When I was reading the article I didn’t really follow it, I sort of wouldn’t get it for the fact I would zone out. But not until I read Alicia’s blog was I able to follow and understand it. She pointed out Carlson’s arguments right away which helped a lot.
Alicia said that the argument Carlson was making was, "that schools use their power of influence to keep gayness 'hidden', 'in its place', and not to be part of the 'normal' that is accepted in our society. He feels that it is a major problem for these children that are in fact homosexual, to go through school feeling they need to hide or stay 'in the closet' to be a 'regular part' of their educational journey. It begins in the schools, and remains in the eyes of the society, especially in the earlier years, to be socially wrong and unacceptable."
Then she goes into explaining how gayness really isn’t accepted in our schools. I never really thought about that before. I didn’t realize that it was that hidden back then. I wasn’t unaware that it was kept a big secrete from everyone, because it could financially hurt a person because no one would want to hire them if they knew they were gay. A quote from Alicia’s blog. “They were like the so called 'witches ‘of the past, treated like they had a plague or disease". Really helps show how these people were treated.
I really like how Alicia pointed out how Carlson argues that there are three main ways that our schools contribute to the 'invisible presence' of homosexuality.
1-the erasure of gayness in the curriculum
2-the "closeting" and "witch hunting" of gay teachers
3-verbal and physical intimidation of gay teachers and students
2-the "closeting" and "witch hunting" of gay teachers
3-verbal and physical intimidation of gay teachers and students
--this is very true and unfortunate.
Alicia even mentions how it’s still rarely discussed in today’s schools. Thinking back to my own high school experience I guess it’s true. The only time the word gay was ever spoken by a teacher, it was almost always when we were in health class and the subject wasn’t dragged on forever, usually it was a small blurb and then we moved on. In my high school we were fortunate enough to have a group called the gay straight alliance, so people did have some place to go and be open about that kind of stuff and not feel like they have to hide in the dark forever.
This is a great example of how I HOPED the blogs would work! I am so glad that Alicia helped "unlock" the points that Carlson was trying to make here! You do a good job making sense of them.
ReplyDelete"Thinking back to my own high school experience I guess it’s true. The only time the word gay was ever spoken by a teacher, it was almost always when we were in health class and the subject wasn’t dragged on forever"
ReplyDeleteI think this is so true and I have never noticed it until this article, good point!