Gender roles and LGBT in the classroom

Gender and sexuality in the classroom do play a role, although I think it is often one that is overlooked.  Whether it is something we realize, or consider day to day life, certain expectations (or incorrect preconceived notions) exist in our heads that often stem from media or the home.  I doubt there are many teachers that feel they purposefully do not include LGBT or different genders as equals in their classroom.  That said, I agree with Morgan, Mancl, Kaffar & Ferrerira in that many teachers have little or no training in how to effectively teach and include LGBT students in their classes, especially those students that have learning disabilities.  I think it is important to reference not only straight couples and relationships but all types of relationship possibilities in sample questions, discussions, etc.

            As a future science teacher, I feel gender roles are issues I will need to try to constantly be aware of in my classroom because of this idea that women do not succeed in science.  Luckily for me there are plenty of female biologists I can teach students about and focus on in projects.  I think the achievement gap has closed a bit regarding expectations on gender achievement in the sciences, but it did not disappear.  Gender role differences very much still exist in society and as educators I feel it is important to work to discourage them.  For example, I discussed with a colleague today a biography on the first female sushi chef and the difficulties she faced entering a profession and training for a career that historically did not allow females in.  She faced discrimination and abuse during school and struggled to find a job despite her talents.  Situations like this exist in many fields and prove that while gender differences may be less of an issue today than in the past, they still exist. (CC)

            

LGBT IN CLASSROOMS

I watched a film titled "bullied" on Sunday, it was an emotional movie based on the true life story of a young boy from Ashley, Wisconsin. The boy named Christopher was bullied, harassed and tortured due to his sexuality by classmates while in middle and high school. What struck me most was that he did not get any help from the people who were supposed to protect and make the school safe for him. School administrators constantly neglected pleas from both the boy and his mother. Eventually, a lawsuit was filed against  Ashley school district and in a historic landmark verdict, the court ruled in favor of Chris and was awarded a settlement of  $900,000. Watching this movie almost made me cry and I silently thought to myself how many other Chris are out there going through the same ordeal because of their sexuality. It is prevalent among middle school students as well as some high school kids to tease and torment someone who is considered an outsider or someone that "acts funny". An 11 year old boy hung himself after being subjected to anti-gay slurs in 2011, these kind of incidences have no place in school. Just like race and ethnicity sexuality of individuals should be up there among the list of unacceptable practices and should not be tolerated in any way, shape or form.

We as educators have a responsibility to be mandated reporters, as professionals, our first job is to secure a safe and sound environment for all the students in our classroom. The classroom is supposed to be a secure place where all students can feel free, therefore it is paramount that we lay ground rules and maintain a zero tolerance policy on the issue of acceptance or tolerance and mutual respect. Statistics have shown that students who are victims of this abuse and harassment almost never report the issue because they feel that adults will do nothing about it. It is also our duty to notice and correct suspicious behavior or bias when in the classroom, we must address student concerns accordingly. We can make an impact by working with the school and community on raising awareness on the issue of gender and sexual orientation tolerance.

It is not right for anybody to be subjected to taunts or harassment because of their orientation, the school is an institution of learning, teaching students to accept differences in people is part of our responsibilities as teachers. We must remember that our goal is to protect our students and help shape responsible citizens of the society, this process starts from the classroom and should not be limited to academic achievements.(oo)             

Role of Gender in the Classroom

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When students do not conform to their gender's specific stereotypes and roles, they tend to be bullied by their peers. Boys are supposed to be tough, strong, aggressive, and athletic. They need to be masculine to be accepted by their peers. However, if boys do not conform to these roles and stereotypes they are judged and are bullied. Boys tend to use homophobic slurs in order to define their masculinity, and make them feel better about themselves. Girls find the need to conform to their stereotypes of being pretty, skinny, dependent, and weak. Girls are afraid to show strength and power in school because they know that the boys are supposed to be in charge. They also tend to have emotional and physical problems from trying to become like the underweight television stars and models that they always see. When students follow these stereotypes it affects their health, as well as their ability to learn in our classroom. They cannot learn properly if they are focusing on being bullied or losing weight. They need to be taught that these stereotypes do not define them as a person and they have to just be themselves. Also, stereotypes pinning specific genders to specific subjects, such as females can’t do math, tend to shy some students away from those subjects and not perform as well because they believe in the stereotypes. The psychological effects of these stereotypes make them become true when they are not. As a math teacher I will make sure to let my students know not to follow these stereotypes and to know that they can all succeed and can all do well at math. Gender stereotyping affects our students greatly, so we need to do everything we can to explain to them the negative effects of it and explain why stereotypes do not define them as an individual. (AM)

