(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

BY MEGAN NOE

ANCHOR ANA COMPAIN-ROMERO

At one Swedish preschool there are no “boys” or “girls”.
Only 33 “friends” learning and playing together.
It’s the latest social experiment in Stockholm-- a completely gender-neutral school called Egalia.
But in the fight for gender equality, does this go too far?  Fox News has more.

“Apparently the pronoun police have said If you use ‘his’ or ‘hers’ essentially what you’re doing is you are building up gender bias, so we’re not going to use those words, we’re going to use a neutral word instead. The other thing about this particular school that’s interesting, nearly all the children’s books deal with gay couples, single parents or adopted children. The emphasis is on fostering an environment tolerant of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.”

From the careful planning of colors and the placement of blocks next to the kitchen set, to a lack of fairy tales which are rife with gender stereotypes, The Daily Mail says the school for kids aged 1 to 6 aims to break down gender roles.

“‘Society expects girls to be girlie, nice and pretty and boys to be manly, rough and outgoing,' says Jenny Johnsson, a 31-year-old teacher. 'Egalia gives them a fantastic opportunity to be whoever they want to be.'”

Could it be the wave of the future? Progressive Swedish school systems may be onto something, CNN reports.

“A 2010 report by the World Economic Forum on the global gender gap found that Sweden and three other Nordic countries lead the world when it comes to gender equality. Sweden is also considered a pioneer in legalizing gay and lesbian partnerships.”

Many parents seem to agree, as The Associated Press reports a long waiting list for the preschool and only one family who has pulled their child out. But the taxpayer-funded school has its critics as well, like this blogger for The Stir.

“Outside of Egalia, gender does exist. And just as scientists have found that by ignoring race completely, parents end up raising little racists, by ignoring gender entirely, here's betting the kids coming out of Egalia at age 7 are going to be brimming with their own mal-formed thoughts on gender.”

Rather than “him” or “her,” teachers at the Egalia use a gender-neutral pronoun that doesn’t exist in the Swedish language-- one that has KSBI making an English connection.

“There’s a big difference between teaching a young girl from the outset that you can pursue your dreams and you have every bit of a right as a man to do things in the world, there’s a difference between that and just denying the basic realities of our sexuality. If you’re the type of person who embraces this kind of thing, I think it shows you have serious issues with your own gender. If you think we should all just be ‘its’-- and that’s what they’re doing, they’re making these kids ‘its’.”