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Dow Jones-Ollaway News Service HOMERVILLE, Ohio — When 2-year-old Theresa Hickey start ed getting ready for school few weeks ago, She ran into a prob lem. The folks at Black River Junior High School wouldn't let her enroll in industrial arts, a class involving the use of tools, woodworking and so on. In stead, officials at the school in formed her that because she was a girl, she was required to study home economics. “That just made me sick,’ says Theresa, a well-mannered seventh-grader who lives on a farm in this rural community about 50 miles southwest of Cleveland. “What I really wanted to learn about was how to use tools, a hammer and saw, things like that. After all, I’ve been learning how to cook and keep house since I was in a high chair,”” Theresa’s father, a lawyer who practices in Cleveland, wrote to the school board asking that Theresa be permitted to take industrial arts. He got a flat rejection. When all else failed, Theresa sought help from Women’s Law Fund Inc, a year-old non-profit group in Cleveland active in women’s rights. Acting on Theresa’s be half, the group sued in federal district court, and the school board quickly reversed its policy. Larry E. Rodenberger, superintendent of the Black River School District and a de fendant in Theresa’s suit, says, “the sex equality thing is having a big impact in the schools, particularly as far as staffing and physical facilities are con cerned. We’re having to rethink just about everything we've traditionally done. The problem is gigantic.” Indeed, sex discrimination in public education is coming under attack in school systems across the country. Groups of feminists, parents, teachers and youngsters themselves are pressing for change on a variety of fronts. The issues range from classes that exclude one or the other sex to casual remarks made by teachers to athletic program funding and to the fairness of materials used in the classrooms. Almost no one denies a prob lem exists. “Like it or not, in the past the educational system has tended to point girls to cer tain types of careers and boys toward others,” says John C. Pittenger, Pennsylvania Secre tary of Education who last year ordered school officials to end all discriminatory activities. “On balance, I think it’s ac curate to say that education hasn’t been fair to anybody not to boys or girls, their moth ers and fathers, or to teachers and administrators,” he said. Typical of the groups spring ing up is one in Seattle that calls itself “Citizens for Elimination of Sex Role Stereo typing in Public Education.” According to Sally Mackle, the mother of two pre-schoolers and a substitute high-school teacher, the group got going last Janu ary when another mother and a community organizer “got to discussing the subject.” David Wagoner, a lawyer in Seattle who is president of the board of education, recalls his first contact with the group. “First off, they wrote us a letter expressing a number of concerns about sex discrimina tion,” he says. “We invited them to meet with us, and they showed us slides of books we were using in the school system. They went into the idea that the books showed men in all the interesting jobs in business and the professions, while women were shown mainly in the home.” As a result of the complaints, a major study of sex role stereotyping in the Seattle schools had been launched. “We're looking at everything from teacher attitudes to text books — from kindergarten through grade 12,” says Dave Kroft, director of‘ Staff Devel opment for the Seattle schools.
Newspaper Details
Oneonta Star
Oneonta, New York, US
Wed, Oct 10, 1973
Page 24
Full Page
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USA 12 Jun 2026
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