Children’s books, movies, toys, stores, schools and the
culture of early childhood centers are largely heterosexual. In books and in movies the parents are almost
always a man and a woman. Girls are the
princesses and boys dress only in clothes that would be considered boy
clothes. If you viewed most children’s
books, movies, toys and schools you would believe a relationship should be
between a girl and boy. You would think
girls like pink, purple, dolls, and Barbie’s.
You would think boys like guns, superheroes, trucks and dinosaurs. In reality my daughter’s favorite color is
blue and the child in my preschool who loves dinosaurs the most in a wonderful
little girl. In stores the toys are
usually separated into boys toys and girls toys by having a boy isle and a girl
isle. When my daughter was two years old
she wanted Spiderman underwear because her brother l oved Spiderman and so did
she. I ended up having to buy her boy’s
underwear because they did not have Spiderman underwear for girls. My daughter now wants superhero underwear and
I am afraid I will probably have to do the same thing. She of course also loves to wear her Frozen
underwear!
I believe it can be very difficult to address gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender issues in an early childhood center. I know I currently have parents in my
preschool that would adamantly refuse to have books in the preschool that
depict gay or lesbian individuals or families.
These are strong Christian families and it would be difficult for me to
go against what they believe. I
currently have a student who comes from a strong Christian home and this
student has said before during play or conversations with students that God
does not say it is ok for boys to marry boys or girls to marry girls. I do not feel I have the right to challenge
the religious beliefs his family has taught him. On the other hand if I had a student that
came from a family who had parents that were gay or lesbian I definitely would
do all I could to make that child feel welcome.
A few years ago I actually had two sisters that were one
year apart. When the older sister was in
my preschool the mother was pregnant and in a relationship with the
father. When the younger sister was in
my preschool the mother was in a relationship with another woman. The child referred to her mother as her mom
and to her mother’s partner as her dad.
I believe the child was very comfortable with the situation and comfortable
in our classroom regarding the situation.
Even thought this was the life this little girl lived I believe she felt
accepted in my classroom without me having to educate the other children about
the issue of gay or lesbians. Both of
these girls still come back to my classroom regularly at the end of the school
day to give me hugs goodbye!
