Defined by Kids

[Stu]

I was chatting to the ex-wife of a friend - she is a schoolteacher and knows about both my linguistics interest and my skirt interest. She said that in her English lesson, she was introducing her Year 8 children to some basic lexicology - how things are defined - the limits of dictionary definitions and so on. One exercise involved children working in 10 groups of 2 or 3 and each group was given a list of 10 words (a mix of nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs plus some function words like prepositions and conjunctions). They had to come up with a definition for each word and show them to the class for discussion. One of the words was "skirt". The definition they came up with was a "tube of cloth that can be worn from the waist and might be shaped to fit a person's body". That's remarkably simple, and it wasn't gendered. In the full class, the definitions were "debriefed" in a discussion and the teacher said that some skirts are wrap-around rather than a tube, or they have a line of buttons at the front so again they can be opened out, so it's not really a tube of cloth, is it? It was agreed that MOST skirts are a tube of cloth and even with the exceptions, they are still a tube when worn. Nobody mentioned gender and so the teacher mentioned it. The class generally agreed that skirts are mostly worn by. The teacher asked why skirts are mostly worn by girls and the class decided that they are mostly only worn by girls BECAUSE they are mostly worn by girls - boys (and presumably men) don't wear them because they are mostly worn by girls. I said that's circular logic and the teacher said she realised this, but didn't pursue that point and moved on to the next word which was "darkly".

The phrase "tube of cloth" stuck in my mind. Why is it even an issue? It is just a tube of cloth.

[Mouse]

It would be interesting to know whether any of the girls in the class were wearing skirts at the time. If none of the girls wore skirts as a rule, then may be the class would no longer associate "skirts equal girls" as strongly as we might imagine?

[crfriend]

As is usually the case. the Devil here lurks in the details -- and in this case that detail is the precise definition of "tube". If one is to use the full definition as given by geometry, then most skirts would not be considered purely cylindrical [0] (e.g "tube" shaped) as they tend to be more complex because of their seaming. Some are, yes, but most aren't. They can actually be surprisingly complex pieces of work involving not just straight lines, but curves, seams, and different shapes of cloth all in one garment.

Now, I'd not expect a collection of grammar-school pupils to grasp that subtlety any more than I'd challenge them on the matter of circular logic -- although the latter is a vastly more egregious crime. Yes, in Western "culture" men typically do not wear skirts (save for a very few reserved styles) -- and that's getting worse as attitudes harden -- but that is not necessarily the case for other cultures. I believe it's primarily the cultural problem we need to face down once and for all so we can put the matter to bed (or "six feet under"), permanently.

Precise definitions are important -- and make no bones about that. However, we cannot let the dictionary get in the way of communication, especially in the manner of narrow interpretation. And it's never too early to start acclimating students to the subtleties of definitions and language (or at least for the ones who show an aptitude for language).


[0] OK, technically, a hollow cylinder of bounded length and described by a diameter or radius. The length may be unlimited (but impractical for anything really useful). Interestingly, the thickness of the material can be infinitely small (a single point which is dimensionless), but which again is impractical for anything useful. Consider the notion when describing a tunnel.

[Modoc]

I think that, for the most part, 8th-year students have been pretty well indoctrinated socially and culturally. Unless they have had a significant amount of exposure to other ideas, their ideas pretty much fall in line with those of their parents.