While thinking of potential topics to research, I decided that I wanted to write about early childhood education. Originally, I tried to write about segregation and income inequalities and how it affects the quality of the education that young students are receiving, but then decided that I was more interested in how early childhood education can gradually lead to the development of gender roles and sexism. When a respected adult like a teacher or administrator introduces an idea to a young student, the young student will most likely believe the idea and accept it. For example; if a teacher tells a young student that they should not participate in a specific kind of sport or activity because they are a girl or a boy, this discourages a child and makes them believe that things are gender specific.
During my future research, I want to talk to people around me at school and see if anyone has ever told them they couldn't do something at a young age because it didn't correlate with the roles that our society assigns genders. I also want to talk to older people in my family to see if they think that saying certain phrases like, "sit like a lady," is acceptable. I will also talk to older people and children alike and name off toys and see if they separate them by gender and then ask them what inspired them to think that way. I plan to look for specific information on the development of the brain at a young age to prove that if someone like a teacher or administrator says something sexist, that they will believe it until someone tells them something otherwise.
The goal of this project is to try to aid in demolishing the idea of children being exposed to gender roles and stereotypes at a young age to try to further solve the problem of sexism within our society. Childhood experiences are what shape our thoughts and opinions and if a child is exposed to someone telling them that they have to fit a certain mold because of their gender, then they will believe that until someone else teaches them otherwise. My project will cover the ways that we can help stop the introduction of gender roles at a young age through better childhood education.
