"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. Take the topic of family for instance- a unit of study that is part of every early childhood curriculum."
When it becomes brought to our attention we recognize that health classes and classroom lessons in general refer to family often. These discussions of family usual involve a father, mother, daughter, son, grandparents, etc. I have been working in a daycare/preschool for over 3 years and I see the way family dynamics is discussed with the children. Almost never have I heard of a pair of lesbian or gay parents or a transgender family member or anything other than the norm being mentioned. Honestly I did not think twice about it as a child but in todays generation, there is plenty more openness and the odds of children being impacted by various family situation is greater. The way to change this and be more inclusive is to incorporate LGBT information when educating children.
"LGBT students need to see themselves in the world of ideas and experiences offered up by their teachers if they are to become academically and socially connected in the classroom."
In order to feel comfortable in a setting, you must feel accepted by the people around you. When people avoid topics or feel uneasy at the mention of them, it brings about a sense of isolation for certain people affected. If schools create a new norm of schools incorporating all genders in discussion them everyone can feel included, comfortable and safe.
"Anticipating administrative and parental complaints, he chooses a practical and defensible course of action: he configured his shelves to reflect his demographics of his middle school community."
I really liked what this teacher did in his classroom. He created his bookshelf with books representing the same percentages of what the classroom contained. For example, 12% latino and 10% LGBT inclusive texts. By doing this the teacher avoided all possible problems and still included everyone. All races and genders were represented EQUALLY. This was a brilliant idea by this teacher and more schools should take note of this style of educating.
Like you I came to the conclusion to not shy away from the topic of LGBT information in schools. But when you say: "In order to feel comfortable in a setting, you must feel accepted by the people around you. When people avoid topics or feel uneasy at the mention of them, it brings about a sense of isolation for certain people affected." Do you really mean to imply all topics? For example I am slightly uncomfortable in this class. I don't start from these frameworks so I find myself tripping on ideas and concepts and disagreeing about a lot of these solutions but I also know some people are very unaccepting about rejecting or disagreeing with these frameworks. So, do I have a right to feel comfortable or are there things people just have to be uncomfortable about? How do we distinguish between the two?
ReplyDeleteI also like the teachers idea with the bookshelves! Your blog was very well written and I agree with your thoughts! :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that LGBTQI+ information should be taught more in schools. A child will not learn as much if they do not feel comfortable and teaching this will lead to more LGBTQI+ youth feeling comfortable.
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