Gender identity with schools

As  previous posters have already stated, the school environment propagates gender roles mostly inadvertently. These gender roles are instilled into children in almost every arena of their lives, even at home, and quite often before the child is even born by choosing to paint their room either blue or pink. Of course, this is a result of society's expectations for what a 'normal' child must be like, and this goes as far as what a child dresses like, what they sound like when they speak, what they enjoy doing and the types of friends they're supposed to hang out with.

I am not suggesting this gender role expectations are a bad thing, or that they are even damaging. I think human nature will always insure that just as cultures identify by their music, accent, dress styles, etc..., that genders will too, find ways to respresent their gender and identify within their own gender. One negative aspect of this natural tendency of sociological behavior is that it encourages a certain type of ignorance. It is the same type of thinking that makes it "weird" for a girl play with cars and a boy to play with dolls. If our culture had established that it was expected and normal for a girl to play with toy cars then I think they would indeed, be doing it.

Considering all of this leads me to believe that gender roles have their function with every society, however, the actual expectations, the actual ways of behaving or dressing etcetera, are completely arbitrary and subject to change; this is I believe, what is important that students and adults alike understand. (AI)

Acceptence of Students with Disabilities

I found it interesting that special educators had a bias to students who identify as LGBT.  The article stated that most special educators had a belief that students with disabilites are asexual and they believed that there is no way that students with disabilites could be homosexual.

This made me think of my brother.  He has Autism and has many social defecits.  He does not really know how to communicate well with people his own age and he has no male role models in his life.  He has difficuty understanding social cues and sarcasam, as most people with Autism tend to do.  I work with my borhter at a supermarket and it got back to me that he had went up to another employee (who happened to be a minor) and told her that she "had a nice ass" when she bent over.  Some of the male employees comended him on being a "player" and the females were insulted.  They consider him to be a creep because they do not understand that he has a disabiltiy and is naiive.

My brother is like a parrot; he copies everything that he sees on TV.  He watches Jerry Springer with me and he does not understand that his show is not reality and that is not how gentlemen are supposed to act. 

I believe that it is a good idea for teachers to discuss this topoic in the classroom.  I know that i have hesitated to do such lessons in the classroom for fear of the parent's reactions. Parents are like customers; they get what they want and they run the school district.  If they do not want you teaching their child about homosexuality, than you have to respec their wishes.  If the teacher does not get any resistence from the parents then it is best to incorporate it into the curriculum.

~SS

Gender and Sexuality in Schooling- SL

It gets better website: http://www.itgetsbetter.org/

gender and sexuality(RT)

 What role does gender and sexuality play in schooling? (RT)

The role that gender and sexuality play in schooling are when the identity of students in a classroom start to develop. Students always need to go use the bathroom and in every school there is a male and female bathroom. There is never an in between bathroom. Same goes for when a classroom is divided into groups for a class discussion or for a competition where you have girls versus boys. There is never an in between option with gender. Therefore, as children develop their identity, they will be developing their sexual identity; having to know which category they fall into. Society constructs many details that make up the category of what a male should be or look like and what a female should be or look like. Children start to fall into these categories from very young because of what they are exposed to.

The gender-role behavior of children seems to be strongly influenced by their identification with the males and females in their lives. All children pick up characteristics from the men and women around them, incorporating these traits into their own personalities and value systems. They are also influenced by television, sports heroes and adults in all other activities in their lives.

When it comes to schooling, gender comes into play when lessons in class are talking about human rights. Gender equality falls into that category. There would be conversations of how females did not have the right to vote at one point in time and comparing and contrasting those times with today's society. Gender and sexuality are very touchy topics to deal with in school because as a teacher or school administrator, you never want to offend any child.