Response Essay
The essay “Hunters and Gatherers in the Classroom” is written in 1997 by Lawrence Cohen, clinical psychologist in Brookline, Massachusetts and still has a great psychological and educational significance. Frankly speaking, I have learnt a lot of author`s ideas and approaches, which are really substantial and relevant. I fully agree that boys and girls have a lot of differences in character, behavior, outlook, manners and even way of playing games. This fact leads to the question of gender inequality, which we can observe at school.
People got used to the standard sex division of the human “hunter-gatherer” past. It is focused on the tendency that man is a hunter, who is a bread-winner and possesses the traits of a leader. He should be brought up as brave, confident and valued by actions and achievements. Girl is an epitome of beauty and maternity who maintains the house. Certainly, it`s not a coincidence that the bravest boys and the prettiest girls grasp all the pupil`s attention in the school society. The author mentions that boys and girls should not play separately but they just have different principles and manners of playing and acting. I am with the author on this idea because girls are mostly concentrated on the emotional sphere (feelings, emotions, intimacy, relationships with boys, worries, dreams and hopes) while boys bicker, fight and crave to become class leaders or mentors. Speaking about friendship, gender plays a great role. The author denotes the main aspects in male`s and female`s friendship. Having a girl as a friend we will get a cool companion and grateful listener, who will always support emotionally and immerse into every detail of the issue. Making friends with boys means to have a person, who will help you physically without plunging into emotional sphere and long conversations, but always find the way out of the undertaking situation and make a plan how to avoid it in future. My personal point of view concerning friendship is based on the different criteria. One of them is the most substantial and sounds like true friendship should always be supported by mutual interests, common outlook and trust. It doesn`t depend on gender, it depends on feeling that this person is yours, he or she can understand you like nobody else and read your thoughts in your eyes. Continuing analysis of genders based on schoolchildren`s example it`s a common knowledge that being an authoritative class leader is the main boy`s aim. Boys should embody the strong masculine character traits and physical abilities. They are always appreciated by their readiness to defend girls who are traditionally impersonations of beauty and tenderness. I support the author that school is the place where the language of insults is commonly used in schoolchildren`s speech. Analyzing girl`s rude vocabulary it includes offensive words mostly concerning appearance and boys are specialized on character or some physical disabilities. I think this is a real problem which should be controlled by parents and teachers because sometimes words can insult a person psychologically more than deals. Certainly, only friendship between girls and boys can save the child from the society`s cruel influence and teenage depressions. Remembering myself at school, I was suffering from different offences often and I`m completely sure that my friends helped me to overcome all the conflicts and stay happy in my school years. The author also highlights that parents often complain about different school elections like cheerleading or some talent contests, saying that it`s just for prestige and popularity, which have harmful effect on their children`s behavior. Children become more focused on attractiveness like celebrities have than intellectual abilities and skills. I support this idea partly because not only contests but media, advertising, Internet influence teenager`s outlook.
Summarizing author`s ideas and my personal views, I can make a conclusion that this article is extremely informative for teachers, educators and students as well. It enriches personal knowledge about gender`s differences and raises the problem of sex inequality in school. The author makes a detailed description of differences between boys and girls, peculiarities of their behavior and character, pays attention to their aims and aspirations. I must admit that sometimes thanks to author`s research I noticed and recognized myself in my school age. The role of gender today really differs from what people had many years ago. The approach of “Hunters and Gathers” is dying out and changing society completely. Status and leadership are the main principles for modern schoolchildren. The biggest desire is to be popular and stay in the center of attention. Friendship is based on popularity. The “best” friends are not the kindest and trustworthy people, but those who have the reputation of leader and keep everything in his or her hands. I think the main problem that some schools support this tendency and the school staff including administration demonstrates such “popular” students as examples to follow for the whole school. Educators should create special programs and change the curriculum to diminish the problem of gender inequality which leads to wrong values. These values spoil the life of the youth and influence social standards.
