My gender affected me when I was a child in many different ways. I felt that the teachers would punish the boys more than the girls. Also some teachers would give out tougher punishments to the boys than the girls for doing the same thing. I think this was down to the fact that even at my primary school there was a ‘lads culture’, where it wasn’t cool to be good in class. As a result a few of the teachers tarnished us with the same brush. Even though I was not a naughty child, some of my friends were and I remember one particular moment when the teacher apologised to the girls of the class for splitting them up because of all the boys behaviour. This really affected me as I had done nothing wrong but the teacher just thought we were all the same. Also the teacher embarrassed me and the other boys and remembering thinking at the time that this so unfair and that the teacher hated us. Looking back I could see that the teacher was probably just having a bad day however that is an example of how I feel my gender affected me when I was younger. There was other examples, not letting the girls play football with us, because it was a boys only sport. Even though some of the girls were better than a few of the boys, myself included!
I really agree with your comment about there being a “lad culture” in primary schools among the boys. Hopefully in the future, we can move away from that stereotype.
I agree with how boys were often given tougher punishments than girls. When i was at primary school i remember certain boys were always in detention. They were always acting up in the classroom or playground because they thought it was cool and got a good laugh from the rest of the class. Even though girls were sometimes involved when they were misbehaving, they weren’t punished as much as the boys.
This is an interesting post, I like how you have identified that gender was an issue for girls also, in the example where we weren’t allowed to interact with the boys in certain sports especially football. I think it is important to although write your own opinion also look at the ‘other side of the story’ in respect of how the girls felt when it came to gender. This is a point I feel I should also look at myself on reflection of my earlier post on gender.