Stereotypes

This week in Girl Scouts our troop worked on identifying stereotypes. It was a great exercise. In the middle of the page they drew a circle and put their name in it. Around it they put more circles with words that identified them. The next step was to identify stereotypes (if any) that went with those identifying words. 


Example (stereotypes in italics): 


They discovered that some stereotypes really did describe who they were, and some did not. Each person was different. They broke into groups of 3 afterwards and discussed with each other what they had found. Some stereotypes made them mad, others they did not care one way or the other. Not every describing word came with a stereotype.


The important thing they learned was to not so quickly judge others, or themselves, by the words that describe them.


This made me think, who am I, what stereotypes do I think of with those words, which ones identify who I really am and which ones are NOT me?


Take a few minutes and do this exercise for yourself – you might be surprised at what you find.

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