LGBT

From Our Voices: Art educators and artists speak out about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered issues.

A combination of first-hand testimonies and analysis, this reading is reflecting and confronting real LGBT issues. It aims to make educators more aware of problems going on in the classroom and at home that go seemingly unnoticed or cared about. Focusing on individual accounts of K-12 experiences help humanize these issues that are very difficult to deal with.

I believe that hearing first-hand testimonies of anybody is an important resource to have as a teacher. They better help me to understand more fully their story. As a future teacher, I recognize that each student comes with a different background, a different story, a different identity. In a full classroom setting this is often hard to remember because we are so consumed with finishing lesson plans that I think we often forget that students are actual people too, no matter their age. Whether someone is 4 or 44, everyone experiences different problems and issues in life. Reading these three testimonies reminded me of this. It also reminded me that words and actions demonstrated toward students K-12 always have a larger impact than anyone realizes. This may happen in the form of peers, teachers, parents, mentors, etc. A person will always remember how a situation made them feel. It breaks my heart that these three people felt so isolated and removed from their own lives to do anything about it. And maybe that is just the system of control we have imposing itself upon us. The fact that these three people survived their junior high and high school years is incredible. Every one of them mentioned thoughts and/or attempts of suicide during those years. As a friend to a couple of gay and transgender people, this makes me so uneasy. I hope that they know they can talk to me about whatever issues they are experiencing, no matter the size of the issue. I also hope that my students feel this way about me in the future. Like Peter I want o be “one of those teachers I loved as a young child – the ones who saw me and fulfilled my emotional needs” (Lampela, 2003, p.11). I want to create a safe environment where students can express and be themselves. Although these testimonies were raw and important to hear, I want none of my students to ever feel the way those three did in their school experience. Reading their stories helps me understand more of what pain people go through and the agony of not being accepted as themselves.

~~~

It’s Elementary

This is a documentary on LGBT issues in K-12 education and talking about these issues in school. I think this was one of the most important videos we watched all semester. People need to understand that discussing LGBT issues is not the same as discussing sex. A lot of people argue that elementary school is too young for students to learn about homosexuality. If that is true, then they are too young to learn about heterosexuality. But our society is so heterosexually driven that no one view the issue this way. Children are ready for a lot more than we give them credit for. Having an open discussion in a safe environment like a classroom/school is a healthy way to begin to understand and fight people’s preconceived prejudices.