Perhaps We Should Lay off Buying All Pink Clothes for Little Girls

Russell More has an interesting editorial here in the Salt Lake Tribune giving the religious argument against transgendered bathrooms.  His main point is that he believes God has created each of us to be a certain sex, and we must learn to live gracefully within the sex God means us to be.  While I think there are many problems with that as a rationale for public school policy, he does, I think, make one good observation.

This is it:  the idea that many boys and girls are not interested in, nor comfortable with, traditional gender toys and roles.  Perhaps if we stopped dressing all little girls in pink, and buying them dolls, fewer would think they were really meant to be boys.  And if boys were allowed by their families and culture to be mostly interested in dancing and cooking, fewer would think they were meant to be girls.  Of course, there are true transgendered individuals, and I do believe we must accommodate them as best we can.  I was a teacher for 37 years, and see no problem with transgendered young people using bathrooms they are comfortable in.  All of the ones I knew, without exception, were gentle, timid people.  Impossible to see them as predators.

Reading as a Help for Clumsiness?

The 'Well" blog in the NY Times has an interesting column on clumsiness in children here.  The main idea is that there can be many reason for children acting in an uncoordinated way, and the author, Dr. Klass, gives several good suggestions of steps a parent should take.

I think this is an excellent overview of ways of dealing with an uncoordinated child.  As a teacher for 37 years, I would just add that it might help to find some children's stories about creatures who are clumsy.  You could start by searching amazon for "clumsy children's books".   I tried that and several good suggestions came up.

With my students, I found that it wasn't the necessarily the most coordinated, or smartest, or best looking children who were the most popular.  Rather, it was the kids who felt all right about themselves, and truly liked and were interested in their classmates.  Some of the experiences necessary for this mindset can come through reading.  Reading makes everything better.