“Appealing to the difference in a non-tokenizing manner in a middle school classroom requires digging deep into the issues of gender, race and class, and pushing students beyond easy notions of black and white or rich and poor and into a realm of ever shifting intersections of identity” (Krywanczyk, pg. 3)

Two thoughts filled my head while reading this personal essay about transexuality and middle school students: I wish the young adults in my classes exhibited the same maturity in discussing trans issues as they did with their studies in Spanish and we need more stories like Krywanczyk’s to strengthen the fabric of our schools. My seventh graders are perhaps my most immature class when it comes to learning Spanish, but they have consistently demonstrated an understanding and compassion towards one of their transsexual classmates that makes me proud. Continue reading They are ready and able to talk about it →

Take a walk down any hallway in any middle school or high school in America. The single most common put-down today is, “That’s so gay.” It is deployed constantly, casually, unconsciously. Boys hears it if they dare to try out for school band or orchestra, if they are shy or small, or physically weak and unathletic, if they are smart, wear glasses, or work hard in school. They hear it if they are seen to like girls too much or if they are too much “like” girls. They hear it if their body language, their clothing, their musical preferences don’t conform to the norms of their peers. –Kimmel, p.108

“That’s so gay.” It’s an adjective expression in adolescents. Actually, most of students may not even know what does gay mean in middle schools. They are just saying the words to fit into peers. Continue reading Do I Sound Gay? →

While some participants were not always academically high performing, almost all remember being thought of as smart and capable when they were young boys. Continue reading High Expectations ? →

How is queer pedagogy different from critical pedagogy? What delineates a queer pedagogue from a critical one? Are the categories mutually exclusive?

Continue reading Queer (critical) pedagogy →

Continue reading The Cost of High Expectations and its Inflation →