Valentina by QMC

Valentina Rivera: Differing beliefs and attitudes can lead to conflict and challenge human rights

HOW DO ATTITUDES, BELIEFS AND EXPECTATIONS STOP US FROM BEING WHO WE ARE?

VENEZUELA AND NEW ZEALAND GENDER ISSUES

Valentina Rivera-‐Chambost Year 6, Class: 6JW

Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 5 Case studies ......................................................................................................................... 6 Case study #1: My experience as a student in a co-‐ed school in New Zealand (Thorndon Primary School, Wellington, NZ). ................................................................... 6 Case study #2: My experience as a student at a girl only school (Queen Margaret College). ......................................................................................................................................... 6 Case study #3: My experience as a student in a co-‐ed school in Bolivia (German School). .......................................................................................................................................... 7

Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 8 Recommendations ............................................................................................................ 8 Appendices .......................................................................................................................... 9 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................... 9 Appendix B ................................................................................................................................... 9

Valentina Rivera: Differing beliefs and attitudes can lead to conflict and challenge human rights

Introduction

Have you ever wondered why boys and girls are treated differently in different countries and cultures? I have been investigating gender issues and I wonder if both genders have the right to equal opportunities? Let me introduce myself first, I am from Venezuela, moved to New Zealand when I was 2 years old with my mom and dad, who are also Venezuelan, and recently spent almost 8 months living in Bolivia due to my dad's work, where I had the opportunity to attend school for some months. After having lived and experienced these cultures I have decided that it would be a good idea to compare New Zealand and Venezuela, and a little bit of Bolivia in my research. During my inquiry, I have had the opportunity to interview some very interesting people: First, I interviewed Maylin Webb -‐ she is from Venezuela, moved to New Zealand 28 years ago, when she was 12. She finished her education in New Zealand, she is now an adult living and working in New Zealand. Her interview was enriching because she has lived in both Venezuela and New Zealand. From her interview, I managed to gather her perspective on the reasons why she moved out of her home country, looking for a better life for her and her future kids, how safe she feels in New Zealand and how she feels she has more freedom to do what she wanted here compared to her home country. Probably the most important message I got from the interview is that boys and girls are not treated equally in Venezuela or in New Zealand. Then, I went to interview our Junior School Principal, Ms Kathleen McDonnell. I interviewed Ms McDonnell to gather her perspective on the difference between girls’ only school and a boys’ only school and some comparison around co-‐ed education as well. QMC teaches girls to think critically and to develop confidence so they can articulate that thinking. In her opinion boys and girls are different, the school tries to offers a broad range of subjects so the girls can be what they want to be.

My third interview was with my mom, Salome Chambost, who is from Venezuela and got here when she was 30 years old. She left her home country because of safety issues. She told me about her school years and how the boys and girls were not treated equally. When she was a girl her parents had expectations about her career based on gender. The main message I got from this interview was that my mom is raising me differently by telling me that I can do whatever I want as long I don’t hurt anybody and I can play with whatever toys I want no matter if it’s meant for boys or girls and there are no defined expectations based on my gender. Lets review my case studies and the answers to some of my questions from my research.

Case studies Case study #1: My experience as a student in a co-‐ed school in New Zealand (Thorndon Primary School, Wellington, NZ).

When I moved from Auckland to Wellington, I got into a co-‐ed school, year 4. We didn’t have uniform so you have to think every morning what to wear for school. My first day at school I met a group of friends of 5 girls. The teachers treated boys and girls equally. Though the boy’s and girls were not treated differently in the subjects, those same boys and girls have really different expectations about themselves, girls needed to dress in cool clothes or they might be subjected to being bullied, there was a lot of expectations around having a boyfriend/girlfriend. Once there was a lot of drama over this and teacher gave us a speech that we shouldn’t be thinking about those things so early. While I was playing netball for my school team, I played against a team that had boys and girls regardless of the fact that this is meant to be a girls’ only sport. I feel this is right, because we should all be able to play the sport that we want to play no matter our gender. One thing I noticed during my time at this school is that during playtime boys and girls play different games defined by genders, and you are expected to play that game with your same gender. In general, my perspective is that during school time we all, boys and girls, have the same opportunities in New Zealand. But, with dress code and during playtime there are define expectations based on your gender.

Case study #2: My experience as a student at a girl only school (Queen Margaret College). This case study is based in my experience as a Year5 student at Queen Margaret College, before I left to Bolivia. Queen Margaret College focuses on academics,

Valentina Rivera: Differing beliefs and attitudes can lead to conflict and challenge human rights you learn to think and be confident so you can articulate your thinking. QMC tries to offer a broad range of subjects not just subjects that meant to be for girls so when girls are older they feel like they can do anything and that they can be what they want to be. I feel happy about QMC because you don’t just learn the subjects you also learn how to share your ideas and how to put your feelings into your schoolwork. The games we play are not gender defined we don’t just play with dolls and prams we play with ball and Frisbees as well. At QMC if there were boys I think we would get treated equally. At QMC they teach you to stand up for girls education and just simply for girls because we are all capable of doing everything good or bad our gender shouldn’t stop us. was at QMC for about one term and a half and I liked it because you get to learn a lot of different subjects and I like that teachers that help you in any way possible so that your learning as fun and as easy as possible. QMC is a girls only school which is feel is a benefit Our subjects are Math, Inquiry, Writing, P.E, R.E, Art, Music and French I enjoy all of these but I especially enjoy inquiry because you get to investigate one thing and then write a report about it. Queen Margaret College has helped me become a better person and has helped me with my education.

Case study #3: My experience as a student in a co-‐ed school in Bolivia (German School).

