At 11:03 PM 01/08/2000 -0500, Cat wrote:
>
>Ah, but I (as a 23-year-old who was in eighth grade in the late 80's)
>remember very well a choice between taking shop or taking home ec....
> Even the smallest, wimpiest boy would have been 50 times
>more welcome and encouraged in the shop class.
>
>If you can't tell I am *still* steamed about this -- especially since I
>figure eigth grade girls and boys are *still* faced with that same
>ridiculous and sexist choice. It was required to take one or the other
>when I was there -- can you imagine?
>
I don't know where you went to school, but my 15 year old nephew in
Saskatchewan is in a public school in a small conservative town where both
genders must take a minumum number of credits in both home economics and
industrial arts. Required. Mind you, from what he has said, home ec is
mostly cookery and simple clothing care, and i.a. is mostly woodwork and
basic home repair, but his classes were co-educational.
Also, as far as I can tell, it hasn't made much difference to the
fundamental hormonal issues of that particular age -- his parents have
raised him with a firm belief in the equal dignity of all races, genders et
caetera, but he still turns into a bag of mismatched kness and elbows when
in conversation with a female (imho).....
Janus
Bemused Aunt to three males
************
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
