After reading Chapter 22, "Lesbian and Gay Adolescents: Social and Developmental Considerations", I was glad that this article was included in our book. However, I was kind of upset that this article was so outdated, especially when you look at the dates that all of the references that were used were published. Most of them were from the 1980s, while the newest article was from 1992. I was six years old in 1992, and times have definitely changed since I was six years old. The students we will be teaching won't have the same experiences that we had when we were in middle school or high school, as a result of the way our society is changing. We didn't even have the same experiences as our parents did when they were in school, and I think that has a lot to do with the way our society has changed. "Gay and lesbian teens do not see the same diversity of adults with whom to identify as heterosexual adolescents do, because so many lesbian and gay adults do not publicly acknowledge their sexual orientation." (340). Although I believe that gay and lesbian teens don't see the same diversity of adults with whom to identify as heterosexual adolescents do, there are more adults that are coming out, whether it is the adults we know personally, or the adults we see on TV, the internet, and magazine covers coming out or talking openly about being homosexual.
Because our times are changing, and more states are allowing homosexuals to get married, so are schools. I heard recently on a Daytime TV talk show that in Milwaukee there will be a Gay Friendly Middle School: http://www.usnews.com/blogs/on-education/2008/12/17/milwaukee-to-form-gay-friendly-middle-school.html?s_cid=etRR-0305. I was shocked to hear about this on that show, rather than seeing it on the local news or reading about it in one of our local papers. I was also shocked that I found the article from U. S. News. According to the article, "The Milwaukee Public School System will expand the services provided by its gay-friendly high school and apparently become the nation's first school system to create a gay-friendly middle school." I don't know how I feel about this. On one hand, I like the idea of there being a safe environment for homosexual adolescents, but what will happen to them after school? Also, what about other students that are bullied but aren't homosexual? Another thing, I hear a lot of people say, not necessarily homosexuals, that some homosexuals knew they were gay when they were little kids. While that may be true, it isn't true for every homosexual, because think about all the homosexuals that don't realize they are gay until college or later in their life. I also think about the homosexuals that have trouble in coming out to their families. There is so much to think about in regards to this issue.
I'd like to see how everyone else feels about this. So, how do you feel about there being a gay friendly middle school in Milwaukee? Is this a good thing or a bad thing, and why? Do you think other cities will soon be following our lead? I'd also like to know if anyone has heard about this before I had?
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I have not heard about this "gay friendly school" in Milwaukee. I am assuming that it will be a separate school only for homosexuals? If this is true i am not sure that this is a good idea. We as society can no longer segregate ourselves from others, no matter how we feel. We should be spending the time and money that would be used to create that kind of school and hire only teachers that except everyone and/or spend it on better education of multi-culturalism. Maybe its a good idea for protection and free-expression but i think no one wants to live in a society (or go to a school) where everyone is the same.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it's certainly good to know that the district has an interest in making school more tolerable for homosexual students, I'm not convinced that this is the right way. It's like the discussion we had way back at the beginning of the semester about "foreign culture days" and Black History Month in school - by pulling something out and putting it on a pedestal, you're increasing awareness, but you aren't further integrating those students; you're segregating them. This runs the risk of creating a split between the friendly and unfriendly schools - as though the other schools no longer need to watch out for their gay students, because if things become too intolerable they can always transfer to a friendly school instead; in fact, this is something that all schools need to focus on, like it or not.
ReplyDeleteHi Sara. To answer one of your questions, "What about other students that are bullied but aren't homosexual?": I worked on the initial planning team for The Alliance High School in Milwaukee for the first 6 months. It has now been tagged the "gay" high school in Milwaukee. And, while our initial intention was to target gay kids who were so bullied that they were not attending school, we also wanted to target *any* student who was being bullied, and, thus, were no longer attending school. The Alliance School is truly open to all students who have taken serious measures to avoid going to school and who have essentially been on the streets. It's been up and running for 3 years now with success.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like the existence of the Alliance School is awesome.
ReplyDeleteSorry, cut out unintentionally. A safe space for bullied kids to go to school is great. And I actually think that one that is particularly friendly to LGBT students *is* necessary and important. I keep going back to the statistic that teens that have the highest rate of suicide are queer kids. This is because of the bullying and ostracism they experience from their peers combines with the heterosexist society in which we live. Unlike other aspects of awkwardness in adolescence, this is a matter of life and death. For that reason, I absolutely support it.
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