As an experiment, a teacher in Germany told elementary school students about “gendering” – the use of gender-sensitive language. As a result, children started assigning male and female genders to furniture, as reported by Bild.
According to this rule, many animate nouns in modern Germany are written with both genders indicated – Lehrer:in, Schüler:in (teacher:female teacher, student:female student). However, the children went too far in understanding the rule and started talking about inanimate objects – Tisch:in, Stuhl:in, Plakat:in (table:female table, chair:female chair, poster:female poster). Iris Luken, the school principal in the city of Lünen in western Germany, told the Ruhr Nachrichten newspaper about this.
Iris Luken explained that the experiment was conducted back in 2021. After the article in Ruhr Nachrichten, the principal received complaint letters from adults. The educator believes that gender-sensitive language should not only be taught in theory but also demonstrated in practice by showing children representatives of various professions of both genders. For example, women in the police or firefighters.
One of the laws of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia requires the use of “gender-oriented language” in schools. However, in Bavaria, gendering is strictly prohibited. It is also not used in schools in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Schleswig-Holstein.
