Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

You see it in every school playground: the girls play only with girls, the boys play only with boys. Why? And what do children themselves think about this? Breaking with familiar conventions for thinking about children and gender, "Gender Play" develops fresh insights into the everyday social worlds of kids in schools. Barrie Thorne draws on her daily observations in the classroom and in the playground to show how children construct and experience gender in school. She looks in detail at the "play of gender" in the organization of groups of children and activities.

Thorne argues that the organization and meaning of gender are influenced by age, ethnicity, race, sexuality and social class, and that they shift with social context. She sees gender identity not through the lens of individual socialization or difference, but rather as a social process involving groups of children. Thorne takes the reader on journey of discovery, provides new insights into the behaviour of children, and offers teachers practical suggestions for increasing co-operative, mixed-gender interaction.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments (p. ix)
• Chapter 1 Children and Gender (p. 1)
• Chapter 2 Learning from Kids (p. 11)
• Chapter 3 Boys and Girls Together . . . but Mostly Apart (p. 29)
• Chapter 4 Gender Separation: Why and How (p. 49)
• Chapter 5 Creating a Sense of ""Opposite Sides"" (p. 63)
• Chapter 6 Do Girls and Boys Have Different Cultures? (p. 89)
• Chapter 7 Crossing the Gender Divide (p. 111)
• Chapter 8 Lip Gloss and ""Goin' With"": Becoming Teens (p. 135)
• Chapter 9 Lessons for Adults (p. 157)
• Notes (p. 175)
• References (p. 213)
• Index (p. 229)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Thorne, well known among educational psychologists for her work in gender studies, presents her findings on gender roles among children and teenagers in school. Using a three-step approach, she describes recent findings in the field, presents her own findings, and then examines the correlations and discrepancies. In her thoughtful interpretation of these findings, Thorne makes a significant contribution. Her study is important not just for her insight into gender but for her explanation of how research itself operates within conventions and traditions. Recognizing that the way students are grouped and segregated is an increasingly important issue in classroom and school management. Thorne suggests a new paradigm for examining how psychologists and teachers deal with gender. Her study is well documented, with meticulous notes and a comprehensive bibliography. For academic and large public libraries.-- Nancy E. Zuwiyya, Binghamton City Sch. Dist., N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Thorne, a professor of sociology at the University of Southern California, offers her insightful observations of elementary school students in class and at play. Though, as she admits, her status as an adult and an observer may have affected what happened around her, Thorne presents a fascinating account of how children divide themselves--and how others divide them--along gender lines. Breaking students into teams for contests and the eternal game of ``cooties'' (a contamination attributed more often to girls than boys) reveal much about the microcosm that these students inhabit, and an extensive look at the tomboy, both in literature and in life, compares her ambiguity (sometimes an insult, sometimes a compliment) to the negative attitudes often elicited by gender-crossing in the other direction. Thorne argues convincingly against the theories of scholars like Deborah Tannen and Carol Gilligan that boys and girls have different ``cultures,'' and she attempts to discourage ``gender antagonism.'' A final section offers concrete steps for teachers to take in forming the attitudes--about gender and other topics--of coming generations. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Observing children in classrooms and on the playground, Thorne offers a useful mix of ethnographic data and theory. Although the field work was done in 1976 and 1977 with fourth and fifth graders and in 1980 with kindergarten and second graders, the observations are fresh and are a valuable addition to the literature of children's behavior in school and at play such as Raphaela Best's We've All Got Scars (1983), Vivian Gussin Paley's Boys and Girls: Superheroes in the Doll Corner (CH, Jan'85), and Iona Opie's The People in the Playground (1993). Thorne challenges the model of separate and different gender cultures. She claims that our views of gender separation may be skewed because the actions of the most popular children are taken as the models. She examines the patterns of boys and girls who cut across gender lines and school routines and rituals that can either support or minimize the separation of boys and girls along gender lines. Her thesis is a provocative one. There are extensive notes and an excellent reference list. Highly recommended. Undergraduates; graduate students; faculty; general readers.

Booklist Review

Thorne's work is a strong and lucid sociological study of the lives of elementary school children and the ways in which their behavior both absorbs and rejects conventional gender meanings. It is based on her observations of the classroom, lunchroom, and playground life at two elementary schools. Unlike her predecessors, notably Deborah Tannen, best-selling author of You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, Thorne is less concerned with getting to the bottom of existing gender differences than with locating grounds for neutrality and understanding. As a result, she finds stereotypical female and male behavior to be both less inevitable and less universal than earlier writers imagined. Among the book's many attractive qualities is that Thorne presents her observations with judgment suspended, saving her evaluations and prescriptions for the book's practical final chapter, "Lessons for Adults." While the book is rigorous in the scholarly sense, its pacing and familiar subject matter make it readily comprehensible to the nonspecialist. ~--Martha Schoolman