these past two weeks in Isabella's school program we have been working on strategies to learn the concept of equality as a value and as a way of relating to others without discriminating against anyone because of their gender, social status, culture, religion and way of thinking. I must confess that it is not an easy subject although at the beginning I thought it was, because we have taught our children that we treat everyone equally because every living being deserves respect and equal treatment, however, by making this a schematic process in learning I discovered that children see everything in a different way and that as they grow up is that we adults manipulate and create patterns of behavior that then they repeat and that is where everything changes.
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As always, I had to do a little research on the subject, I tell you, it is one thing to tell the children that we are all equal to explain it and build with them a concept of value that will last in their lives. The teacher's guide had a strategy, which seemed to me quite empty, and excuse me if I speak without knowing pedagogy, but making the children place in a drawing the things that belong to girls and boys does not seem to me the best way to learn about equality, I mean, placing the kitchen and the dolls and making my four year old daughter learn that those things belong to girls and the vehicles and tools belong to boys is not satisfactory. Especially when my wife and I have tried to make both Isabella as a boy and Diego as a boy see it as normal to do the housework or work because we, mom and dad, share everything, even the care of themselves. Besides the issue was to learn about equal rights and with that supposedly we were only talking about gender equality.
Some strategies to promote equality are:
1.- Nothing is more important in the learning of equality than the example, it is useless to carry out educational activities at a theoretical level if we as parents do not give a good example to our children. So the principle of equality is found in the behavior and actions of parents towards other people and even animals and natural resources.
2.- Positive reinforcement in behaviors where children demonstrate with their actions the respect for equality or when a close person does it. Saying for example that "good action of that young man to respect the right of the grandfather to pass first in line at the supermarket" or that "good that in your school you have friends of other religions because we all have equal rights". And things like that that we are incorporating into our daily actions.
3.- Active monitoring of the child's behavior. In this case, it is essential that when the child performs any action that is considered discriminatory or that generates inequality, we must call his/her attention and explain what he/she has done wrong.
4.- Equal distribution of chores in the home. This is an ideal way for children to learn about gender equality, because in Latin American countries like ours it is customary for women to carry all the burden and weight of the household while men are only those who provide. In our home, ever since my wife and I decided to share our life, an important agreement was that both of us would have the same burden of tasks because otherwise it was unfair for one person to try to do everything. Well we learned that in our homes.
As you can see there are some activities and especially our behavior that are indispensable to learn the concept of equality and as I let Isabella's teacher (tutor) know not everything is based on whether you are a boy or a girl equality is a broad concept and I understand that not everything can be learned in one fell swoop so I think these issues require a program that covers much more time if the school wants to develop it, because from my point of view where we first learn about equality is at home.