All posts by Mariah Louise Martens

More Than Diversity

Creating Classroom Community

The recommended changes move beyond single points of recognition and celebration of diversity to a depth of understanding through vicariously experiencing different cultures (Yull et all, 2014).

Sometimes it is still nuts to me that we have to actively search and change curriculum to reflect more than just eurocentric themes and concepts. But then I think about the fact that this is a system that has been erasing anything other than eurocentric knowledge for centuries. I am grateful for this participatory study and for curriculums across the nation that are pushing to add more than just ‘diverse representation’ in the classroom.  In addition we must also be honest and transparent with our students about that push. We must speak it out loud and acknowledge why. It is powerful  to acknowledge that we are trying something new, that we want to offer more than we were offered as students, and then explain why. Why is it important that we include multiple perspectives in the classroom? Representation and visibility is not enough, we must contextualize all of the stigma that comes with these representations and ask why they are there. Discuss why it is so difficult to talk about race, sexuality and gender, and acknowledge our privilege to our students. This does not weaken our position of ‘authority’ – it strengthens it, by letting our students know we may have blind spots and we may need to ask for their help. We, teacher and student, can keep pushing toward a more equitable system of education. 

We Need A New Ship, We Need a New System

Reaching Adolescents and How to Respond, Urban Adolescents

“And in the face of demands for perpetual growth in achievement indidcators, addressing the connection of learning to well-being can seem like ‘one more thing’ added to an already overflowing plate” (Weston, K. et al, 2018, pg. 106).

Sometimes it feels as though teachers are the fingers plugging all the holes in the ship before the water takes it down. The problem being we only have so many fingers, and maybe we just need a better ship? As an educator I want to be everything to my students. I understand that our job will sometimes entail being a sensitive listener, a community activist, a safe space, a punching bag, an ally or a resource for social services, justice and more. As a person who believes in young people, I do not have a problem making myself available, learning what I need to learn and doing what I need to do. Yet… I am angry about it, I am frustrated about it, I am resentful. Why must educators be the gatekeepers to all adolescent well-being? Why are we sometimes the last hope for young people? Why if we hold so much value in shaping a young person’s life are we still so undervalued, and underpaid? Why aren’t there more social workers or counselors in school? Why aren’t these professionals available to they entirety of our communities including parents and teachers? Why doesn’t the school day allow for more space to be, to sit with an idea, to sit with each other?

Time and time again we ask the people to do more, the people who are already doing the most, when we should be asking the system to do more, to be better to be there for us. Educators should absolutely commit to growth just as we expect our students too, but we are human, we are one part of the whole that touch a young person’s life. The world expects teachers to be everything, and in return I ask the world to provide us with everything. We need a new ship, we need a new system.

Let’s Talk About Sex

Friendship, Love, & Sexuality, Urban Adolescents

“Teenage mothers have been marked as a problem population, one that has already failed to adhere to certain norms and regulations about adolescent sexuality, namely that it should be non-existant at best, and invisible at worst (Kelly, 2000; Pillow, 2006).” (Chase, 2017, pg. 2)

Whether sexuality (and pleasure) is discussed in high school or not, adolescents are hyper aware of sexuality and are sexualized from a young age. One example of this is the way we speak to young children – ‘He’s going to be a lady’s man when he grows up’ or ‘Keep the boys away from her’. These two seemingly harmless statements, meant to complement the beauty of a child, actually sexualizes young bodies, teaching kids that their worth is only as good as their desirability. Then as a young person grows, we stop talking about sexuality, desire or pleasure but the sexualization occurs whether we speak of it or not. The silences surrounding a young person’s changing body and urges that come with it demonstrates cultural stigma and shame, clashing directly with sexualized images in advertisements, TV and movies promoting desirable femininity and masculinity. The misogyny displayed in most media, it is amplified for young Black and Latinx people, as their bodies are more heavily sexualized and fetishized. So it is no wonder that this staunch juxtaposition of roles for young people to fit into creates an intolerable environment for young pregnant people. When a young person becomes pregnant, schools, and the surrounding community tend jump to deficit narratives instead of face the gaping holes in sexualilty education.The pregnant body of a young person is so transgressive and so political because it forces us to to come face to face with all of our learned, and continuously upheld notions of young bodies, and what roles we have played in perpetuating them.

Gender Binary: I Wasn’t Aware of my own Queerness

Urban Adolescents

“Internalizing the notion that women should be sexual objects for men, they [girls] are more likely to associate with boys who share that view” (Goodman, 2018, pg. 100).

What about young women, or young people that aren’t seeking affection or attention from cisgender, straight men/boys/masculine people? How does the sexual objectification of young women affect the behaviors and experiences of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming young people? Especially in terms of what we define as gender ‘pass-ability’? Are we all trying to ‘pass’ in some ways? Additionally, how does internalized sexual objectification affect Queer youth? How do young people survive and shape themselves within this deep and rigid binary? I ask these questions from an academic research perspective, but I also ask myself these questions to help decipher my own internalized misogyny as a Queer, cisgender woman who didn’t come out until her mid 20s.

Growing up I thought because I looked one way, and gravitated towards femininity, I obviously had to be attracted to cisgender men. It was very recently that I fell in love with someone of the same gender and entered a same gender relationship. As I witness and observe myself I ask what if I had seen a feminine lesbian in a movie, tv show or story book? Would I have been more open to the idea that I could be attracted to, and form a relationship with someone other than Prince Charming? By no means did I feel closeted growing up, the thought just never entered my mind that I could find love with someone of the same gender, because Queer relationships, especially Queer femme relationships, were so invisible to me. I didn’t play sports, I didn’t have short hair and I had ‘womanly’ curves – how could I be a lesbian? Because externally my gender and behavior was intelligible, I internalized sexual objectification and did a great job performing feminine archetypes. Now, it is crazy to me that socialization, gendered behavior norms and lack of representation affected my perspective of myself so deeply that I wasn’t aware of my own Queerness.

When the Law is Dehumanizing

Newcomers & Perpetual Foreigners, Urban Adolescents

“I knew that I wanted to be somebody, but I didn’t know what I wanted to be. Because I didn’t have the legal right, I feel, to be somebody” (Goodman, 2018, pg. 59).

Why do government systems deport people? Why is the process of becoming a US citizen so difficult and belabored? Why is asylum seeker status so difficult to receive? How could a law ever justify tearing people away from their families and children? What purpose does that serve beyond psychological torment? Would we ever separate asylum seeking families who were white? How did we get to a place where teachers and principals need to be well versed in immigration legalese? The only answer I can think of to these questions is white supremacy

The title of this chapter, The Legal Right to be Somebody, a direct quote from undocumented student, Licia, so simply addresses an archaic and dehumanizing concept still embedded in our legal and governing system: humans as property. Or perhaps more specifically, any person not white or male having less value, and therefore can be treated as object or commodity, having little to no say in decision making regarding their own being. This ideal is foundational to our governing body, a state created from a place of supremacy based upon skin color, which still infiltrates our entire legal and judicial system, bleeding over into infrastructure and social services. It is this system, this foundation, that leaves a young human full of potential to feel like they exist in the U.S. as some sort of invisible but conscious body, frozen in time afraid to exist beyond basic survival. When we create narratives that turn humans into ‘aliens’ or ‘illegals’ we erase humanity, and uphold supremacist values, saying just because we were born here, we deserve more, are more and will be more. As educators we can introduce new narratives, treat our students with compassion, get to know our community and ask our students to do the same — but the law is the law. And it is my opinion, the law should not have the right or the reach to decide who is human, and who is less than human.