While driving to town one day, my daughter who was 6 at the time proceeded to tell me all about how she knows about how girls are different from boys.
“How so?” I curiously enquired, wondering what the playground conversations and activities had been that lunchtime.
“Well,” she says “it’s all about how they drive”. With some relief, I nod in agreement and ask for more details. “It’s quite obvious really – boys drive using one hand on the steering wheel and girls use two hands”.
I was surprised. So we decided to study all the drivers on our trip. Sure enough … it was true! I don’t know what the men were doing with the other hand, but it wasn’t on the steering wheel (I suspect it was on the gear stick, or the radio knob or something). And we always think of the Women as being multi-taskers! We also started to take notice of the types of cars they were driving and I have since made another startling discovery. We tend to choose a car that looks like us or reflects our personality somehow even if we don’t realize it.
I find this very interesting as I used to drive quite a sexy, white, racy number – and now I drive a sort of grey, round, people carrier. My husband used to drive a perfectly functional, demure, brown Toyota – now he drives a tiny, economical, Starlet. It even has the lipstick mirror on the driver’s side instead of the passenger’s side. Mmm. Now, I get very excited when I see people I know coming out of their cars. I even sometimes walk around the WITT car parks trying to figure out whose car belongs to who? I LOVE it when someone I know who is fabulously creative steps out of a 1960s Beatle VW. I am confused when I see that same person driving with both hands on the wheel however…… Have you ever noticed how people sometimes look like their pets? Well, I think people look like or are like their cars (give your car a good look over before you get into it tonight).
But really, how is this possible? I think it is actually more about people making choices – and choices are often influenced by what we think about ourselves without us perhaps even realising it. How we drive, the type of car we drive, the pet we own, or our educational choices. Sometimes the student puts themselves into a little box “too dumb”, or something is “too hard” and their life choices sometimes reflect this. Part of our role in education therefore is to help them see themselves in a different way – as a successful learner, as someone who can contribute. Often this involves providing pathways, realistic feedback and encouragement, educational challenges that are appropriate to their own level, and helping people consider choices they once would have never considered.
It would be an interesting research project to study how, as people gain successes, their choices change – their choice of car, their choice of pet and their career aspirations. We often hear how education can be life changing, I wonder also if it is car changing …….
March 13, 2009 at 7:59 pm |
Another decent blogger placed an observative post today on Boys Are Different from Girls . Bellstreetfiless – a quick excerpt: How we drive, the type of car we drive, the pet we own, or our educational choices. Sometimes the student puts themselves into a little box “too dumb”, or something is “too hard” and their life choices sometimes reflect this.