Submitted by Linda
I would hate to believe that the school district simply "went through the motions" concerning diversity training.
What has been missing for decades in this area is a resource for the LGBT community. We all react differently to constant negative messages. Some of us act out. Some of us internalize. Ultimately if there is no support system, a feeling that we are not being heard, and no resources to help us deal with it, we will either explode or implode.
When you are young, it's even more difficult. When I was young I was angry and often acted out without even knowing why. Looking back, I realize it was my fear that I was a lesbian. There was no one to talk with about it.
I hope it's true that an openly gay teacher is not harassed. That openly gay athletes are appreciated for their talents, and black students are also accepted without reservation.
It's the unpopular youth that most need resources and understanding. Where do they go? Who can they depend upon?
1 comment:
I have personal knowledge of only some of what that poster referred to, and, of course, cannot comment directly on any of it. Certainly one of the challenges of dealing with these issues between school and community is that, as a teaching professional, I have to observe both matters of confidentiality and contractual requirements regarding comments on the behavior of my bosses. (Particularly frustrating when someone slams you in the paper for being one more Big Fat Oppressor and you cannot speak in your own defense.)
So, in generalities.
The vagaries of the high school social scene can be complicated. Students can be unbelievably kind and unbelievably cruel.
Cause and effect can be hard to track-- students might not care that student x is whatever, but once they decide they don't like student x, they'll use whateverness as a club to beat on him/her with.
There are many frustrating barriers to break. Some students may draw a line that they're simply unwilling to talk about or examine; like adults, they can decide that some groups don't deserve to be treated with human decency because Those People are just Wrong. At the same time, there are students who are in love with their social isolation and are unwilling to give up that little rush they get from being Noble Oppressed Outcasts.
I'm also pretty certain that the percentages of bullies, jerks, and insensitive jackasses are pretty constant through all groups and sub-groups of the population. You would think that being a member of a picked on group would make people more sensitive to picking on others, but ime you'd be wrong.
None of this is meant to assess blame. Blaming is a waste of time-- worse than a waste of time because it's almost always part of the process of saying, "Since X is at fault, I should get a free pass to do the following bad behavior..."
If I could wave my magic wand and make any piece of human thought disappear, it would be this: "Since this person is a member of Group X, I don't need to listen to him/her or try to understand him/her, or treat him/her as I would if s/he was anyone else."
As for where kids in school can go-- it remains in part a crap shoot because in this, as in all things, certain students relate well to certain teachers, and that usually boils down to the intangibles of personality, timing, style, etc. And it's a hard thing to track because when a student comes to me for help or a talk about anything, it's nobody's business but that student's and I can't give you an accounting of how many students I'm working with.
I know that's all kind of vague and nonspecific, but anything less so would be inappropriate. I'm sure we could do better-- I expect that will always be true. But I'm sure we do better than back in the seventies, when we all thought that Paul Lynde was just a funny guy and the Village People were just a funny-looking vocal group.
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