Sunday, February 28, 2010

Talking Point 3

Dennis Carlson brought up a lot of good points, so many that it was hard for me to pick a few to talk about. In his article called Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community, he spoke about how those three topics relate to one another. Here are three quotes that I thought were most important to his article:

1.) “Like communists states, they have been based on the presumption that if students in the school community can be kept shielded from “bad influences” and provided only “positive” representations of community life, that they be molded into “good,” “well-adjusted” citizens and workers.” (239)
- A school is only part of a child’s life, they cannot watch over their students 24/7. When children are not in school, they have the media and surrounding people to help educate them on many different subjects. For example, children learn about sex at a very early age because it is something that is seen and talked about throughout the media. Schools do not educate their children about sex until they reach some point in middle school, when it is sometimes too late to be talked about. Schools can only help shape a person’s life, not actually shape it for them.

2.) “Be yourself no matter who or what you are… The problem with “Be yourself,” is that it fails to account for the fact that the “self” is at least partially an historical, cultural, and discursive production, which set limits upon, even if they do not determine, one’s 'possibilities of existence'.” (242)
- Sometimes you cannot be yourself because people judge and end up shutting you out from the rest of society. One of my friends asked another one of her friends: “Are you a lesbian? Because if you are, I’m probably not going to hang around you as much.” The girl responded with “No”, but who knows the actually truth except for herself. She could have been lying about her own identity because she didn’t want to be badly gossiped about and/or lose one of her very good friends. So really, being yourself only pertains to those who are actually “normal”.

3.) “…we have a responsibility as public educators in a democratic society to engage them in a dialogue in which all voices get heard or represented and in which gay students and teachers feel free to “come out” and find their own voices.” (252)
- I couldn’t agree with this quote more. The more attention a certain situation gets, that is positive, the more use to/common the situation becomes. This way, it is less controversial and more easily talked about and understood. For example, liking someone of the opposite sex is something that we consider to be ordinary, but liking someone of the same sex is not, which makes it harder for people to just come right out and say who they truly are.

Here is a video that gives some opinions and facts about gay education…


This website talks about the organization GLSEN, whom is trying to promote/educate schools on sexuality… (click on 'Mission & History' of GLSEN once you've reached the website)

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