He, she or it? Family keeps baby's gender a secret

[PiKA2001]

http://beta.news.yahoo.com/no-him-he...122541829.html

At the "Egalia" preschool, staff avoid using words like "him" or "her" and address the 33 kids as "friends" rather than girls and boys.
From the color and placement of toys to the choice of books, every detail has been carefully planned to make sure the children don't fall into gender stereotypes.

Some parents worry things have gone too far. An obsession with obliterating gender roles, they say, could make the children confused and ill-prepared to face the world outside kindergarten.
"Different gender roles aren't problematic as long as they are equally valued," says Tanja Bergkvist, a 37-year-old blogger and a leading voice against what she calls "gender madness" in Sweden.

I totally agree with this blogger.

Nearly all the children's books deal with homosexual couples, single parents or adopted children. There are no "Snow White," ''Cinderella" or other classic fairy tales seen as cementing stereotypes.

Hmmmm. I do think that children should be exposed to nontraditional families BUT not at the extent of ostracizing stories of traditional families. I think they need at least an equal balance. Will the kids who have a mom and dad living together at home feel as though they aren't part of a normal family?

Egalia is unusual even for Sweden. Staff try to shed masculine and feminine references from their speech, including the pronouns him or her — "han" or "hon" in Swedish. Instead, they've have adopted the genderless "hen," a word that doesn't exist in Swedish but is used in some feminist and gay circles.

I don't know about this...LOL.

Well, good luck in trying to deconstruct hundreds of thousands of years of social development!