#ooc

Well, you must admit it was a world where pastels ran amok 🙂

Some parents still discourage their kids from being interested in toys that are for the "wrong" gender.

And my Barbies went through some serious adventures. It was NOT all about makeup.

Yeah. After baby sitting my 10 year old Nephew and 7 year old niece, I think I wouldn't care what they were playing with toys wise as long as 1) It was safe. 2) It kept them relatively quiet and occupied!

my barbies had brutal lives

murder, betrayal....

chuckle Yup.

My apologies, ladies 🙂 I guess girls can kick T Rexs in the face too G

But yeah, my brother FREAKED OUT when my nephew put on one of his big sister's princess dresses

How old was the nephew?

5

at the time

Heck, at 5 years old even his peers might let it slide. Now older I can see your brother worried about him getting his ass kicked at school if they heard about it

Big Sis is def. the bossy one

and Nephew is a follower

I don't claim to know for girls, but the guy hierarchy in schools is brutal on non conformists and rather abrupt and violent about it

yes

Though , and this is a sequey, Apparently one Home Ec teacher caught onto the idea of running a class like an Iron Chef episode, and the boys who were like 'They stuck me in here because the GOOD classes were taken" loved it

ha!

I'd have to find the blog, I think it maybe gone now. Few years ago. I just thought it was clever

I think it is wrong that we don't prepare boys for life skills

Ha! Love it.

laundry, cooking, ironing

I had some cookng lessons in school, nothing fancy but it helped. and one time I learned how to sew a moose toy

My school district has eliminated all home ec classes because they don't help students pass the state exams. This is an inner-city district with a HUGE poverty rate...these kids NEED to know how to take care of themselves in a healthy manner!

Skills have deteriorated since then

yes!

high stakes testing has really screwed kids up

sure as hell doesn't prepare them for college

I think we all agree on that.

Moose toy. 🙂 You remind me that I'm going to a New Year's party where the hosts have decided to hold a porg competition. Materials are up to the artisan's choice.

ha. That might be fun to see the results of

Uhm it is to my embarrassment I must admit, my moose's antlers came out a little limp. The shame of it.

aw

Misfit toys. 🙂

home ec, shop, social sciences.... seems like everything is being sidelined for reading-and-math

I once made stuffed lions, but I got the pattern wrong, so they came out sort of pigeon-toed.

to the detriment of learning

Yup. And all those classes make you practice reading and math in real-world contexts.

or finding interests. How many people got career paths from an educational contact with a new subject?

yes!

And they get to college, and they can't handle ambiguity

Off topic, this is cool: <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FClassicFM%2Fvideos%2F10156180924659260%2F&show_text=0&width=476" width="476" height="476" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe>

Oh...ew...let me see if I can find a better link.

or see the point in non-graded activities

I know one Social studies teacher who is like "I've been cut down to a semester to teach 250 plus years of history, Geography, the US government's workings, and what I can of sociology's basics ...and folks wonder why Johnny forgets the the capitals of every state."

Hah. Rudophus

Jeez, yeah

My kids are pig ignorant of so much history