Discussing Gay & Lesbian Issues in the Elementary School

I think that the two articles we read from the "Rethinking Our Classrooms" book for this upcoming class meeting were quite interesting. They both brought up some really interesting issues regarding gay and lesbian education, particularly for elementary school teachers, and gave some really good tips on how to discuss these issues in the elementary school classroom.

For starters, I definitely agree that, like Mary Cowhey said, "When schools do get involved in promoting gay-straight alliances and so forth, it is usually at the secondary level" (173). In my own experience, I don't think that discussion about gay and lesbian rights and issues began until late middle school; and gay-straight clubs and groups were definitely not part of extracurricular activities until high school. I wonder why that is, though. I never gave it much thought until reading these two articles, but it definitely seems like although children are beginning to use hurtful words relating to gays and lesbians, like "faggot" or "dyke," at an early age (Gordon claimed even by 1st grade students are using these words to be hurtful towards one another!) the issue is not being addressed until much later in their schooling.

I think that part of the problem might be that we as educators are ourselves still a bit uncomfortable with the issues regarding gays and lesbians. I don't think that there is much of an emphasis in our preparation within the Education program that shows us how to deal with gay and lesbian issues as much as with issues of racism and intolerance. As the articles reveal, however, the issues of anti-gay language and behavior in the classroom are just as much issues of intolerance as anything else that we discuss in the classroom. This is where the other part of the reason comes in ...

Another part of the reason is that parents are also uncomfortable, especially at the elementary school level. I genuinely think that if homosexuality was discussed in the elementary classroom much like issues of antisemitism, racism, womens' rights, etc., there would be a number of parents who would be outraged. Even if the problem of children calling one another "faggot" was dealt with in the proper, educational way, much like Gordon suggested, I don't think that parents would be too pleased. I think that our society is still too deeply rooted in thinking that being gay or lesbian is "wrong" and "taboo." Therefore, until our society accepts being homosexual as just another way of life, then I don't think that we will be seeing these issues discussed as much as other issues of intolerance.

What I wonder is - -
If we are to teach about gay and lesbian issues in the elementary school classroom, when do we do it? Do we make it part of our tolerance curriculum like any other issue, or do we wait until it shows up in our own classroom by a student calling another student an anti-gay or lesbian term that is intended to be hurtful?

Promising Practices

On the first day of class, we talked about 15 "promising practices" for teaching social studies. They're described in some detail in the first document of your course pack. Are you seeing some of these teaching practices enacted by your mentor teacher (or by you, if you've taught a social studies lesson)? If so, can you share what you've seen? What are some examples of good social studies teaching that you see happening in your classroom?

Scary Columbus

I've been thinking about the discussions we had in class (both in Elgin and Wheeling) about the possibility of using the book Encounter, by Jane Yolen, with primary-aged kids as a way to enter into a discussion about Columbus. Some of you said you would consider using it, but many said you thought it would be more appropriate for older students -- 4th or 5th grade at least. One of the reasons that was given was that the illustrations (like the one of Columbus lusting after a piece of gold, above) were too intense and might scare small children.

That got me thinking: What about all the scary characters in Disney movies that are targeted for young children? There's almost always a villain, and whoever the villain is, he/she is typically depicted in pretty frightening ways. Yet we don't seem to feel conflicted about taking 6 or 7 year-olds to see these movies.

So why is Encounter different? Are we really concerned that it might scare kids any more than the average Disney film does? Or is the real issue that we feel a tinge of guilt about presenting the "hero" Columbus in less than flattering terms?

2 views on Chief Illiniwek

The Indian mascot issue seems to have struck a nerve with several people, so I thought you might be interested in reading an article ("3rd-grade lesson: Illiniwek has to go") I wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times about Chief Illiniwek in 2001. Also, if you'd like to read a response to my article written by Roger Ebert (yes, that Roger Ebert -- he's an alum of U of I), click here.

Native Americans as mascots

Our class had a great discussion about how being called an Indian as a team mascot seems to be degrading to Native Americans--that this is going too far. A question came up while I was thinking more about the discussion we had in class. I want to know your opinions to this question. Do teams choose minority groups as their mascots as their way of recognizing minorities? Is it a way for the majority to let minorities know they acknowledge them and "accept" who they are?
In my opinion, my answer to this is a surprising yes! It's no fun for your team to be named after your own ethnic group. What's the fun in that? By calling a team the Indians, that team is acknowledging this group of people. They are silently suggesting they want to be and act like Indians. Come to think of it, all teams have mascots named after strong or fast animals. I think I just changed my answer! Do teams name themselves Indians, perceiving Indians as animals? There are no other ethnic group mascots except for the Indians, right? I am ashamed to think that Indians are seen as animals like the rest of all the mascots.

Indian Princesses

We were talking in class on Monday about Native Americans and the many stereotypes they face, one being in mascots. I began thinking about when I was younger and involved in Indian Princesses. Each group of girls and dads was a “tribe” and each person had their own “Indian name”. I vividly remember my dad and I thinking of our names and then making a special nametag on our first meeting. My tribe, the Sauk tribe, would meet every week or so. We would also go on campouts with all of the other tribes from our area.
Being that I was young, I don’t know how it was all organized, but we would have many traditions during the campouts such as chanting our tribe name at dinner, competing against other father-daughter tribes, even wearing headdresses. I did some research to see if it is still something that happens and found, it is sponsored by the YMCA and is supposed to support a strong father-daughter relationship.
While none of the activities we did were blatantly mocking Native Americans, I now wonder what their thoughts are on this tradition. Was anybody else involved in something like this? Did you do similar things? Do you know of any Native Americans who are offended by this program?

