Jordan Nissen

EDUC 300
27 February 2017
Reading Reaction #2: Gender Bias
In our multicultural books, chapter 5 discusses gender bias and how sexism in schools is

becoming a major influence on children in all types of areas across the nation. In the introduction

of this chapter, James A. Banks makes a really intriguing analogy. He states, we are like those

fish, swimming in a sea of sexism, but few of us see the water, the gender bias that engulfs us. I

really enjoyed this analogy because it gives us a bigger picture about how sexism and gender

bias is so often overlooked and ignored in our school systems, and it is so true.
More often than not in school systems, not only do teachers generalizes sexist roles

between boys and girls, but students do as well. In schools, it is assumed that boys will have

lower academic achievement, and they are more prone to special educational services, bullying,

disciplinary problems, and violence. Many teachers and parents use the saying, boys will be

boys, and use it to justify unacceptable activity from boys. With girls, statistically they are

assumed to have better grades as well as report cards. They are more likely to go to college, they

wont cause problems in the school systems. Although these ideas are what statistics show for

each gender group, they arent always true.

In schools, how boys and girls act and progress throughout the school year is because of

the teachers and their parents. In the schools, teachers need to set equal expectations and rules for

both boys and girls. They cannot be lenient towards one gender over the other. And for the

parents, they need to instill the same expectations at home when it comes to how they should act

at school at too.