Boys Need Toy Guns For Academic Development!
April 1, 2009 by Riya Agnihotri
Filed under Child Development
A little while ago I read an article in a newspaper that surprised me, even shocked me a little; It advocated that boys should be allowed to assert their natural masculine attributes of ‘violence’! Ministers voiced the opinions that this should be an acceptable ‘play’ game.
Latest research is showing that boys should be encouraged to play with toy guns at nursery school because it can help improve their academic performance.
It’s hard to believe that something that we are so against as a society should actually be accepted and reinforced by our education systems.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families said boys aged between three and five had fallen behind their female classmates partly because nursery staff tried to curb their desire for boisterous play involving weapons. Boys were more likely to become interested in education and would perform better if encouraged to pursue their chosen play.
The advice has proved controversial with teachers’ unions, which said that toy guns “symbolise aggression” and teachers were right to stop them being used. They also criticised the government for stereotyping boys.
The guidance; Confident, Capable and Creative: Supporting Boys’ Achievements, said national data for 2004-06 showed that in nursery education, boys performed worse than girls across all areas of learning. It is a pattern which the government says continues up until the GCSE stage. The report illustrates that better results can be achieved if nursery staff curb their “instincts” to stop boys from playing with toy guns and instead make better use of their interests.
“Sometimes practitioners find the chosen play of boys more difficult to understand and value than that of girls,” the guidance states. “They may choose activities in which adults involve themselves least, or play that involves more action and a greater use of the available space, especially outdoors. Images and ideas gleaned from the media are common starting points in boys’ play and may involve characters with special powers or weapons. Adults can find this type of play particularly challenging and have a natural instinct to stop it.”
Our natural instincts do take over when supervising child’s play. I can recall countless times when I have dived to change the channels when violence erupted on the screen. Bollywood can be particularly shaky because film that are a (U) Certificate can contain very violent scenes. Take for example Oh My Friend Ganesha. This is a cartoon based Bollywood film but yet contains some very dubious scenes. Sex is taboo in Bollywood films – but unfortunately mindless violence is still high on the agenda for most directors, even when making films for children.
But from what I can recall I grew up in the late 70’s and 1980’s the era of Sholay style gangster movies. And we seem to have turned out OK. Where on earth do we draw the line? My husband doesn’t see the problem, but I tend to think if he watches it then my son may attempt to emulate this behaviour in Nursery with other children.
The report further specified that -as long as staff helped boys understand and respect the rights of other children. “Creating situations so that boys’ interests in these forms of play can be fostered through healthy and safe risk-taking – will enhance every aspect of their learning,”
Therefore it is not the violent play or viewing of violence that should be curbed – such play should always be accompanied by open discussion as to the implications and negativity of such situations.
Beverley Hughes, the children’s minister, said the guidance took “a common-sense approach to the fact that many children, and perhaps particularly many boys, like boisterous, physical activity”.
But Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union, warned that nurseries following the guidance risked incurring the anger of parents.
“I do not think schools should be encouraging boys to play with toy weapons,” he said. “Many parents take the decision that their children won’t have toy weapons. In addition to that, I think this is a clear example of gender stereotyping.”
Steve Sinnott, NUT general secretary, said: “The real problem with weapons is that they symbolise aggression. We do need to ensure, whether the playing is rumbustious or not, that there is a respect for your peers, however young they are.”
So How Can We Use This Information To Allow Our Boys To Be Boys?
My personal opinion is that everything in moderation is good, good, good. Let boys be boys – but Parents must be vigilant as to the type of violence their youngsters watch on television and other forms of media. Play acting, fighting and being boisterous are great. They are very good ways to burn off the excess energy that young boys seem to have. My son is four years old now and can tell the difference between play fighting and actual aggression that can hurt others. However, in all honesty, there was a very long process involved in trying to curb his burgeoning fascination for all things ’violent’. Now – he ‘pretend’ fights with caution incase he hurts his peers. There is a steep learning curve and as long as a child’s play is monitored; a boy can have the best of both worlds.
I don’t think there is any harm with ‘aggressive’ play and from my experience in schools both as a lecturer and parent, I do believe that schools err on the side of ’safety’ (understandably!) and such play can be regarded as deviant, and stamped out by over-zealous teachers. This can hinder the natural instincts of boys. Without going in to the intricacies of boys development, they do learn in a VERY different way to girls and should not be compared to them.
So as a parent? My advice would be to make some pretend guns and get firing….
Have a look at a poem on this theme: http://www.ambaraypublishing.co.uk/category/writing-for-children/fiction/