For seven months I lived in Bolivia and I went to a school called El Colegio Aleman (Which means the German school in English) At El Colegio Aleman the subjects were Values, Music, German, Writing, Art, P.E and Math we had a very fixed timetable and it was not very flexible. There is lots of homework once it took me five hours to complete my homework. Once for homework I had to copy a story and make it exactly the same. You wear mufty to school except for the people who decide to wear their P.E uniform as there everyday uniform. uniform. In Bolivia I was put in year four because of my age (10-‐11 years old=year four) At the school if someone tried to enroll their kids in the school and if the mother or father went to El Colegio Aleman they would automatically get a spot in the school while the rest of us have to take a test to get into the school. I took the test and it wasn't too hard or too easy. Expectations for girls and boys at school At the school all the girls weren't focused on their study's they were focused on who had the coolest stationary who had the coolest clothes and who had the coolest hair and who liked who. One time a girl wore a wig to school. The boy's were expected to play soccer all morning tea and lunch while the girls would sit down and gossip. Girls or boy's birthday party's are expected to be extravagant with a bouncy castle a D.J and a company they hired to play games with the

children. When the girls got older they start wearing make up to school but they expect lots of girls to wear make up. Attitudes among students The students treat each other badly because they bully each other they call each other stupid, crazy but in a bad way, they also exclude each other from games, for example they have four or five people and then they don't want to hang out with anybody else. There are some kids that disrespect the teachers. Attitudes outside of school The girls like to show off their houses when someone is at their house and they also play with Barbie's but they do it inappropriately or other girls play in person with their friend and they play that they have a boyfriend. The girls/boy's parents go to see a movie or something like that and they leave their kid with the cleaning lady but some kids have a fifteen year old sister/brother and they stay with her/him. Expectations as an adult(career, job, role of girls and women) Some women are cleaners, it's very common in Bolivia to have a cleaning lady. Sometimes it's a cleaning lady that comes everyday or a live in cleaning lady. Often when it's a live in cleaning lady they give them tiny tiny rooms and sometimes they don't have a window. Cleaning lady's are often treated badly. Most woman work in Bolivia and so do men. Some women don't want to work so they find a husband to keep them and all they do is go to the beauty salon, the nail salon and, the dry cleaners to get their husbands suit

Conclusions

I have been fortunate to have lived in three different countries. When I was little I thought that everyone had similar opportunities and experiences. I now know both from my personal experience and from talking to people who helped me with my investigation, that this is certainly not the case. Opportunities for boys and girls differ from place to place. Some of us think this shouldn’t occur but it does. Another thing that happens is societal stereo-‐typing. Boys shouldn’t just have to play with trucks and legos and girls shouldn’t have to only play with prams and dolls, we should all be allowed to express who we are and say which toys we like. Boys and girls are treated differently in different countries, cultures and contexts. The implications are that both genders aren’t treated equally and because of the beliefs of people societal stereo-‐typing occurs.

Recommendations

Our generation should stand up for our future kids break the beliefs of stereo-‐ typing so our kids can express there feelings and show who they are without having to worry about people judging them. Let’s create a better life for everyone.

Valentina Rivera: Differing beliefs and attitudes can lead to conflict and challenge human rights

Appendices Appendix A

Gender Parliament Participation 100% 80% 60% 40%

Female %

20%

Male %

1996 Female % 29%

1999 31%

2002 28%

2005 32%

2008 34%

2014 32%

Male %

69%

72%

68%

66%

68%

71%

Year

Appendix B Subject

How many girls Why? Please, explain. liked…

Mathematics

3/9

• • •

Writing

8/9

• • •

P.E

9/9

• •

Because sorting out problems is a big part in education Because there are fun games and challenges. It's fun to express you imagination and creativity It's fun because you write about different topics everyday. I always learn new techniques It's fun to play games an run around Because we get to try different sports and skills

Art

8/9

R.E

0/9

Inquiry

7/9

•

It's the same as writing but using your illustration

• • •

You get to focus on one thing It gets your brain working and thinking about problems and how we can solve them. You learn lot's of new things about he world.

Music

7/9

• • •

You can create your own melody Music is creative Music is emotional

French

6/9

• •

It's fun to learn another language You learn about a different country

Science

9/9

• • •

It's fun to do experiments You can explore different parts of the body You learn about how things work and how things happen

Subject

How many girls Why? Please, explain. don't like…

Mathematics

5/9

•

I don't like times and division

Valentina Rivera: Differing beliefs and attitudes can lead to conflict and challenge human rights

Writing

1/9

P.E

0/9

Art

0/9

R.E

9/9

• • • •

I don't believe in god I am not religious It's not fun I don't like listening to bibles an doing Christian work sheets

Inquiry

2/9

•

I don't like doing inquiry work

Music

2/9

• •

I don't like learning notes for instruments I'm not a very musical person

French

2/9

•

I'd like to learn French but I don't like how we are taught I would like her to teach us like any other subject

Science

1/9

•

Because I'm not very good at writing

Mathematics:2 girls unsure Art:1 girl unsure Science:1 student absent when collecting reasons for not liking this subject

Bibliography Community: Salome Venezuelan born Mylin Webb Venezuelan born Vivien Maidaborn Executive Director, UNICEF - Children and Women's Rights Advocate Andrea Yiaposs Ms Kathleen McDonnell (QMC junior school principle)

Print Harrison J (2009) Our Rights- Home. London: Evans Brothers

Web Based

http://venezuelanalysis.com http://www.factmonster.com/country/new-‐zealand.html, http://www.factmonster.com/country/venezuela.html

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/venezuela_statistics.html http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender/country/venezuela,-‐rb http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/venezuela_statistics.html http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender/country/venezuela,-‐rb