Gender Neutral Kindergarten in Sweden

[tapu]

EnderD, hi. I'm glad to read more specifics about this endeavor.

I'm still not understanding what goes on with pronouns in the class. When the teachers need pronouns (they can't keep saying friends, friend), do they use replacement forms (just to make some up as examples: hish, ishi...)? Are the kids then to pick up the use of the replacement forms?

If what you've been following goes into those details, I'd love to read it myself. I've just not been able to imagine it in practice at all.

tanx

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by tapu

EnderD, hi. I'm glad to read more specifics about this endeavor.

I'm still not understanding what goes on with pronouns in the class. When the teachers need pronouns (they can't keep saying friends, friend), do they use replacement forms (just to make some up as examples: hish, ishi...)? Are the kids then to pick up the use of the replacement forms?

If what you've been following goes into those details, I'd love to read it myself. I've just not been able to imagine it in practice at all.

tanx

As far as I know they only use "friends" when they're addressing a group of students, instead of calling them "boys and girls" or "boys" or "girls." As far as the pronouns, they say they use "hen" when addressing anyone in the third person, instead of him/her. They've explained that it's a non-existent pronoun in the Swedish language, but which they're using as a kind of gender neutral pronoun (a bit like they or even zie/hy etc that are sometimes used in English in the lgbt community), instead of identifying or assuming any one person's gender as masculine/feminine.

[tapu]

I had trouble seeing the practicality of using "hen" until you said it's like using "they."

I think that English speakers would be able to move more easily from "she/he" to "they," because of the related language change that has already been in progress for a while, namely "they" = 3rd person singular when referent is unspecified. (Previously "one" or the egregious "he," now "they.")

A replacement of established forms by novel, unrelated, and previously non-natural forms would be very difficult to effect in one swoop. But do you (or does anyone) know if maybe "hen" has been following a trajectory similar to "they"? If so, then I can see this finally now.

afterthought: it is likely something is being adopted as neutral 3rd person in Swedish, given the cultural direction this whole idea indicates