limited learning

Believe me, I know what it is like to cover Gay topics in class in a public school to which all children by law must attend every day when doing so is natural and timely, like, when after teaching all about the love of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barret Browning and following the required curriculum by covering Romeo and Juliet in class, a play about mid-pubescent kids falling in love in one night and committing suicide when their star crossed love and planning goes awry, you decide not to change the pronouns in the love poems that Walt Whitman wrote to the man he loved so they would appear to be a man writing to and about a woman, or a student asks a question.

I know what it is to be continuously required to justify mentioning anything about the personal life of an important person who was Gay while the personal lives of Heterosexual literary or historical figures were somehow necessary for a full understanding of the historical person or a work of literature and their contributions to society.

Looking at you, John and Abigail Adams .

I know what it is like in the 12 basic years of schooling to never hear about any important person like me even though I might have not met the real me yet but might have had a healthier response when I could not but look at all the evidence that accumulated over the years, but I had not really seen.

I know what it is like to be denied truth and facts sitting in a student desk and being reprimanded verbally and in writing when behind the teacher desk I supplied the missing information on a person or work of literature that would have been a lie or a totally false representation to present without.

I also know that while any positive, often life-saving information for some is not allowed in schools, the opposite negative, derogatory, and false representations are given free rein that harms some students both mentally and physically as there are too many bashings in Jesus’s name that are excused.

And I am aware of how ingrained are the harmful and false assumptions held by people whose profession it is to nurture students for the future and enact the relevant policies and curriculum to that end something that would be better served through honest conversations with GLBT people not on what someone they know who is just as uninformed has passed on to them. Once and formally, when advocating for GLBT students I was accused of being a Straight man who had found a fake issue to gain political prominence with the basis of this being true because of my not looking or acting Gay. Some initial reluctance by leaders of the school district to do the right that they eventually did was based on my not being the expected stereotype.

I have the studies and documents that show the importance of having the real world presented as it is, warts and all, rather than the one that only matches the preferred history of those in charge.

The Arizona legislature approved Senate Bill 1456 that would restrict discussions surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity pending parental permission that state schools would be required to obtain.

The bill’s sponsor, Senator Nancy Barto, says that the bill

“solely protects a parent’s right to decide when their child is ready and what their child is exposed to regarding sexual materials at school.”

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Clearly her rationale is lacking as it is built on the false assumption that, rather than accepting GLBT as a matter of one’s personhood and that such people have made positive contributions to society, the uninformed conveniently equate all GLBT information solely related to “sexual materials”.

In Social Studies class this requirement and the assumption that all GLBT information is sexual could ban a teacher from mentioning the Stonewall Rebellion when covering civil rights actions or rebellions that were initiated by segments of the citizenry and the changes brought about.

Usually with the requiring of opt-out provisions and selective parental say in certain of curriculum and teacher lesson plans, and the silencing of anyone who might have information to pass on.

Although I, like all other teachers, was allowed to hang anything curriculum related on my classroom bulletin boards, I was disciplined for not honoring the newly created and pointedly aimed practice of running anything relating to the curriculum that might have some connection to GLBT positive information by the principal for clearance as doing so would have me tacitly accepting the ignorant position that everything about GLBT people was somehow lewd, obscene, and sexual where this was not so with non-GLBT people.

Ironically, well-meaning and loving parents who may not be aware of the questions swirling in their own child’s head may “protect” their child from harmful information according to others that would actually be beneficial, thus being the ones who actually harm their child.

GLBT kids should see themselves in school curriculum, have the opportunity to learn about themselves, and receive critically important health information as they develop.

All students, not just the Gay ones will be denied important information which could reduce bigotry and make schools more welcoming for the GLBT students.

Bullying requires two sides, the bully and the bullied. Both are harmed by the experience as the bullied gets physically and emotionally hurt, and the bully, acting on accepted but false information, will have any disciplinary action on a permanent school record, or police record if things went way too far.

Information benefits both.

Not to be outdone, the Tennessee state legislature approved Senate Bill 1229 that would allow parents to opt their kids out of any class that includes any topic related to GLBT people and requires state schools to alert parents 30 days before any time a teacher might have to be inclusive, like the Social Studies teacher who might include the Stonewall Rebellion in a lesson plan.

These two bills directed at GLBT students join those being proposed and passed in Republican controlled states that bar transgender girls and women from participating in female sports.

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