The Girl Narrative
One of my electives in junior high was cooking. Cooking. In school! It was fun and interesting and I loved it. The homework wasn’t too shabby, either (make cream puffs at home!)As my education continued, I had to take all the usual classes like math, English, science, Spanish, etc. I also had lots of elective possibilities...choir, band, welding, wood-working, and more.The greatest day in my high school career came when I learned I DID NOT have to take math my senior year! Holla! I immediately enrolled in show choir and had a blast my last year.I never felt dumb because I didn’t like math, I just wanted to do things I enjoyed more. And my high school got that. I felt encouraged to be the best ME I could.Fast forward many years, and my oldest daughter is about to graduate from high school. Her education has been pretty different than mine.One big difference is the electives. Oh sure, choir and band and orchestra abound, but what about the others? Cooking is nowhere to be found and neither are other skill-based classes. But STEM is plentiful. Oh goody.STEM.Science-Technology-Engineering-Math...the IMPORTANT areas of study. You know, the subjects that girls desperately want to study, but are underrepresented for some reason?Is it ok to admit that some girls don’t like math? Or engineering? Maybe they think it is boring? Or possibly...they aren’t good at it?! GASP!Apparently not. Not in our school district. Math is REQUIRED all four years of high school. Why? Colleges don’t require this. It makes no sense......but then it does.The school district’s bottom line? Smart girls love math. They love STEM. There is one path and one way to be smart, to be successful, to be a...GIRL.I am sick of it! Stop. Stop writing the girl narrative.Girls should stay home and cook and clean...girls should have long hair...girls should go to work and never have kids...girls should have lots of kids...smart girls want to be engineers...dumb girls are cheerleaders...girls are moody...girls don’t play sports...You get the idea.Girls become women who are as unique and different as the stars in the sky. How amazing is that?I’m DONE with the many girl narratives.You go, girl.Be YOU.