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1 What Are Children Made Of? |
2 Jack Be Nimble |
3 Polly, Put the Kettle On |
4 Little Miss Muffet |
5 Georgie Porgie |
Work in a small group. Look at the pictures below. These pictures illustrate some nursery rhymes – traditional children’s songs and poems – that are taught to children in many English-speaking countries. Describe what is happening in each picture.
2 Now listen to the nursery rhymes. In the chart below, write the personality traits from “Personalizing the Topic” that describe the girl(s) or boy(s) in each rhyme. You do not have to use all the traits and you may use some more than once.
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Share your answers with your group. Discuss how these rhymes characterize girls and boys. Do you think these characterizations are accurate?
Q AMERICAN VOICES: Linda and Shingo
In this section you will hear two people discuss the ways that boys and girls are raised.
First, Linda talks about how she has tried to bring up her son. Then Shingo, a 26-year-
old man from Japan who is living and studying in the United States, compares his and
his brother’s upbringing with that of his sister.
BEFORE THE INTERVIEWS
1 As boys and girls grow up, they are usually given chores – small jobs – to do around the house, but these chores are often assigned by gender. Think about yourself and your friends. As children, who was asked to help their parents with the chores listed below: boys, girls, both, or neither? For each chore, check (✓) the appropriate column.
Who was asked to. . . |
Boys |
Girls |
Both |
Neither |
take out the garbage? |
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wash the dishes? |
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iron? |
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sew buttons on clothes? |
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clean the house? |
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cook meals? |
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repair household items? |
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In your community, what kind of behavior is encouraged among young gil ls and |
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boys (under the age of 10)? For each behavior, check (✓) the appropriate column. |
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Toys |
Boys |
Girls |
Both |
Neither |
Who is encouraged to play with. . . balls? |
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dolls? |
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trucks? |
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crayons and paints? |
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Games Who is encouraged to. . . play "house” (pretend to do household chores)? |
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play “mommies and daddies”? |
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play sports? |
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dress up in costumes? |
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Share your answers to steps 1 and 2 with a partner. Which answers were the same? Which were different?
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