“only 18 percent of students said they had studied anything related to LGBT issues or people in any of their classes, a statistic that has shown no significant change since GLSEN’s 2001 survey…” Still in the Shadows; Michael Sadowski.

This statistic speaks volumes. As we mentioned in the beginning of class, the silencing of a topic communicates a lot. By deeming and keeping this topic taboo communicates that it is not acceptable, among other things. The book went on to quote a student who said, “the gay rights movement is not even mentioned during the civil rights chapter in my American history textbook.” This is unacceptable because what educators, book publishers, politicians, and many others are doing is silencing the truth that they find uncomfortable. Apart from silencing the truth, they are creating a hostile environment for others in order for themselves to feel more “comfortable.” It really is sickening. As educators it is our responsibility to create a safe environment for all of our students despite the restraints put on us by politicians, text books, and intolerant people. This is no easy task because there will be many times when we are put in uncomfortable positions to do this. I firmly believe that we have to train for this, and it is my hope that there will be professional development  opportunities for this. The book does offer some great ideas such as incorporating LGBT issues into our curriculum, talking openly about the issue, challenging stereotypes and shattering taboos, and being supportive and available for all students. They also mention the fostering of healthy peer relationships by having  a gay-straight alliance group, which is something teachers can easily support. I think that this alliance is extremely important because the students are the ones who really need to change the culture with the guidance of adults. Teachers can control what goes on in the classroom to a degree, but they have no control what goes on outside the classroom; the students are the ones who have control there, so they are the ones who need to create a safe, positive, accepting culture that doesn’t tolerate discrimination in any of its ugly forms.  The article offers many ways to be supportive, but I would have liked some more strategies to help teachers directly address discrimination and bullying of LGBT students.

“Environmental factors are also critically important. It has long been noted that large urban centers tend to be more tolerant of same-sax sexuality than small, rural communities, and therefore youths from these two types of communities will likely face distinctly different normative pressure as they struggle to acknowledge, interpret, and accept their same-sex attraction. They will also have notably different degrees of access to support resources. Large urban centers are much more likely to have vibrant lesbian/gay/bisexual communities that sponsor youth groups and youth-focused recreational activities. Youths from rural areas might have little idea that such resources ever exist. These differences directly influence how youths experience and interpret their same-sex sexuality, give that access to supportive lesbian/gay/bisexual resources likely speed and ease the process of sexual-minority identity development.” Continue reading Environment affect! →

“…instead of encouraging adolescents to avoid sexual intercourse, the new definition casts a much wider net of proscribed activity: ‘Sexual activity refers to any type of genital contact or sexual stimulation between two persons including, but not limited to, sexual intercourse.’ Apparently in responding to criticism that abstinence previously had not been adequately defined, this updated version creeps into the territory of all things ‘stimulating.’ This broad definition of abstinence removes any possibility for sex education curricula to mention how teens might engage in non-intercourse behaviors, even in an effort to remain ‘technically’ abstinent.”

–Sexuality Education and Desire: Still Missing after All These Years, Michelle Fine, p.308

“At a dance I was at when I was a freshman, one of the chaperones felt she had to have a word with several girls about grinding. ‘It’s like you’re giving the boys a lap dance,’ she said. ‘They’re just using you to rub up against them. What’s in it for you? It’s demeaning and very inappropriate. It’s like sex with clothes on.”

-Eliza Appleton, Red, p.152

Continue reading The Silencing of Sexuality in the U.S. →

“Beliefs become a self-fulfilling prophesy: Those who expect adolescence to be a period of turmoil are more likely to behave in a manner that provokes relationship deterioration compared with those who expect adolescence to be relatively benign.” (Collins, W. A., & Laursen, B., 2004, p.5)

Talking about relationships between adults (whether it be parents, guardians, teachers, mentors, etc.) and adolescents can be complicated. Adolescents are at a different phase in their life developmentally than they were when they were children and therefore, their relationships with adults change. Many times, adults have this preconceived notion that adolescents are difficult and “moody” and that because of these emotions there is nothing that they can do except for prepare themselves for the worst. However, this way of thinking may be setting adults up for failure when it comes to their relationships with adolescents without them even knowing. Continue reading The self-fulfilling prophesy →

“I find parents to be truly funny. I’m sure they were wild and crazy – smoking weed, doing drugs, having sex – when they were our age, a lot more than dancing. I learned in my history class that 2,500 years ago, the ancient Greeks worried that their children would come to no good that they wouldn’t work, or marry. I guess human nature, or at least parents’ human nature, hasn’t changed over the centuries.” (Appleton, E.)

As this quote suggests, parents’ nature have not have changed over the centuries. However, the unspoken footnote to this quote is that at some point in our own lives, our nature changes over to that of a parent. How does this happen? How do people go from adolescents mocking their parent’s lame attitudes to being lame themselves? Colloquial knowledge insists “one day we’ll understand.” I agree that one day we’ll probably see things the same way, but this doesn’t mean we have come any closer to understanding why adult attitudes toward popular youth trends always seems to be stigmatizing and negative. If this has been happening for centuries, why isn’t there colloquial knowledge to help parents quell their natural skepticism for youth culture and give their kids the understanding and loving support they need to develop as healthy sexual adults? Continue reading Generation after Generation →