mercredi 31 mai 2017
Mom Gives Her Daughter's Homework Assignment a Feminist Rewrite
If you've ever looked over your child's homework, you're likely familiar with the overwhelming urge to help them correct every wrong answer (that you know of at least). This was the case for Lynne Polvino, who took one look at her daughter's fill-in-the-blank worksheet about a mom going back to work after having a baby. However, it wasn't 6-year-old Hazel who was wrong in any way - Polvino had an issue with the worksheet itself.
The worksheet, which required first graders to fill the correct words into blanks in a story, didn't sit right with Polvino because of its suggestion that mothers who work make their families unhappy, and that dads shouldn't be trusted to do any housework or cooking correctly.
"It just pushed so many buttons for me, and with each sentence it managed to get worse!" Polvino told TODAY. "My shock and dismay quickly turned to outrage. I mean, what decade are we in, anyway? In this day and age, we're going to tell kids that mothers working outside the home makes their children and families unhappy? That fathers don't normally do things like cook and wash the dishes?"
To combat the irritation she was feeling, the working mom decided to rewrite the worksheet with a feminist twist.
Lisa was happy. Her mother was back at work. Before Lisa was born her mother worked in a big office. Because it valued her important contributions to the workplace, her employer offered nearly a year of paid maternity leave and flex time upon her arrival. The morning was wonderful. Lisa had to get to school on time. Her mother had to get to work on time. her father was home on his paid maternity leave, caring for Lisa's younger brother and contributing equally to the running of the household. Nobody had to rush because Dad had things firmly under control.
Polvino says she composed the rewrite "to reflect the kind of world I want to live in, the kind of world I want my kids to live in when they're old enough to have jobs and families." After updating the worksheet, the mom sent an email to her daughter's school about the outdated assignment, and Hazel's teacher agreed with Polvino's points, promising she'd look more carefully at each worksheet that's assigned before sending it home.
"I have so much respect for all the working moms of past generations who had to deal with this type of crap on a regular basis!" Polvino said. "I'm so grateful to them for paving the way."
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