Response to Today's Reading

For class today we had to read an article titled "Common Assumptions about Childhood." I found this article fascinating because while reading through the listed assumptions about children I couldn't believe how many of those I have heard before. It's amazing how many misconceptions people have, even in the education department, regarding children and what they are capable of. On pages 8 and 9 of the article the author lists out common assumptions people make regarding children and literature. I found most of these assumption appalling because as soon as people start making these assumptions children suffer the consequences. For example, the one assumption I found most disturbing was "Although all children are childlike, boys are different from girls. Children are inherently gendered- boys are boyish and girls girlish from birth. A child's gender determines his or her activities, interests and tastes." Although it is hard to belief that at this day and age people actually believe things like this it is a common assumption. If children were all inherently gendered a specific way then how come every child is uniquely different and desires different things? Why must we box children into these certain stereotypes and force them to conform to our ideologies?

I feel as though in our TE class we are combating common stereotypes and generalizations like this one. As soon as a person starts making generalizations about another person it sort of limits that persons ability to move beyond the assumptions. As a future educator, I never want to limit my students and/or place them in categories where they do not belong. I desire for my children and my students to achieve to their fullest potential and by not making assumptions and generalizations about their abilities, interests or personality then I will be allowing them to achieve greatness.