I have been teaching two- to four-year-olds for the last 10 ½ years. Four years before that, I worked as a counselor for troubled teen boys and girls. Two and a half years ago I became a mother (of a boy) for the first time. If you had asked me before I gave birth if I thought boys and girls were inherently different I would have said no; that they were only different because we, as adults, treat them differently. Since I have become a mother I have had to change my view on this matter (along with so many other things, it seems).
A review of the literature out there mostly presents very conflicting ideas. On one extreme there are those who are adamant that girls and boys are poles apart in all aspects of development. Talk to mothers that you meet and you probably will get the same response; boys are magulo because they are boys and girls are masunurin because they are girls.
On the other extreme are those who advocate that it is society that dictates them to be so. A study that best describes this tested how adults would behave depending on the gender of a baby. They used the same baby throughout the experiment, but when the adults were told that the baby was a boy, they offered him boy toys, and when they were told the baby was a girl, the adults were gentler.
So what are these differences and why all the hullaballoo about them?
[Read the full article on SmartParenting.com.ph]
(Photo courtesy of hoyasmeg via Flickr Creative Commons)
