April 13, 2015 - 12:21
I have really enjoyed reading Blackburn’s book, and have been particularly struck by two parts: how hard students must work (and how much opposition they face) in trying to academically explore topics that touch on anything involving LGBTQ(IA) individuals, and also by the Speakers Bureau Program.
I find it shocking how students, such as Justine, could be so seriously reprimanded and stigmatized for producing LGBTQ-themed schoolwork. Justine’s teacher had an open ended assignment that allowed students to write about a topic they felt they wanted to learn more about, initially in a similar manner to our inquiry project. This seems like a great way for teachers to promote student-directed learning, but that was clearly not what Justine’s teacher intended. It sounds like the N/A grade came from homophobia, and not a concern about plagiarizing. If the later really was the case, the teacher would have considered the fact that negatively reacting to a personal piece of writing could have a damaging impact on a student. This made me reflect on my own high school experience, and how I cannot remember ever studying any LGBTQ themed issues. My school, which is located in a pretty progressive area, had a GSA, a few openly gay teachers, and for a few years had a campaign to ban the phrase “that’s so gay.” When I was in high school, I likely would have thought that my school was quite welcoming to non-heterosexual students, but now I realize the school could and should have done much more. LGBTQ issues and individuals should have been incorporated into the curriculum, so students like Justine did not have to independently and sometimes vulnerably seek those learning opportunities out.
The Speakers Bureau seems like such a fantastic idea because it (momentarily) restructures power dynamics, and allows students to teach peers and educators about the best ways to support LGBTQ students. I love the strategy of getting students to call out all names associated with gay or lesbian individuals, and then doing the same for straight individuals. I can imagine that this would be effective in changing, or beginning to change, the ways derogatory words are used in schools, and it might even extend to labels outside of the LGBTQ area. I also think the programs for teachers are a smart strategy, and believe it would have worked very well at my school. I think almost every teacher at my school would have been interested in learning about ways to make their classrooms more inclusive of LGBTQ students, but they might not have thought about things such as expanding their curriculum. The links posted on The Learning Network's NY Times article are also a great resource for teachers, because it allows them to touch on these issues without having to spend too much extra time building those lessons.