TEXTBOOKS

Last month at the end of an article on sex discrimination in the Cleveland Hts.-University Hts. school system, we used a quote from Dick and Jane as Victims -Sex Stereotyping in Children's Readers, Princeton N.J., 1972 an analysis by Women on Words and Images, a Task Force of the Central N.J. Chapter of N.O.W. This month we would like to excerpt at length from this excellent booklet because of its immediate relevancy in the Cleveland Hts, and University Heights schools, and because of the recent HEW proposed guidelines which do not require the eradication of sexist textbooks from our nation's schools.

One of the prime functions of literature and poetry is to make some sense out of the chaos in which human beings live. But primary school textbooks consistently duck the real issues confronting young lives. Little girls (and boys) seldom have to face grizzly bears or wolves these days. But females frequently have to overcome ridicule and discouragement over gender prejudice. The primary texts give girls even more to overcome by constantly belittling them.

And what are the subjects so visibly absent from these books?

Challenges and Conflicts.

Absent from the readers are fathers and mothers backing their children in their quest for selfhood. Missing are fathers complimenting their daughters on their intelligence and perseverance, rather than their looks. Absent are family moments of mutual appreciation, of love between parents, and non-romantic affection between people. Glossed over are the inner and outer conflicts and moments of indecision that are inevitably part of the human condition. Ignored are one-parent families, adopted children, divorced and/or fighting parents. Missing are realistic stories about how to make friends in a new situation. Silent are the texts about the facts that some people remain poor and hungry and that everyone has to cope with aging. Even the wisdom and peace that can come with old age is barely alluded to.

Girls Do Not Excel.

Girls are not even shown excelling in school work, something they actually do better than boys. The supposedly fragile male ego is often protected in this way at the expense of girls. The readers present a twisted view that happiness for girls lies chiefly in giving happiness to boys and men. Success, excitement, confidence, and status must be derived from association with the powerful sex. Even the real world, prejudiced as it is, allows girls more scope than this. In the texts, girls must take on every trait left over after boys are assigned theirs. Girls are innundated with messages that boys are doers and that girls must stand back passively if they are to remain feminine. Nothing in the texts encourages girls to persevere to complete a lengthy task from beginning to end or to tackle something difficult. Short, mindless tasks like daily domestic work do not lead to future growth or fullfillment.

Boys are Multidimensional.

Boys get a potent message that they are superior human beings above household chores. They learn through countless rites of passage stories that they will one day become the sex upon whom the workings of the world depend.

TEACH

No comparable attempt is made to build up the expectations of girls, to create esteem and optimism about their future possibilities. Boys are given a perfectionistic model of the multi-dimensional human being. Not everybody, not even all males, can be superheroes. Ironically, intermixed with the stories of hard work and use of skills are Walter Mitty and

dreams-of-glory tales with magical solutions and happy windfalls. To be a boy is to be one of the lucky breed. The texts contain a stronger taboo against boys being dependent (sissies!). at any age than they do against young girls breaking out of their mold (tomboys) a little bit. Girls must abruptly rout out the socalled masculine component of themselves when they become teenagers, but boys must never give away to the so-called feminine component. This is partly carried out as we noted, by showing boys of all ages alone and away from home, courageously coping with anything that comes along. They never cry; they need no one.

Man Over Nature.

There are numerous stories about men or boys subduing or conquering nature. Little is said about learning to appreciate and protect the natural environment. In a multitude of stories, males bend nature to their wills. Yet it is clear, in this new age of environmental awareness, that men and women will have to learn to live in harmony with nature rather than run roughshod over it. Can our young

Good drinks at reasonable prices

BOB'S PLACE

Honest Bartender Guaranteed!

2911 Mayfield Rd.

Adele's Pizzeria

321-6626

The Best Italian Pizza You'll Ever Eat CARRY-OUT ONLY:

321-2160

11 AM TIL 1 AM. AT LEAST 2909 Mayfield Rd.

Two friendly places, side by side!

SEXISM

conquerors be re-directed once they gain. maturity?

Sexism, No Respecter of Race

After an almost total absence of blacks before the mid 1960's, an accelerated effort has been made in primers and pre-primers to integrate the lives of black and white children. They are often seen playing together

in their integrated neighborhoods and schools. When blacks play an active role, it is, unsurprisingly, the male who leads; black girls, along with their mothers and white sisters, are used as scenery. Only 9 blacks out of 108 biographical subjects are found in the texts a shocking fact in the second decade of the Civil Rights Revolution.

Subliminal Messages.

-

Dr. Edward Hall, in The Silent Language finds that children are indeed assimilating the content and values of their books as they learn to read, without giving it any conscious thought. Watson and Hartley both find that by the age of eight, ninety-nine percent agreement is found among children of both sexes as to which sex does which job, what kind of person a girl or boy should be and what the role limitations and expectations are. School texts must assume their responsibility in directing the subliminal learning process toward more psychologically constructive ends.

Sculpture from the seas . . .

SHELLS

Beautiful Specimens,

Shell Jewelry, Cut and Drilled Shells, Fish Nets, Sea Oddities

HIGH TIDE/ROCK BOTTOM

1771 Coventry Road Cleveland Heights

321-8500

page 9 What She Wants/ January 1975