Child's Play

10 Pages 2464 Words

girls do. However with the presence of just one male there, it did tend to move away from the generalisation. Especially as this male was accepted quite freely and seemed to bear no insults or derogatory behaviour from other peers for his choice of play. As I looked around the playground further I noted that there was apparently very little to distinguish between the genders and that boys were mingling quite freely and easily with girls in most activities. A fortress was the main feature of the playground with a ladder, pole, and various other bits and pieces for the children to swing on, fight on, sit on, climb on etc. These were being used by both sexes in a rough and tumble fashion. With this evidence in mind one cannot help but be swayed into believing that androgyny reigns supreme and that little or no ostracising results from the mingling of genders.
A reason for this is the apparent lack of physical difference between sexes at such a young age. Children of both genders around the ages of 5 and 6 are both as physically developed as one another and so limits are not put in place on either one’s ability nor is the belief present that girls are ‘inferior to boys at sport’. Such ideals are learnt in later life as shall be shown by this essay.

Up in the senior section of the school the situation was dramatically different to that which I had just witnessed. As soon was I arrived in the senior section I came across a small cluster of exclusively girls sitting in a bench talking in hushed voices. They all became very silent and watch as we walked past them with suspicion on their faces. A little further on and there was a raucous group of boys all playing soccer, yelling and screaming. Interesting that up at this playground the gender separation was extremely evident. The concrete area was separated into 3 ‘courts’ with an adventure playground and a set of swings. On all 3 courts the children with all bar 2 of them, wer...