Is The Government Now Imposing A Fairytale Ban In Victorian Schools?

The government has answered the claims about imposing a fairytale ban in schools as the Respectful Relationships curriculum will evaluate preschool books and toys for sexism issues.

The $21.8 million Respectful Relationships program will look into all preschool books and toys to evaluate whether they encourage certain gender stereotypes.

However, there have been claims that the new curriculum will mean certain fairytales, such as Snow White and Cinderella, are banned from classrooms.

Families and Children Minister Jenny Mikakos told Daily Mail Australia that there will be no fairytale ban under the “Respectful Relationships” program.

“It’s absolutely not true””at all. I read fairytales to the kids in my family, I’ll continue to do that and I urge parents and early childhood educators to do the same. Kids should be allowed to grow up to be whatever they want””not made to feel like they have to fit into a gender stereotype,” she said.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews also denied recent claims in the media that fairytales will be axed in public schools. He clarified that fairytales will be allowed, but they would have to be critically examined in order to start “a conversation” among children.

The Herald Sun reported that the Victorian government has asked preschoolers to become “fairytale detectives” and spot sexism among fairytales to fight gender-based violence.

Teaching resources state that gender norms “influence beliefs about how girls and boys should act, speak, dress and express themselves”, and are “reinforced through popular television shows and story books.” “Analyses of popular books have found that central characters are more likely to be male, female characters are more often in nurturing roles, and occupations are gender stereotyped,” it added.

The program claims children would notice in fairytales that “men are supposed to be strong and brave and women are supposed to be beautiful and need rescuing by men”.

Now, as outlined in the teaching material, children will be asked to think about what would happen if the fairytale characters swapped their roles.

Dr Lauren Rosewarne of the University of Melbourne said that there are sexist issues found in fairytales, such as “old women being witches” or “women being saved by men”. “Fairytales have long been in the crosshairs of feminists who have considered the presentations to reiterate antiquated stereotypes,” she said.

In the curriculum, teachers will explain to school children that sex only refers to the different bodies people are born with, while gender “helps us talk about ideas we have about the pressure on men and women to act in certain ways”.

Kevin Donnely of Australian Catholic University told the paper that he has reservations about the program and how it can cause worry among parents.

Source: Heatst.com