Gender at Prairie Creek

[Trina Eichel]

Prairie Creek offers a unique educational experience and therefore does not follow much of the same gendered norms that normal public schools might. While there are no large gender imbalances in subjects, like you might see in high school math and science classes, prairie creek does have a few examples of gender-specific development and roles. On Wednesday, Kara and I got the opportunity to attend the all-school gathering that was run by the two 4/5 classes. The fourth and fifth graders came into the room carrying their class pets – chickens, and a blue-tongued lizard named Jake. The fourth and fifth graders introduced us to the animals and I couldn’t help but notice that most of the students presenting were girls while the boys were mostly keeping in the back and not saying much. This is a classic example of gender in school where girls are encouraged and expected to go above and beyond and be successful in school while younger boys are given more slack in elementary school because of their maturity.

I have not noticed any gender “regimes” in Molly’s classroom. I have even noticed some evidence that these gender norms and regimes may not be as prevalent at Prairie Creek. For example, on Wednesday, we had a celebration for Ravi’s birthday. The students all sat in a circle and sang him a birthday song as well as gave him a complement each. I noticed that all the boys gave very thoughtful complements about how Ravi is such a good friend and kind while the girls focused more on his humor. You would think that the boys would be embarrassed to say nice things to each other, but they actually gave the most thoughtful comments.

My own gender identity has influenced my schooling immensely. I want to be a teacher when I graduate and I do not think it is a coincidence that all of my teachers have been women except my high school math teachers. I found role models in my female teachers while I was growing up in school, and this is what influenced me to become a teacher now. Particularly, I had a female AP Environmental Science teacher that I adored and thought was the coolest woman ever. I decided in high school that I wanted to be her when I grow up.

In addition to having gender implications, Ravi’s birthday celebration at Prairie Creek was just plain adorable. All the students saying such nice things to him was such a nice way to start the day. They also all made birthday cards for him. It was super thoughtful because they would come up and ask Ravi what kinds of things he liked so that they could draw them on his card. Apparently this birthday celebration is a Prairie Creek tradition, and in the K/1 class they do it much bigger. In K/1, the parents all come in and they all stand in a circle while the birthday boy runs around them for as many times as he is old (earth going around the sun) while they all sing him a birthday song. The community at Prairie Creek is enviable. 

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