Mirrors and Windows...

      "Safe Spaces Making Schools and Communities Welcoming to LGBT Youth" by Vacaaro, August, and Kennedy discusses strategies and ways of thinking that can help transform our classrooms into places of total acceptance and support for all students. The idea that inside the classroom walls and outside the classroom walls students are different people is an idea that I am struggling with. While I understand the point of acting in a certain way in a classroom setting, and speaking in a certain way, I do not agree that students check parts of themselves at the door when they walk through it. Or do they? And if they do, why? I do not think that there should be an "in classroom" and "out of classroom" student. That implies that we are not educating the whole student, only part of them.
       Because so much of what I try and do is create an inclusive atmosphere, I really loved when the article said "create an atmosphere in which difference is not only tolerated but expected, explored, and embraced, students will be more likely to develop perspectives that result in respectful behaviors" this is what makes my classes fun. If I had to teach a bunch of cardboard cutouts I don't think that I would be a teacher. Difference should be celebrated. Unfortunately, I think that in a lot of cases difference is not celebrated. Many teachers think that their job is to "manufacture" a certain student at the end of taking their class and so the actual student is not celebrated, just the knowledge that they can spit back at teacher.
      "Heterosexism is one of these unexamined avenues of privilege." This statement bounces me straight back to the culture of power.  The culture of power decides what a "normal" family looks like, what a "normal" relationship looks like, what "true love" looks like, and what "beautiful" looks like. It is true that being a heterosexual does have privileges within the culture of power. Privileges that are being fought for currently in society. The culture of power has designed school curriculum to produce people that stay within the norms of the culture of power. I think a lot of teachers are afraid to push against what they are "supposed" to be teaching. They are nervous to introduce books that are not necessarily on their curriculum lists or directly connect to a standard. I agree that "teachers still don't know what they can and can't do. LGBT students need advocacy and protection, not neutrality." Pushing against what is expected of them and then possibly causing controversy with parents could lead to teachers losing their jobs. I know this sounds extreme, but administrators do not want to deal with controversy. The media is a whole other issue. "Even teachers who describe themselves as social justice advocates fail to challenge homophobic or transphobic language and images in many early childhood settings. Powerful social messages are responsible (at least in part) for this noncritical allegiance to traditional perspectives." Thankfully, many television shows are beginning to show homosexuals in couple. This is especially true in shows targeted at teenagers. Glee, is one of the shows that has no problem showing a homosexual couple.If the media does in fact shape society, I know its not much, but maybe it is a step in the way of acceptance of all.
      A few weeks ago Rolling Stone magazine, who I very rarely read, ran an article about gay students in Christian schools and how some schools are expelling students based on their sexual orientation. This makes my heart break. That is not what being a Christian is about at all. We are supposed to be an inclusive place where everyone feels welcomed and loved, not an exclusive place where people are rejected. It's schools like the ones in the article that give religious schools a bad rap and completely turn people off from any religion at all. I thought it was interesting in the article that a teacher refused to call a student by the name that they had chosen. Why would a teacher ever do that? I call my students by whatever they want to be called. I have a student now whose name is Samuel, but he is called Timmy by his family and friends, so I call him Timmy. Why would I call him Samuel if that is not who he identifies as?
      It really outrages me that schools would teach in their health classes that "homosexuality is a deviant lifestyle that poses a public health risk." That is not reality at all. Check out this article. It will completely shock you as to who is spreading diseases.
       There is a real fear or phobia of the unknown or the misunderstood, and I think that as teachers it is our job to extinguish those fears. "Instructors committed to inclusion find ways to bring the voices of the LGBT community into their curriculum." It's our job to find the teachable moments like so many of the teachers in the chapter did.