The author of "Queering Schools" argues that an environment must be created where students and teachers are able to express themselves freely and without fear for their safety. Firstly, I would like to say that I agree with this author on all fronts and thought they did a nice job of putting into words how things should be addressed in education and the complexities that comes with educating students on the LGBTQ+ community. I specifically liked the similarity drawn between educating students on racial oppression and discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. It should not be a topic only discussed during June but it should be woven into the curriculum to better normalize the concept to children. A quote from this article I would like to discuss is the quote "when you invite kids to talk openly and ask questions about gender and sexuality, you have to be ready for whatever happens." While I completely agree with this statement, I believe the problem is that teachers are not being properly prepared on how to have these conversations with children and how to deal with possible backlash from parents. As a recent college graduate and first year teacher, I was not educated at all on how to properly have these conversations with children and I am uncomfortable doing so because of my lack of knowledge. This is a flaw in how we are educating future teachers, especially considering that many teachers who have years of experience started teaching in a different world and need that education as well. Schools seem to only address the problem when there is a student who forces the school to address their lack of training on educating, nurturing, and including the LGBTQ+ community. Most of my writing on this topic is thinking about younger students as I am an elementary teacher; I am aware that most secondary schools do a better job of educating teachers and be inclusionary to the LGBTQ+ community but it needs to start as early as elementary level as complicated as it may be.
The Guidance for Rhode Island Schools on Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students was kind of exactly how I expected it to be. I feel like since I've grown up in a generation where it is much more normalized to ask about pronouns and to be accepting of those who are transgender and gender nonconforming it seemed like common sense to me. However, the one thing that shocked me was the section that addressed other students being uncomfortable with transgender students being able to use facilities that are aligned with their gender identity. The guidance says "some students may feel uncomfortable with a transgender student using the same sex segregated restroom, locker room or changing facility. This discomfort is not a reason to deny access to the transgender student." I really appreciated that this line was included as the guidance continues to suggest that school administrators should work to create an understanding of gender identity instead of telling the transgender student that they cannot use the facilities that align with their gender identity. Some students who are transgender or gender nonconforming may not feel comfortable in either bathroom due to fear of judgement, safety, or just being uncomfortable choosing one. For this reason, gender neutral bathrooms have been increasingly more common. However, many schools were built before gender neutral bathrooms were needed meaning that creating this accommodation may be difficult. For example, when I was student teaching at a high school, there was a need to create a gender neutral bathroom but the only single stall bathroom was in the nurses office, even the teachers restrooms were multiple stalls. The solution was to turn one of the teachers restrooms into a gender neutral bathroom. The problem was now that students who did not need to use this bathroom were using it as a hang out spot. Students would vape and lock the doors for other inappropriate behaviors. Suddenly the students who were supposed to finally get the bathroom they deserved were afraid to use a restroom that was originally created for them. Because when a student went in there to use the bathroom for its actual purpose, it was often locked or they were met by judgemental students who wanted to use the bathroom for other purposes. As a result that bathroom was closed. The point of this is to say it is sometimes difficult lay out wise when many schools were built before it was accepted to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community.
The video was interesting to me because I thought the execution of the video was really well taught but in my district we aren't really supposed to teach children about different pronouns. We are told to respect the pronoun choices of children but we aren't supposed to teach about it. I am wondering if this is common in Rhode Island. I also feel as though it is a good thing to educate young children about accepting peoples pronoun choice but it may be confusing to introduce pronouns such as ze and tree to them in kindergarten (which I believe is the mentioned targeted age range for the video). As much as I wish we lived in a world where it were not complicated to teach exactly what is taught in this video I think there would be a lot of parent and district push back. I think currently the best we can do as educators is push primarily for acceptance, especially in younger grades where it may not be as common to educate students on these topics. An interesting article to read on this topic can be found on the New York Times.
