These Students Were Told To "Date" Each Other For An Assignment And It Was Beyond Problematic
13 January 2017, 13:11 | Updated: 8 May 2017, 17:09
Female students were also given rules on how to behave on the dates.
We've all had our fair share of weird school assignments. Teachers who mean well but end up assigning some time wasting tasks are simply a staple of k-12 education. Enter some Utah students who couldn't have been anything other than shocked when their teacher assigned them the task of "going on a date" with someone of the opposite sex.
Now, it should go without saying that not all girls want to date boys. Some girls want to date girls and some girls don't want to date anyone. That's a fact of life that teachers should try their best to acknowledge.
Female students at this Utah high school were handed a pink sheet of paper that instructed them to go on a date with guys but keep the budget under $5 (what you can buy for $5 I'll never know, but I can already tell this would be a trash date for anyone).
The pink sheet of paper included tips from guys like, "respect him", "don't waste his money", "be feminine and lady-like. Don't use vulgar language or swear", "don't correct him or his personal habits." Please, is this a joke?
This is an actual homework assignment female students at a high school in Utah received. Remember how fun being a teenage girl was? pic.twitter.com/pnSxJYZAYa
— Madison M. K. (@4evrmalone) January 11, 2017
The assignment was meant to be a lesson in "societal norms" for an 'adult roles and financial literacy class', according to the Salt Lake Tribune. Adult roles is not a synonym for gender roles and there are other ways to teach high school students how adults interact with one another.
Instead of instructing students to "pretend date", you could fulfill an 'adult roles' class by having them simulate a job interview or asking them to get a week-long internship. Better yet, teaching them how to manage finances and be assertive and confident in the workplace is a far better idea than handing girls a piece of pink paper that says "be feminine and lady-like".
The official defense was that this was supposed to be a "lighthearted" assignment but the truth is that this is uncomfortable, inappropriate, and littered with casual misogyny.
Please do better.
