A kindergarten teacher in Washington has banned boys from playing with Legos–because of so-called “gender equality.”
In fact, Karen Keller–a teacher at Captain Johnston Blakely Elementary School–has literally admitted she’s done everything she can to stop boys from playing with the plastic blocks, in order to get girls to play with them.
“I always tell the boys, ‘You’re going to have a turn’,” she explained to the local newspaper, Bainbridge Island Review. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, when hell freezes over’ in my head. I tell them, ‘You’ll have a turn’ because I don’t want them to feel bad.”
Keller’s obsession with “gender equality” in regards to Legos comes because she feels women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. So she wants girls to want to feel comfortable enough to build things themselves at a young age.
That’s not inherently a bad thing–if a girl wants to play with blocks or pursue a career in math or science, the teacher should certainly encourage that–but the problem is the girls in her class don’t seem to really want to.
After using everything she could think of to get girls to play with Legos–even buying pink and purple ones–she felt that banning boys was her only option, with a “girls-only Lego club.”
Keller’s ban on boys building with blocks has shocked the local community–with parents outraged that a kindergarten teacher would go to such lengths to make a statement about “gender equality.”
The school district, however, has defended Keller, calling the “girls-only Lego club” an “isolated, short-term practice” that has already ended.
Karen Keller has since been removed from the Captain Johnston Blakely Elementary staff website, but it’s not clear whether or not she’s been fired.
