Hands Off My #Legos Woman!

by Kim D.

"Hands off my Legos, woman" - that's exactly what my son would say, shooting fire from his eyes and channeling a nasty Lewis Black tone much like the character Anger from Inside Out, if his teacher were to deny his play for gender equity. However, I'm sad to report, that just what one teacher has done to the male kindergarten students in her class. According to Ashe Schow, of the Washington Examiner:

A kindergarten teacher in Bainbridge Island, Wash., actively denies her male students the opportunity to play with Lego blocks in order to encourage her female students to play with them. Karen Keller bars the boys in her class from playing with the colorful blocks, even going so far as to lie to them about their opportunity to play. "I always tell the boys, 'You're going to have a turn' — and I'm like, 'Yeah, when hell freezes over' in my head," Keller told the Bainbridge Island Review. "I tell them, 'You'll have a turn' because I don't want them to feel bad."

I wonder do the parents know this is happening in the classroom and if they approve in the gender bending exercise which uses their children as guinea pigs?

So nice to see a teacher force kids to play only with the toys that fit her world view https://t.co/wwBQ0AvIwI

— The real Jon Brodkin (@jbrodkin) November 19, 2015

The teacher claims she got this brilliant idea because during free play time in class, the boys naturally went for the "boy" toys and the girls played with their preference of dolls. Curiously enough, the article describes her dismay that girls didn't want to play with the Legos as much as the dolls, even though the teacher stocked up on purple and pink bricks.

"I had to do the 'girls only Lego club' to boost it more," Keller said. "Boys get ongoing practice and girls are shut out of those activities, which just kills me. Until girls get it into their system that building is cool, building is 'what I want to do' — I want to protect that."

Keller had found research finding that Lego play accelerates development and helps with spatial and math skills. And since Keller believes that gender stereotypes are ingrained into girls at a young age, well, something had to be done.

"I just feel like we are still so far behind in promoting gender equity," Keller said.

Once small problem arises with her experiment. If Legos accelerate development, and good Lord I hope they do because that is my son's favorite toy presently, the teacher is not promoting gender equity if she is denying boys the ability to build and create alongside the girls.  She is actively choosing to hinder the development of boys.

how about you stop touching my FUCKING LEGOS

— Mazatron 5000 (@Mazar_ebooks) November 20, 2015

My kid wouldn't say it quite this way, but if he were familiar with the "f" word, I'm sure he would be tempted to use it to defend his right to play with Legos.