Egalia is a
preschool
A preschool (sometimes spelled as pre school or pre-school), also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school, is an school, educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they ...
located in
Södermalm
Södermalm, often shortened to just Söder, is the southern district of Stockholm City Centre.
Overview
The Södermalm district covers the island of the same name (formerly called ''Åsön''), which, however, is not fully separated from th ...
, a borough of the
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
capital of
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
.
As is the case with every Swedish pre-school, Egalia is funded with municipal money. The school is funded and directed by Lotta Rajalin.
The school opened in 2010 and serves children from ages 1 to 6.
Background
Egalia is an offshoot of Nicolaigarden, a preschool that has 115 pupils. Three teachers from Nicolaigarden started Egalia in 2010 as a result of the success of the larger school.
Policy on gendered pronouns
The preschool has received attention for its refusal to use the terms "him" and "her" and encouraging the children to say "friend" or to use the
gender-neutral pronoun
A third-person pronoun is a pronoun that refers to an entity other than the speaker or listener. Some languages, such as Slavic, with gender-specific pronouns have them as part of a grammatical gender system, a system of agreement where most o ...
''
hen
Hen commonly refers to a female animal: a female chicken, other gallinaceous bird, any type of bird in general, or a lobster. It is also a slang term for a woman.
Hen, HEN or Hens may also refer to:
Places Norway
*Hen, Buskerud, a village in R ...
'' instead.
The idea of the gender-neutral pronoun came from Finnish (about 5% of the population of Sweden is Finnish-speakers). Since Finnish completely lacks grammatical gender, has no way (and no need) to express gender with pronouns. In Swedish, ''han'' means he and ''hon'' means she – but the Finns ''
ab ovo
AB, Ab, or ab may refer to:
Arts and media
* '' American Bandstand'', a music-performance television show
* '' Analecta Bollandiana'', an academic journal
* Ancienne Belgique, a concert hall in Brussels, Belgium
Business Business terminology
* ...
'' use the gender-neutral personal pronoun ''hän'', which means both he or she.
The school has avoided books that have gender-specific roles and definitions. Nearly all of the books that the school uses for teaching deal with gay couples, single parents or adopted children.
Controversy
Egalia has encountered controversy for "indoctrination" to which the school replied that this was to be expected in any society and "Bringing them up is indoctrination".
According to psychiatrist and author David Eberhard it is "intellectually dishonest" and "this kind of brainwash works when they are small".
Relevant laws
The Swedish national curriculum has demanded schools oppose gender stereotypes since 1998.
Teachers make sure pupils in Egalia do not have access to material that could promote gender-stereotyping.
Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have the right to access a range of opinions but exceptions exist for "the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals." as well as or "For respect of the rights or reputations of others"
References
External links
*{{official, http://www.sodermalmsforskolor.se/egalia/extern/start.php
2010 establishments in Sweden
Early childhood education
Educational institutions established in 2010
Schools in Stockholm
21st-century establishments in Stockholm