"What's the Connection between Gender and LIteracy?"

Roberta F. Hammett recounts the events that have taken place regarding gender equality over the past years to bring society where it is today. She points out an important concern, saying that female literacy scores have become higher than boys provincially, nationally, and internationally. This is quite staggering, and shows that effective steps have been taken to motivate and equip women to learn. I like that Hammett emphasizes the importance of "an inclusive curriculum and education that honours multiple ways of knowing, respects multiple intelligences, or employs multimodal texts that include a range of possibilities for student response." By saying this, Hammett makes this about more than just gender equality, but about equality for all. Hammett seems to find value in remembering all social justice issues in the classroom, not just a single one. By doing so, Educators can keep a balance and speak to each issue more powerfully than if one issue is elevated above the rest. This may also be helpful in preventing a society from pushing an issue too far in a given direction - such as gender equality - resulting in boys feeling emasculated and unmotivated.

Hammett writes, "It fell to English teachers - as individuals, that is, since there were no official policies on inclusive language in most provinces at the time - to teach inclusive terms." Although Hammett is referring to gender equality here, it struck me that as Educators, although there may not be any official policies regarding issues of gender, race, ethnicity, or sexuality, we can certainly alter classrooms in ways that will shape society to be anti-discriminatory and anti-racist. This is exciting!!