Today in my Service Learning I had the strongest feelings so far. I have never seen this through my eyes the way I saw it today. If I wasn’t taking FNED 346 I would have never seen this as a bad thing I would have just overlooked it. I now understand why we are doing both SL and taking the course. The course open our eyes to what we are suppose to look for in a classroom. Today was very awkward; the class was running smoothly till the very end. At the end of my time there they are sent to the rug to read a story. When Mrs. C arrives to the rug we all witness a student saying to another “Eww… stop acting gay” The other student was hugging him and he thought it was okay to say this. Instead of Mrs. C addressing this she yelled at the children and sends them to a desk away from the rug.
Mrs. Callaghan did not bother to address why it was wrong to say this or why hugging someone is not only an act of gayness. She did not say just because your father hugs you means that he is gay? She made it seem like hugging was a BAD thing to do and just made her classroom less valuable. After going home I realized that if the teacher had the article by Dennis Carlson in mind she might have addressed it. Carlson article is about how the “normalizing” community is not okay for our current and future schools. Heterosexual, white, middle class all get rewarded for being “normal” whatever that is. The rest of us that do not fit in those categories get shunned and are “disempowered” that’s the word Carlson uses. This event opened my eyes to Carlson’s statement that gayness is only used in curriculum to talk about disease. How gayness is never address and why it should. I completely agree with it now because children this young need to know about homosexuality, they need to know that people do like the same sex and how it’s okay to be gay. I find that just because teachers talk about gay and lesbians, children are not going to decide they are going to be gay. We learn about terrorist and we don’t choose to be a terrorist. We learn about other things and that does not mean that we are going to be that way. Children need to learn about other types of relationships, because it’s current events and if it’s happening it should be taught. This incident did not do anything positive for the teacher and she didn’t even try to make the best out of the situation by informing the children.
I had to come back to this post after watching Its Elementary. While watching the movie I was shocked on how young children responded to teachers. If children reacted normal to comments about gay and lesbian, why can our society accept it? Children need to be taught about homosexuality and many other thing because it in our real world today. If they are not taught about this when they step into the real world and see homosexual people they will not know how to act or respond. Ignorance is the problem, we need to leave that problem behind and make sure that our student get a complete education, and be accepted as whoever they want to be.
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Hey Adriana,
ReplyDeleteWow. Great post. And I completely agree with you. In the situation you witnessed, the teacher passed up a great opportunity to teach students a lesson about what it means to be gay and how that word is used in our society. Unfortunately, it possesses a negative connotation and people are fearful of being classified as "gay."
I could only assume that a contributing factor as to why some adults are ignorant is because they were never taught otherwise as a child. They may have experienced a similar situation as the child who was hugged, where his immediate reaction was to call out another child and make him feel uncomfortable.
The term "gay" only has meaning because society has assigned meaning to it. Most children hear this word from a young age and become so use to it that they themselves adopt it in their vocabulary. I would agree with you in saying that it's not a bad thing to teach children what this means at a young age. Children are less judgmental and impressionable, and it could make a difference exposing them to this topic early on.
Adriana,
ReplyDeleteThis is very upsetting to hear that children at such a young age are already using these kinds of terms as offensive language. When the child made that comment and the teacher sent him to his desk, the student was not learning why what he said was wrong. The teacher really should have questioned the student on his comment and made his explain what he meant. By doing this the student would learn what the word gay really meant and explain that it is not bad to hug one another. Children need to be aware that not everyone is the same and they need to accept one another for who they are. I believe that children should be taught about this topic in schools especially elementary students because the earlier they learn about it the more willing they will be to accept it. When students enter middle school more students will be coming out and students need to know the appropriate way to react. When I become a teacher I am going to try to do the best that I can to educate students about these kinds of topics. I want my students to be welcoming to anyone and everyone. I am glad that you feel the same way about this topic because everyone should be accepted for who they are.
What an incredibly poignant anecdote, Adriana. Your connections to Carlson and It's Elementary are relevant and strong. Thank you for your commitment to equality.
ReplyDeleteDr. August