Sexuality in school

Race, gender, religion, sexuality, and personal appearance; all of these things are categories that people are judged upon. The categories are things that an individual has little to no control over without major changes to a lifestyle. So, is it fair to judge or cast an opinion on a person who is different than you? In this blog post, I will discuss the openness of sexuality and why it is important to respect those who are different than you.

In Rofues's A Radical Rethinking of Sexuality and Schooling, he says that "that we deserve pleasure and happiness, the enjoyment of picking our noses, the thrill of hugging our security blankets, the excitement we find in fondling our genitals, the satisfaction we get from stealing cookies from the cookie jar." He says that the radical thinking about sexuality is about changing the school system to make it safer and a better experience for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders (LGBT), but what do liberals think about this? In the article Liberal Sex Ed and Rational Opposition by Chad Felix Greene, he states that kids should have a safe place to practice whatever sexual desire they have because liberals believe that the people should be nurtured more than a system. He says "As long as children are nurtured through this time and taught to cherish their sexuality without flaunting or exposing it indiscriminately, it can be a healthy experience for the child." Neither side is wrong in this discrepancy, but I have my own opinion on this topic. I believe that both sides should be combined into one idea. 

I like that the radicals want a system that will help LGBTs be safer and have a better school experience, but I also like the liberals ideas of embracing an individual. I want a school where there are programs made for LGBTs so they have a safe gathering place, and a place for others to come and learn about them as individuals and not as a group in general. I also want to help them embrace their sexuality to make them more comfortable in their own skin. It will not be an easy thing to do, but change is hard. If people are willing to help make a difference when it comes to acceptance, then it will get done.

Language

Teachers hold a lot of influence on their students. Many of these influences are for the betterment of the student, but there are some things that a teacher can do that will make a student question himself. As a teacher, it is your job to not only teach material, but teach the child as a whole. If you question any part of a child, that child may become self-conscious. One of the biggest things, and the topic that will be discussed in this blog, is the importance of the language that a student speaks at home, and has to speak in the classroom.


The language that a person grows up speaking is often called the mother tongue, and is the language that the child associates with love the strongest. It is important to embrace this language in order for the child to be confident in himself. Also, if the teacher questions the language spoken at home of a child there are two natural responses for the child. The first is to question the home life of the family and try to change to try to fit into the customs of society. The other is that the student may disregard everything that the teacher says at that point because the teacher questioned the love that they grew up with. Neither of these things are good scenarios for anyone to deal with. It is important as a teacher to embrace a students unique qualities and show that they are in the right, no matter what they grew up with.

Field Blog Boulevard Elementary

At the elementary school, I saw that every classroom was very colorful, kids were excited to be there, the teachers were all very positive and active, and almost every classroom we visited had some sort of group activity. All of these things go into what can make a classroom lively and a hood place to learn.

These observations are just broad categories of what I saw while at the school. My best experience in getting to know what the kids felt like was reading the story of the snowman with them and playing a game on symbiosis with them. The kids all were very eager to get things done and learn form them, and I was surprised by this. After living in a house with two brothers for so long, the feeling of excitement has gone through each one of us. We all focused on grades in high school instead of the content and this was nice to see the kids having fun. I also noticed a lot of group work. I am a huge fan of group work and that social interaction that goes with it.

There were some things that I thought while we were there that made me second guess myself. While observing the fifth graders, they were really obnoxious and I thought at the time that they were just rude kids. After a while, I remembered how I was back in elementary school and I was the same way. This was my only real judgement of the kids, because I admire how much they want to learn. In a way, it sparked my own interests in learning new things as well.

Nothing during the observation at the school would go into a "parking lot" category. I went in there looking for certain things and knew it would be a different world than what I remember school being as. I was pleasantly surprised at the kids eagerness to learn and the teachers willingness to teach. I really liked the group work of the classes, because group work focuses on teamwork; that is essential for future jobs. It was a very colorful school with enthusiastic kids and teachers; every kid there wants to be there and that enhances their experience more than they know.

Delpit Quote

The quote that Lisa Delpit "We do not see through our eyes or hear through our ears, but through our beliefs." is relevant to more things than you would first think. Say a women walks down the street and she has no hair. The first thing that may pop into your head is that there is something wrong with her, whether it be a sickness, such as cancer, or a mental disorder. However, she may also have donated her hair for a good cause. There are two ways to see this situation right off the bat, and many more if you stop and think about it.

 For me, this happens almost every time I go into a public place with my family. I have a bad habit of passing a judgement on people before I get to know them. One guy in specific lives in my dorm. I first met him on move in day and immediately said that he was just odd and I couldn't relate to him. After some time and me getting to know him, he slowly became my best friend, so he went from an outcast to me to being my best friend, and this was almost stopped because of my bias. Bias is a real concern if it gets in the way of getting to know someone, because you do not know what a person is like until you actually get to know him.