It is important for students to know that your classroom is a place where they can explore any ideas and address many of the questions that arise in life. It is difficult for many students to feel this way but that should not preclude us from putting every effort into ensuring that they can bring any problems or concerns to us by continually asserting that fact. Demonstrating it at every opportunity that presents itself.
Currently, there is an element of "cool" to being gay or bi. Many kids are proclaiming it because of all the emphasis that the media and Hollywood is putting on individuals that are coming out and the efforts toward gay marriage. The shock effect is also a component that teens find enticing. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_percent_of_the_world_is_gay provides references that support the actual percentage of people that are gay is somewhere between 0.6 - 5%. http://gaylife.about.com/od/comingout/a/population.htm believes 5% is an accurate figure. While most other sites I found hold around 1%.
If a child tells us they are gay then my concern is that we don't push them into making a declaration to the world based upon what may be a curiosity or worse a childish act for attention. I think it is important for them to research and discuss this with family and counselors. So my advice to them would be to start there when they are ready.
As teachers, we are there to teach children how to cope with issues by using their minds to think things through. Learning from both history and the ability to envision the results and consequences of their actions. Ultimately, the important thing is the child feels and is safe in their classroom environment. We need to let them know we care about them no matter who they are or what they do. We need to believe in them and support them and they will reciprocate. We are their training wheels. Whatever the choices they make in life are inevitably up to them.
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I agree that it is very important for students to feel safe and know they are safe in your art classroom. I am astonished at your paragraph about gay and bi being the new "cool"..I had no clue! I also think it's very important as an art teacher to be updated on what is going on in the world in order to make their students feel safer. Also, since students find art as an "escape" and a way to express themselves it makes the art room even MORE important for it to be a safe place for the students.
ReplyDeleteBeing bi and gay are the new cool? Hmmm. I think that you could distinguish between those students who were genuinely dealing with these issues. I doubt that someone who was doing it to be cool would come to a teacher for advice. Unless they are making it seem like they are only doing it to be cool to hide their real feelings.
ReplyDeleteMost teens who are wrestling with their sexuality find that school is a fairly hostile place. Being homosexual is difficult at best. I think most kids experiment with their sexuality at different times in their lives, but I have never met a child who declared themselves to be LGBTQ just to get attention. Often those children were bisexual. The consequences for children who struggle with sexuality can often by harsh and even dangerous. I have read that actually about 1 in 10 people is LGBTQ. I love the fact that you stated that your room should feel like a safe space and that all children would feel accepted--I wish all educators felt that way.
ReplyDeleteThe estimate that 10 percent of the population gay/lesbian is based on the Kinsey Institute data published in 1948. The Kinsey study results were dismissed because over half of the men surveyed were either prisoners or male prostitutes. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_percent_of_the_world_is_gay
ReplyDeleteActually, according to a national U.S. study by Mosher, Chandra, & Jones from 2005 (based on the responses of men and women 15–44 years of age), it was found that roughly 90% of men and 90% of women responded that they were heterosexual. Other responses of MEN included: 2.3% as homosexual, 1.8% as bisexual, and 3.9% as 'something else', and WOMEN responding: 1.3% homosexual, 2.8% bisexual, and 3.8% as 'something else.' (http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/resources/FAQ.html)
ReplyDeleteI may not know a lot about math, but that still figures out to roughly 10% of U.S. men and women identifying themselves as "non-heterosexual."
In the end, do the numbers really matter? Denying the prevalence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or 'other' students / U.S. citizens does not mean that we will not need to find ways to deal with and work with these students in our classrooms. You aren't expected to embrace their lifestyles or change your comfort level with them, but to be an effective and supportive teacher, you should at least become aware of your pre-existing beliefs and how they might negatively affect how you are perceived by your students or by supportive parents / friends of LGBT students.
In case you wrote without realizing it, the part about supporting our students no matter what choices they take means something very powerful in this context. This implies that you believe that sexuality is a choice- more specifically that HOMOsexuality is a choice. But, you probably already realized that and if so- we disagree.
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