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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/10/school-plan-change-gender-stereotypes-storm-italy
Italy – School Plan to Change Gender Stereotypes – Critical Responses
Critics claim game aimed at
teaching gender equality will confuse children about their sexual identity
An
image used in the Game of Respect being trialled in Trieste.
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome –
10 March 2015
A plan to to challenge young children’s ideas
about gender through play at schools in northern Italy –
including with a memory game that contains images of male homemakers and female
plumbers – has created a storm of protest, with some politicians saying the
effort will confuse children about their sexual identity.
The programme – titled Game of Respect – is
aimed at children aged three to six in 45 schools in the Trieste region and
involves educating teachers about how to use games and role-playing to teach
gender equality.
Part of the kit given to teachers is Memory, the
classic matching game, which includes images of male teachers, female chefs,
female firefighters and a man pushing a pram.
Another game uses images of an elephant – on a
skateboard, with a briefcase, with children, cooking – to promote questions and
dialogue with children about whether they believe it is a male or female
elephant that is engaged in the activity. The programme urges teachers to
observe the use of certain colours in the classroom that are traditionally
geared in a gender-specific way, and how many toys are used – such as strollers
and cosmetics – that also adhere to gender stereotypes.
“Very often boys think about typical boy jobs
while girls think about other typical work or aptitudes, so this play is aimed
at making them understand that, if you are a man, you can use an iron at home,
and if you are a woman, you can be an aeroplane pilot,” says Antonella Grim, an
education official on the city council in Trieste, who supports the programme.
“It is not about sexual attitudes. It is about
roles in society and stereotypes,” she said.
Grim said the programme had not yet been rolled
out. Instead, teachers in select schools were attending voluntary training
sessions to become versed in the games. Next, the plan will be presented to
parents.
The most serious obstacles to the programme may
be political, however, with officials from the rightwing Northern League party
and Forza Italia, Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative party, voicing strong
objections. According to reports, plans for children to play dressup in
costumes that defy gender stereotypes have caused the most uproar.
Barbara Zilli, the regional director of the
Northern League, called for the immediate suspension of the programme, saying
in a statement that it was “likely to create confusion with respect to the
sexual identity of children” and that it was an “underhanded attempt to
manipulate the psyche” of young children with “deliberately ambiguous”
messages.
“It is legitimate and understandable that
schools be taught not to discriminate against gays and other minorities, but
this does not necessarily entail the imposition of a model of society that
provides for the elimination of the natural differences between the sexes,” she
said.
Sandra Savino, of Forza Italia, said the plan
had no “pedagogical function” and that the correct place to examine gender
differences was within the family.
But not all local politicians oppose the programme.
Some members of the Democratic party and the anti-establishment Five Star
Movement have expressed their support.
“Objections to the programme come from
fundamentalist Catholic preconceptions that increase intolerance without
considering the educational needs of children and the need to give them
instruments to serenely face diversity,” a Five Star Movement spokesman told Il
Piccolo, a Trieste newspaper.
“The gender gap is one of the major problems of
our country, due to lack of development of the whole society: to overcome it we
must remove the structural causes,” said Fabiana Martini, the deputy mayor in
Trieste. “These reactions show that there is still much work to be done and
that there really is need for the Game of Respect.”