Teaching our girls to speak out . . . Helen Kinsey-Wightman
At a pre-Christmas barbeque I was involved in a conversation about the war in Syria and the bombing of civilians and children in hospitals. A group of men present strongly defended this as an act of war – I commented that this was indefensible and showed total disregard for the Geneva Convention. The response was, “Oh you would say that – you’re a woman . . . ” I was so stunned that to my shame I said nothing and backed away. Having berated myself extensively and thought of 50 things I should have said as a response, a few days later I went Christmas shopping at Unity Books. So it was that Tara Moss’s book ‘Speaking out – a 21st Century Handbook for women and girls’1 became my Christmas present. Tara’s premise is that worldwide only one in four people we hear from in the media is female and in Parliaments men outnumber women by three to one (hearteningly in New Zealand this is currently 2 to 1.) Her focus is on teaching women and girls to overcome gender bias and their own socialisation and speak out. She begins by debunking the myth that women speak more words than men. Whilst there is no scientific basis to the oft quoted statistic that women use 20,000 words per day vs only 7000 for men it is frequently quoted. So much so that in 2007 Scientific American published an article investigating how this fictional statistic came to be used so frequently, “Gender Jabber: Do Women Talk More than Men? In a word: No. But then, how did the rumor get started?”2 She goes on to suggest that perhaps this is a way society encourages women to speak less . . . Her book is an accessible tool that is useful in teaching young women to deal with diversions, put downs, and criticism they may receive both in person and via social media when they choose to speak out. As with all other areas of our teaching I believe we need to model and show our students examples of confident, competent speaking. I will miss watching Barack Obama speak. His delivery
from a prepared script was impressive but his ability to debate and speak off script fluently, calmly and with empathy inspired me. During the US election period Obama’s firm but empathetic response to a crowd of his democrat supporters who booed a heckling Trump supporter and serviceman emphasised his statesmanship, dignity and humanity. My role model for extemporaneous speaking – unscripted speech – in my school environment is one of our senior students. Last year Hana competed, as a Y11 student, in the senior section of the Ngā Manu Korero speech competition against students who were mostly 2 years older than her. This competition is comprised of a prepared speech and an impromptu section – where a student has 5 minutes to prepare a 3 minute speech on a previously undisclosed subject. The standard of speaking is very high and giving our students the opportunity to see confident, accomplished speakers is much easier now that speeches are available via the internet. Hinepounamu Apanui-Barr of Wellington College who won the senior English competition in 2017 is a great example.3 During my time teaching primary school I focussed a lot on oral language and ensuring I taught both girls and boys to speak up with confidence. In a girls’ school our students do not experience the opportunity to speak out in the presence of young men in their learning environment. So how do we prepare them for this in a tertiary context? Elleke Boehmer, an Oxford English professor, says: “I often observe my female students’ silence and lack of confidence in class with concern. How anxious they are about coming forward to express an opinion, to risk a point of view, so often letting the male students speak first and second and even third. And in this way they lose out in the discussions that are going to help them hone their pitch, write winning essays, secure the out-and-out firsts that male students in Humanities subjects still are securing in far greater numbers, proportionately, than they are.”4
One of our school goals this year is “To prioritise the my class that their time should be spent on thinking, drafting acquisition of quality teaching and learning strategies to develop and redrafting their writing rather than creating a “perfect” independent learners.” Interestingly our discussions around exercise book. the teaching and learning strategies we would need to use to Reshma Saujani the founder of Girls who Code, says in her develop independence centred around developing risk taking, Ted Talk5, “We are raising our girls to be perfect and we’re raising our boys to be brave.” In 2012 she building collaboration, confidence and started a company to teach girls to code growth mindsets. One of our school and she tells them that coding requires As I started teaching my English perseverance and imperfection. She Enrichment class of students entering goals this year is “To continues, “Lev Brie, who is a professor Year 9 without the level of literacy needed prioritise the acquisition at the University of Columbia and teaches to thrive at high school, I began to think Intro to Java tells me about his office about how I could encourage confidence of quality teaching hours with computer science students. and risk taking in these students. We When the guys are struggling with an started by creating a mind map of all the and learning they’ll come in and they’ll reasons why they might have missed out strategies to develop assignment, say, “Professor, there’s something wrong on the groundwork required for strong with my code.” The girls will come in literacy skills in their education so far. We independent and say, “Professor, there’s something talked about physical challenges to sight wrong with me.’” Saujani advocates or hearing, moving schools, missing out learners.” actively teaching girls to be brave and to on crucial teaching, whether their parents had the time or skills to read to them, whether they had been be comfortable with imperfection. As I finished Tara Moss’s book on speaking out, Donald happy during their early years at school. Then I asked them to write some personal notes about which of these applied to them Trump’s inauguration prompted 5 million people worldwide – and I watched as some of them tried to turn my slightly random male and female – to turn out to for the Women’s March (with over a million marchers in Washington alone). One of the most diagram into something neat and tidy in their books. I reflected on myself as a young learner striving to keep my powerful speakers I heard was actress America Ferrera who exercise books neat and feeling the need to rip out pages and spoke out forcefully and bravely as a woman and an immigrant. rewrite notes so that everything looked perfect. Now my notes The organisers are now consulting with communities throughout are more often mind maps, records of my thinking with arrows, the US to plan 10 Actions for the First 100 days of Trump’s highlights and crossings out. From now on I am expressly telling presidency6. Whilst we are watching with growing concern the challenges to respect for diversity, respect for women and the right to free speech in the US as well as the rise of Nationalism in Europe, it is heartening to be able to show our girls examples of women Resene featured in the media who are prepared to stand up and speak Such Fun up, despite these troubled times . . . References
Moss, T. Speaking out – a 21st Century Handbook for women and girls. Harper Collins 2016
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/women-talk-morethan-men/
https://tehiku.nz/te-hiku-tv/nga-manu-korero-2016nationals/4180/has-consent-hinepounamu-apanui-barr-prepared
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/24/vocalfry-strong-female-voice
https://www.ted.com/talks/reshma_saujani_teach_girls_bravery_ not_perfection
https://www.womensmarch.com/100/action2/
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