Book guide: Mix works
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Mix tries a lot of different professions. A book that invites you to talk about different professions and gives a norm-creative picture of what jobs girls, women, boys and men can have.
Questions about trying new things
Mix tries all the new things she comes across. Do you tend to want to try new things? How does it feel to try new things that you haven't done before? Where in the body is that feeling felt?
When you try new things, it can be a little scary. What can you do if you are afraid but still want to try?
Mix seems to want to try a lot of things himself. What is good about doing it yourself? What is good about doing together?
Exercise! Let the children do one thing they think they are good at. Then let them try something that they think is a little scary to do. Talk about how it feels on the different occasions and where it feels in the body.
Questions about different professions
Mix digs with a large excavator. Do you enjoy digging? What jobs do you think one can dig into?
Mix helps a policeman catch criminals. What did the thief steal? What do you think she would use that thing for? Why do you think Mix bought a bun for the thief?
Mix helps a doctor. Have you seen a doctor? There are many different kinds of doctors, if you were to be one kind - which would it be?
Mix helps in the theater. Have you been to the theater? How was it? Would you like to be on stage? What other jobs are there in a theater besides being on stage?
What would you most like to try working with?
Norms on different professions
In children's books, both women and men often have occupations that are linked to stereotypical ideas about what women and men can work with. At the same time, there are also strong patterns around children that influence their ideas about what is possible, expected or desirable. We simply have a gender-segregated labor market in many areas. To support children to follow paths that suit them, rather than those expected of them depending on their gender, role models are needed that show more possibilities.
In the book about Mix, we see a girl who tries professions that are male-coded, such as police, firefighter, stand-up comedian and doctor. What can you do to give children more role models in various professions? And widen standards for what is possible to work with?
