To be a “Boy” Or “Girl”?

          “This student has demonstrated a consistent, pointed interest in trans issues and has raised unprovoked questions about transsexuals on at least three occasions. He (or she?) is sometimes teased by other students for “acting gay,” wearing sweater-vests, and borrowing pink highlighters from the girls in class to decorate his notebook. Without assuming anything about this student’s identity, it is clear that gender and sexuality are important for the student to think about and work through right now.” (Krywanczyk, 2009)

The last sentence of this passage attracts my attention. It is true. “Gender identity” is a sensitive topic to young students. People differentiate the “sexuality” based on the physical characteristics. Then, when the young children are capable of declaring themselves as boys or girls, this is the confirmation of their “gender identity”. In most of cases, children learn their gender behaviors from some sort of “gender stereotypes” like, “boys should do this” or “girls should do this”. However, when they in high school, they have their small social circle. In that case, I think the friends who they choose to imitate in their lives could be the source of the confusion or the change of their own gender identity. In these days, we do not have as much expectations, like “boys should do this” or “girls should do this”, as before. I mean sometimes, girls can be “masculine”. As educators, we help our students to develop their special potential rather than emphasizing excessively on whether their behaviors are coincided with their gender identity.