Gender Neutrality

After this week's reading and discussion, it made me curious to see what has been around the world, in terms of dealing with gender neutrality.  In a new school in Stockholm, the tagline reads, "there are no boys and girls, just 'friends.'" The school intends to break down the social norm of treating a child a particular way based on his or her gender.  By treating all children without gender, the school hopes to do away with gender stereotypes and encourages children to grow up with their own understanding of individuality.  There were some obvious challenges to set up such a school; first of all, the faculty had to refrain from using any gender-based pronouns such as "him" or "her" ("han or "hon" in Swedish).  Instead, the members of the school use the word "hen" which is gender-less (and also not a real Swedish word).  Also during playtime, initial thoughts about a "normal" household are not taught or supported.  When playing "house" for example, if there is one playing the "mommy" role already, there is no problem with having two or even three "mommies."  As one can imagine, fairy tales that heavily insist on gender based roles are not found on this school's bookshelves.  This school strives to celebrate a child's individualism, so more than encouraging the common "prince and princess" fairy tale, they would much rather focus of stories about not-so conventional households such as gay relationships, single parents, or adopted children.
This idea of a gender-free school system may be a long stretch from anything that would be widely supported in our society, but the families in Sweden seem to have little to no problem with this idea.  It would be very interesting to observe how this bold method of raising children affects their development throughout their lives.   Since Sweden's general population has been very accepting when it comes to gay and lesbian couples, it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that Sweden is helping to pave the way for the rest of the world in gender equality.