I read a really interesting article this morning that made me really evaluate how I talk to girls. This is the link to the article, How to Talk to Little Girls.
I have a friend who has ten year old daughter, and when I recently saw her, what did I compliment her on? Her hair. She's a brilliant girl who is in the gifted program, loves to read, loves animals, and is very adventurous. I could have had a really interesting conversation with this little girl, but instead just gave her a compliment on something as passing as nice topknot. I know how our society pushes little girls to grow up to fast and just be pretty faces, but it took this article to really make me evaluate how I talk to girls.
As a teacher, I see little girls in full faces at make up at fourth and fifth grades, wearing padded bras as soon as they need a bra, being taken on dates in elementary school, worrying about how fatty lunch is, and by sixth and seventh grade making sure the boys do better than them so they can get a boyfriend. This really makes me sad to see these girls paint on a face and shut the door on their brains and dreams.
The article says we should be asking girls what they are reading, what they want to do when they grow up, current events, and other things that will really get a conversation going.
Every girl likes to be complimented on how she looks and wants to look pretty, but we can't just make it all about pretty. Let's take Lisa Bloom's challenge and find out something interesting about the girls we run across!
Here are a few questions:
"If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?" "Why"
"What's your favorite subject in school?"
"If you could learn about anything what would it be?"
"Where all have your shoes taken you this week?"
"What's your favorite thing to eat?"
"How do you feel about....(some current event going on)?
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