Friday, July 4, 2008
Some years ago I had the opportunity to help out in the capacity of a daycare worker at a primary school. The students were about thirty of junior and senior kindergarten age. I did all the usual stuff. Supervising them at creative games, work, and play. Making sure they had their snacks and rest periods. Although I didn’t carry a certificate I’ve had plenty of experience — four younger sisters, four sons, and a lot of babysitting as both pre-teen and teenager. I love children if only for their natural curiosity and unaffected enthusiasm for life. I’m lucky because children always seem to trust and like me.
Part of the job was hanging around in the afternoon at the school until working mothers and fathers came to take them home. It was while watching over them when they were at play in the schoolyard that I made a remarkable discovery. Boys and girls play and socialize differently. Very differently.
The boys would play in gangs, groups to put it more softly. Give them a ball and they’d cheerfully and usually peacefully, chase it all over the field until time was called. Occasionally a girl would join the running but rarely for the duration.
Girls on the other hand would play quietly, busying themselves in the inner playground. They always paired. When a third girl joined the pair they played together for awhile but soon one of the three would be excluded and left to pair with another girl or intrude on another pair.
This behaviour proved consistent. Day after day they always played the same way — boys in packs, girls in pairs. I tried to draw the attention of others in the profession to this phenomenon but without the success. I had the misfortune of talking about it with daycare workers who were firmly in the unisex camp. If there was a difference, one said, it was because of psychological conditioning. They wouldn’t listen to any suggestion that the practices could be innate. To them I was just an ignorant male chauvinist, to me they were missing an exciting observation that was going over their heads.
Now I’m happy to report that Joyce Benenson at Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., and her colleagues have successfully conducted tests that support my observation. You’ll find this revealed in an interesting article below.
Meanwhile, no matter how you play, take it easy but take it, with grace, that is.
Looking forward.
Carl Dow
Editor and Publisher
True North Perspective
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