What we grow into

I decided to be a good girl yesterday and attended the 6.30 - 7.30 p.m. (let's hope this will be the last of my latest lectures in NIE) language in context lecture. And I'm so glad I did. Yesterday's lecture was quite interesting; Dahl talked about gender differences in children's writings as well as made us realize how contrived our primary school textbooks (as well as other texts)were, as they more often than not portrayed extremely stereotypical characters of the 2 genders, as well as told us how we should or should not behave.

There was lots of laughing and chuckling in between; I found myself to be highly tickled by these differences, these differences in details totally give away the genders of the writers. But the point is not about being amused; to have texts predefining the way you're going to live your lives, telling children how they should behave (girls should be kind-hearted, friendly, gentle whereas boys should be brave, strong, raucous), making children grow up into the roles (unknowingly) that have already been set for them by adults, now that's pretty scary. Especially when it takes place so naturally in schools, where people are least likely to question.

It all makes me feel like I'm the result of a secret experiment; a positive instance in fact.