Gender Neutral Kindergarten in Sweden

[tapu]

Originally Posted by ScandalAndy

Okay, well zie/zir are, i believe, the most common pronouns. Zie was grooming zir moustache before the drag show.

I also have a poet friend who prefers "they". They include this information in their biography before sending it to be published for a performance.

Huh. Well. That would be beyond my unconscious control. I'd suggest that for speech to be fluid, one would have to engage in studious application of the extended pronoun matrix for months, if not years, before mastering it as native speech.

[ScandalAndy]

Originally Posted by julieisafemme

If my child attends a gender neutral classroom how do I explain Mama when she comes home? How do I explain TV, magazines and all the other junk that children are exposed to? How do I explain my partner's gender?

There have been studies done on race and how children process it and at what age they have an understanding of it. One of the most important things to come out of that study is that what a child learns at school is almost useless unless the concepts are talked about at home. That is where the most critical and important learning goes on for very young children. So I am wondering how effective can a program like this be? It will be interesting to find out.

This is a link to the discussion of the study.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...&ct=clnk&gl=us

I'm curious why you believe that if the parents are sending their children to a gender neutral school, they would not be supportive of the concept and addressing it in the home as well.

Originally Posted by tapu

Huh. Well. That would be beyond my unconscious control. I'd suggest that for speech to be fluid, one would have to engage in studious application of the extended pronoun matrix for months, if not years, before mastering it as native speech.

Actually, I tend to use "they" and "their" fluently in everyday speech, as I work in a state where you can still be fired for sexual orientation. I never offer up my partner's gender in conversation.

[tapu]

Originally Posted by ScandalAndy

I'm curious why you believe that if the parents are sending their children to a gender neutral school, they would not be supportive of the concept and addressing it in the home as well.

I agree that they would be predisposed to the idea, but would they know how to effect it? I don't think that, in reality, it would be something you could just sort of say, "Okay! Let's do that!"

I may be taking this idea too seriously though. What do you think about that?

Actually, I tend to use "they" and "their" fluently in everyday speech, as I work in a state where you can still be fired for sexual orientation. I never offer up my partner's gender in conversation.

Oh well, so do I but not because I've consciously adopted it. Neutral 3rd person singular has been shifting in natural language from "one" and "he" to "they" for decades. (thank god.)

I was responding to the idea of using pronouns everyone picks for themselves.