Son walked in from school last week and told me a very interesting story. His school has started gender sensitization for students. They had a play a few days ago where they showed a girl being bullied by a boy. Instead of crying, the girl asserted herself and stood up to the bullying. The principal of his school ended the session with a 'Respect girls' talk. Bravo.
Now post these sessions it seems the number of pitched battles in my son's class have exponentially gone up. (The teacher must be on deep breathing exercises and Saridon). Earlier it was limited to a few random kids hitting each other. Now a lot of girls have joined the fray leading to a lot of bruises. A few days ago son came back with a huge bruise and told me "Reena punched me and told me that I should respect her. I told her how can I respect you if you hit me. I punched her back and she came with the girls team. We fought bravely though my pal Ashwin was badly hit and started crying."
I decided it was time for me to step in as the parent and give him some gyaan on respect and equality. So I told him," You can't assume girls to be the weaker gender. You need to stop hitting them assuming there is going to be no retaliation." Son with his infinite wisdom tells me , "Oh girls are not to be fought with. They wail so loudly and lengthily that the teacher immediately grounds all the boys from games period if we fight with even one of them. Plus usually other girls also join in to lend their support and twice principal sir grounded all the boys post a fight."
More (vocal) power to the girls I say:)
Now post these sessions it seems the number of pitched battles in my son's class have exponentially gone up. (The teacher must be on deep breathing exercises and Saridon). Earlier it was limited to a few random kids hitting each other. Now a lot of girls have joined the fray leading to a lot of bruises. A few days ago son came back with a huge bruise and told me "Reena punched me and told me that I should respect her. I told her how can I respect you if you hit me. I punched her back and she came with the girls team. We fought bravely though my pal Ashwin was badly hit and started crying."
I decided it was time for me to step in as the parent and give him some gyaan on respect and equality. So I told him," You can't assume girls to be the weaker gender. You need to stop hitting them assuming there is going to be no retaliation." Son with his infinite wisdom tells me , "Oh girls are not to be fought with. They wail so loudly and lengthily that the teacher immediately grounds all the boys from games period if we fight with even one of them. Plus usually other girls also join in to lend their support and twice principal sir grounded all the boys post a fight."
More (vocal) power to the girls I say:)