Analyzing children's books

One topic we'll be discussing this week in class is the importance of using quality children's literature in teaching social studies. One of your readings for this week, "10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism," points out that teachers also need to be aware of bias and stereotypes in children's books, and that they should avoid books that present distorted perceptions of women or people of color.

What do you think of the guidelines for analyzing children's literature that are laid out in the article? Is this good advice, or "political correctness" run amuk? Should teachers put this much thought into what books they choose, or is it asking too much? How important is it for different social groups to be fairly represented on the classroom bookshelves?

Questions, questions, questions

There's lots of good discussion going on here already, and please continue with those threads, but I wanted to post a few questions/comments gleaned from your homework for last class. We'll never be able to give all these the time and attention they deserve, but if nothing else, they'll give you a sense of what some of your classmates are pondering. And if you'd like to start a new thread with one of these questions, feel free.

RE: MULTICULTURALISM

• How are you supposed to integrate a whole unit on a different culture but still keep the main curriculum intact? Where is the time? (Rachel)
• How would you bring about the conversation with principals and parents that multicultural education needs to be brought into schools? Where do you start? (Molly)
• How can we gain administrative support to change the curriculum when administrators are so focused on meeting AYP and NCLB? (Larissa)

RE: RACISM

• Why is racism (historically and currently) always a black/white issue? Why is it that whites are always accused of being the problem? (Marla)
• What conditions still exist today that help racism continue? How can we as teachers work on discovering these conditions and help our students discover them, too? What can we (and our students) do to try to start changing these conditions? (Shannon)

RE: COLUMBUS/ZINN/HOW TO TEACH HISTORY (These also relate to the "To teach or not to teach..." post below.)

• How do you use A People's History and the issues it raises in a primary grade? How can you take this information and make it understandable to a first or second grader? (Sara O.)
• Obviously, teachers and others have glamorized and treated Columbus as a hero, omitting the harsh facts. How can teachers, especially at the primary levels, instruct students about brutal truths in history in a way that they understand? (Kaitlin S.)
• Is it really bad to sugarcoat certain aspects of history for younger grade levels? (Michelle M.)
• The real question is: Which culture is more advanced? Advanced does not necessarily mean technologically advanced or more wealthy. What is really savage? Is it killing people or living in huts? What does it mean to be civilized? (Mary)

Representation in literature & textbooks

While reading "Caught Between Invisibility and Stereotyping: Teaching the Novel Shabanu," I was struck by the following quote. "Said argued that Western authors, artists, scholars and educators have consistently offered their readers highly simplistic representations of the societies we have colonized" (180). My immediate reaction was, we offer simplistic representations because we don't want to feel bad or guilty about what we've done to those complex societies. It appears as though there is a conscience effort made to make the colonization of advanced societies less aversive.

Can we not also include those who manufacture classroom textbooks in simplistic representation of colonized societies? In class last week, we very briefly discussed the textbook industry and the conformity to certain textbooks that is created when California or Texas decide to use a particular one. Will there ever be a time when textbooks accurately represent societies that we have colonized or history in general? And, if this proves to be an impossibility, what can we do as teachers to go against the grain?

Display Name

I started writing Greg an e-mail, but then I decided to make a post about it because I think that there might be at least a few other people who are wondering the same thing --

Is our display name supposed to be our name (i.e. Anna), our ULID (i.e. asilber), or our complete ISU e-mail address (i.e. asilber@ilstu.edu)?

I'm just noticing that we're not all using the same display name format, and wondering if there's one uniform display name form we're supposed to be using. Any input would be much appreciated! Thanks! :)

To teach or not to teach...that is the question

I was curious and wanted to see other views and opinions on this topic. What should be taught in school about "the truth of Columbus"? We were given this information and where do we go from here? Should we incorporate this into the curriculum. I feel that we can let students know that there are many different sides to a story, but should we teach them this side? If we should teach this other side then when? Primary? Intermediate? I had many questions on this topic after reading the chapter and want to see others' opinions.

Taking issue with Enid Lee

Larissa posted this comment, but it was kind of hidden and I didn't know if anybody would see it, so I'm re-posting it here. I'd be interested to hear what others think. (Some of you in Wheeling voiced your opinions on this today).

Larissa said: On a separate note... The article entitled "Taking Multicultural, Anti-Racist Education Seriously" really bothered me. I understand the point of the interview with Enid Lee was to better define what multicultural/anti-racist education is and how it works; however, Lee comes off extremely strong with her point of view. I felt as if Lee looks down upon every single teacher, school, district, and state that does not use this "multicultural/anti-racist education."She states, "If you don't take multicultural education or anti-racist education seriously, you are actually promoting a monocultural or racist education" (ROC, pp. 15).

After reading this comment I felt that if we do not include every other cultrual perspective or every "voice of the people who are frequently silenced," then we are not "taking it seriously." But, it's not possible to include every single culture or every single voice in the curriculum. There just isn't enough time to do something like that. So, my question, then, is are we promoting a false pretense of multicultural or anti-racist education? And, does it mean that we are not taking it seriously??

A People's History of the U.S.

We'll talk about this more during our next class, but I'd be interested to get some feedback on your reading from A People's History (Chapter 1 & 2). I'm particularly interested in your reflections in two areas:

1) The historical content itself -- what you learned, what was new to you, what you questioned, what you had a strong reaction to.

2) Zinn's approach as a historian, which he details on pages 8-12.