Education

The Absolute Best School Climate Blogging (This Week)

By Evie Blad — March 21, 2014 1 min read
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Happy Friday, Rules readers. I’ve spent my day digging into the newest Civil Rights Data Collection and counting down the hours until my hometown team plays in the NCAA tournament. As someone who knows very little about sports, I pick my favorites based on uniqueness of mascot. Let’s just say I’d side with the Wichita State Shockers regardless of their winning record or my place of birth.

But enough about amazingly scary wheat mascots. Let’s dig into some content related to school climate and student well-being. This week, we read about the parental role in preventing bullying, the value of kindness, and preschool discipline.

On bullying and gender identity:

“It’s hard for any kid to bend outside assumed identities, but it’s particularly hard for boys who want to embrace their femininity. Women’s magazines and princess movies are still a horror show of female subjugation, but the battle against that involves encouraging girls to be as masculine as they want to be. “Strong is the new skinny,” etc. But men and boys are mostly shamed for expressing anything outside of the macho ideal.”
— Sean Williams writes in Slate about his son’s love of My Little Pony, gender identity, and the parental conflict between urging his child to be unique and protecting him from bullying

On being nice:

“Kindness is like holding an ice cube in your hands. It stings, but then the cold dissolves; what at first you could barely hold becomes something you cannot let go.”
—Casey Cep writes about kindness and introspection for Pacific Standard

On race:

“Preschool teachers view black children’s pretend play negatively, yet they view similar types of creative expressions among white and Hispanic children positively, a recently published study asserts.”
—Julie Blair covers a new study about how teachers perceive imaginative play for the Early Years blog

On discipline:

“For not telling me how to get to @sesamestreet #prekcrimes.”
—Twitter users use the hashtag #prekcrimes to speculate on the causes for preschool suspensions included in the new equity data released this week

A version of this news article first appeared in the Rules for Engagement blog.