what it was like when they went through school. Do people realize the underlings of the education system or because the children are so young that they don't really notice it or think anything of it.

In the article written by Myra and David Sadker they say, "Female students are more likely to be invisible members of classrooms. Teachers interact with males more frequently, ask them better questions, and give them more precise and helpful feedback." (556) Based on some of my own experiences and the experiences of my parents I fell that this statement is true in many ways. I can remember many times when Mrs. Lee, my forth grade teacher, would favor the male students in my class. She would call on them to do different tasks around the classroom to help make her job easier. One time she neede...

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... forth grade teacher definitely used sexist lessons, where as my sixth grade teacher did use sexist lessons but he was the opposite, he favored the girls and always called on them to participate in class and left the guys out. When I was in forth grade I didn't notice what was going on and even if I had I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it. I would have been to young to fully understand what was going on if I had realized that there were sexist lessons in the education system. In sixth grade I did notice that the teacher favored the girls more than he did the boys and I didn't think anything of it, I just thought that he liked them more so he would call on them more. As for when my dad went through the education system I have a felling that there were sexist lessons it's just that my dad didn't realize it and can't remember any examples of them now.

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