After a wonderfully enriching lesson on symbolism, I decided it was time to introduce our students to the concept of visual culture and the implications that go along with it. What exactly does this mean? Well, I've noticed that our students have been making huge connections between pictures and ideas (and although for an adult, making these connections seem obvious; for a child- it is huge that they are beginning to recreate meanings which later enable them to make more sense out of their world). Witnessing their ability to make such connections, I thought it was essential that we examine the one thing that is present in their everyday lives - visual media.
Visual media includes all that one sees in movies, television, books and magazines (which also includes advertisements). I consistently hear students discuss Spiderman, Ironman, Optimus Prime (which I had to Google), Dora, Princesses and the like. Since I wanted our students to practice drawing from observation, I thought what better subject matter would there be other than something they love so dearly? So I spent a Sunday printing pictures from the internet of famous characters and on Monday morning I laid out each picture carefully. As students entered the atelier, I observed the boys oohing over the more "manly" pictures, and the girls grabbing those that were of dolls, princesses or other "girl" things. What could I gather from this?
After a while, I collected the images and asked our students to complete a T-chart with me: Boys vs. Girls. This brought a great debate amongst our kindergarten classes. Students shocked me with their mature ways of thinking, but unfortunately, my main assumption was right. Biases and stereotypes from the media had already reached our children. Our girl/boy list sounded something like this:
"Girls like flowers and hearts, but boys like to flip around the classroom."
"Girls have sleepovers and pillow fights and boys play outside."
"Girls have to be skinny, boys have to be the strongest - or at least pretend to be the strongest."
"Girls cry (sometimes), boys are tough."
"Girls stay at home and cook and boys lay on the couch and watch tv."
"Girls say, it's not you, it's me"
I reread their comments aloud and asked what they thought of their ideas. Many of the girls were mad at the one comment, "Girls stay at home and cook..." which lead to another discussion about the roles in our families. We found out that through our discussion, the majority of our families have both moms and dads that help cook and clean - and that it was not just a woman's job. Some men stay at home while some students have both parents that work. One student also pointed out that in many movies, the princesses do always clean (Snow White, Cinderella). Hmm... I wonder why this is? (I think our students are still contemplating that one). When I asked our students about girls being "skinny," students noted that many people in movies and on television are skinny. When I asked if it was okay not to be skinny, our students agreed that it was okay to be any size. (Thankfully! :) Another student even said, "Ms. Mellissa, you aren't skinny, but you're still pretty."
Thus began our discussion about being critical thinkers and critical examiners. An artist examines everything - breaking up all the parts and putting them back together again. In my lesson, I wanted to focus on our ability to examine and question what we see. Just because we see something does not make it true and it is very important to ask questions. We should never simply accept something, especially when we are thinking, "why..?"
We also looked at each picture and chose whether we thought it fit into the "boy," "girl," or "both" category. Students debated why a barbie should fit under the "girls only" category, but also began to understand why it could fit under both. Many children who had a sister or a brother as a sibling admitted to playing with their "girl" or "boy" toy. I discussed why it was okay to play with any toy- and that toys do not necessarily have to take on one specific gender.
After my brief public service announcement, I let the students choose a character and draw from it. They were required to draw exactly what they saw, and to break it up into each element (line, shape, color). Did our boys still choose "boy" characters and girls choose "girl" ones? Well, yes ... but at least I'm giving them something to really think about!
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