"SAFE SPACES: Making Schools and Communities Welcoming to LGBT Youth"
Annemarie Vaccaro, Gerri August, and Megen S. Kennedy
"Sexual orientation topics are entirely absent from nearly half our elementary teacher education programs in the United States. It is therefore unsurprising that LGBT people are largely absent from elementary curricula or classroom discussions...Teachers around our nation narrate stories about single-parent families, adoptive families, divorces families, and foster families. The idea that tolerance will grow as students gain appreciation for difference"
These few sentences were kind of shocking to me, I never really thought about just how left out LGBT families were in so many parts of my childhood. I remember being told "not all kids have a mommy and daddy like you do" in regards to the fact that maybe one parent had passed away or wasn't in their lives, but never to explain that some people had two moms or two dads. It is so sad that this has been left out of early education for so long because these types of families deserve to be recognized and appreciated as different just like any other family system we learn/teach about.
"Seven-year-old Marcus was sent to the principal's office and assigned in-school suspension for using the word "gay" in school. Marcus was not calling one of his classmates gay. Nor was he using the word to refer to something cheesy. No--Marcus was describing his family. He explained to another child that he had two moms, that his mom was gay, and that 'gay is when a girl likes another girl.'"
This situation is horrendous, because by the age of seven children are not aware of the fact that people are gay or what it means to be gay, and poor Marcus was finally teaching a classmate something valuable about differences people can have- nothing to be punished over!
"Educators need to become comfortable using the words that refer to sexual orientation and gender identity as they ate using words that describe other differences in the human experience. When the words 'gay,' 'lesbian,' 'bisexual,' and 'transgender' are heard positively in the course of classroom discussion, the stigma associated with them diminishes. All of a sudden, these words describe a community-- they are constructive and instructive instead of destructive and provocative. Such comfort on the part of an educator invites youth to consider new ways of thinking and behaving with regard to LGBT people."
This paragraph is so important, because as future educators and youth workers in this course we need to realize how important exposure to, and showing children acceptance to members of this community is. In order for the youth we end up raising and working with to be accepting like we want them to be, we must be accepting and show/tell them that being different in these ways is OKAY.
Annemarie Vaccaro, Gerri August, and Megen S. Kennedy
"Sexual orientation topics are entirely absent from nearly half our elementary teacher education programs in the United States. It is therefore unsurprising that LGBT people are largely absent from elementary curricula or classroom discussions...Teachers around our nation narrate stories about single-parent families, adoptive families, divorces families, and foster families. The idea that tolerance will grow as students gain appreciation for difference"
These few sentences were kind of shocking to me, I never really thought about just how left out LGBT families were in so many parts of my childhood. I remember being told "not all kids have a mommy and daddy like you do" in regards to the fact that maybe one parent had passed away or wasn't in their lives, but never to explain that some people had two moms or two dads. It is so sad that this has been left out of early education for so long because these types of families deserve to be recognized and appreciated as different just like any other family system we learn/teach about.
"Seven-year-old Marcus was sent to the principal's office and assigned in-school suspension for using the word "gay" in school. Marcus was not calling one of his classmates gay. Nor was he using the word to refer to something cheesy. No--Marcus was describing his family. He explained to another child that he had two moms, that his mom was gay, and that 'gay is when a girl likes another girl.'"
This situation is horrendous, because by the age of seven children are not aware of the fact that people are gay or what it means to be gay, and poor Marcus was finally teaching a classmate something valuable about differences people can have- nothing to be punished over!
"Educators need to become comfortable using the words that refer to sexual orientation and gender identity as they ate using words that describe other differences in the human experience. When the words 'gay,' 'lesbian,' 'bisexual,' and 'transgender' are heard positively in the course of classroom discussion, the stigma associated with them diminishes. All of a sudden, these words describe a community-- they are constructive and instructive instead of destructive and provocative. Such comfort on the part of an educator invites youth to consider new ways of thinking and behaving with regard to LGBT people."
This paragraph is so important, because as future educators and youth workers in this course we need to realize how important exposure to, and showing children acceptance to members of this community is. In order for the youth we end up raising and working with to be accepting like we want them to be, we must be accepting and show/tell them that being different in these ways is OKAY.
I really like the picture you chose. Considering all the focus to schools not accepting, I feel like communities are often left out of the conversation too.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about how important exposure is to young children. It helps to create acceptance and a loving environment so everyone feels welcomed and safe in our future classrooms.
ReplyDelete