Gender Roles

In our literacy class we have been discussing stereotypes in literature, and being aware of it when selecting books to read with our buddies, and ultimately for our classrooms. This same concept of stereotypes has been addressed in our social studies class. Because of this I have been hyper-aware of stereotypes around me, and this mainly in the media.

This morning while watching television, I saw a commercial that was the opposite of every other one I'd seen. It was an ad for Lexus, and since it's the holiday season, this the time of the year that Lexus and Mercedes advertise giving one over their expensive cars as a gift.

In the traditional ad, it is the caucasian husband giving the car to his beautiful caucasian wife. But this time it was the opposite. While it was still a beautiful, caucasian couple, it was the woman surprising the man with the car. For many people this little detail of the commercial would go unnoticed. With my background in advertising, I enjoy watching television ads because I know how much goes into making them, so I tend to watch them closely. But this detail was more than just a detail in an ad, it was a step in the right direction of gender-equality and breaking the stereotype.

Changing the world - 5 minutes at a time

This week in our Social Studies class we learned about a 12 year-old boy who is changing the world by bringing awareness to child labor. In class we discussed the video and how we as teachers can use stories like these in our social studies curriculum. My group talked about how we as teachers could use stories like this 12 year-old and other child activists to motivate and teach our students to be social activists in their own communities.

But how do you teach social activism in classrooms where the focus is reading, writing and math and students only have 30 minutes of social studies a week? The answer, get creative! This video clip is of a school in Australia where students only spend five minutes a day being social activists and yet are making a huge difference in their community.