Gayness, Multicultural, and Community

Premise:

• Gay
• Lesbian
• Invisible
• Silence
• Community
• Public Schools
• Roles
• Homosexual
• Heterosexual
• Privileges
• Straight teachers
• Gay teachers
• "Normal"
• "Abnormal"

Author's Arguments:

Dennis Carlson argues that public school play an important role in developing a democratic, multicultural community where the sexual identity is recognized. In the dominate normalizing community specific people have privileges and are seen as "normal" people, while Others (people who are not part of the dominate community) are characterized as "abnormal" and are described as crazy, lacking of education, sick, etc.

Evidences:

Page:236

"...we do not get very far if we look for what is said about gayness in educational texts...."

This lines simply states that what the school texts offer students is not enough for them to understand the gay community. Even though it is a hard subject to bring up in school, students should have more information on this community. Carlson finds it very important because everyone should be treated and get the same privileges equally. The homosexual society doesn't get the same recognition as the heterosexual society. This makes the homosexual community inferior to the heterosexual community, making them become "silence" in the dominate society. Carlson also stated that students' educational text only introduce "selective tradition". The problem with normalizing textbook is that students don't get to learn about other communities that are outside the norm community. Instead they are forced to learn the dominate culture because in it is seen as the only culture that is value in this society. Making a change in the textbook and allowing students to learn more about the Other communities will prevent that community from becoming "silence" and becoming more recognized in the dominate society.

Page: 237

"...dismissal of teachers who were found out to be homosexuals"

With the dismissal of homosexual teachers it is obvious to see that gayness is invisible in some public schools. Many of these homosexual teachers were dismiss from their jobs as a way to prevent young students to be expose to this community because they find that they are not role models to students. With examples like this particular one makes the gay community more invisible and harder to understand. It doesn't let the students see for themselves if they accept the community or deny the community because they are not expose to people from that community. This statement also brings up the argument that the gay community is often seen as the "abnormal" society rather then the "normal" community. Being seen as the "abnormal," homosexual teachers privileges are also being taken away by the dismissal of their jobs.

Page: 239

" ...abuses get tolerated because gay teachers and students operate in an environment where they feel afraid to stand up for themselves....the discussion on of gay people continues to be absent in the curriculum so that homophobia is not interrogated."

These people are often getting abuse from the dominate society. They do not feel that they have any sort of privileges to protect them from constant abuse. They don't stand up for themselves in the dominate communities because they are afraid of being put down more than what they are currently are. Not having the same privileges as the "normal" community prevents them to interact with the society in which they are forced to lived in. Carlson states that one of reason why this abuse is tolerated is because schools are not offering students with more education on they gay community. The greeting incident that a male substitute teacher had as he entered an English classroom had happened primarily because students are exposed to the community and not knowing much at all and keeping it invisible to students, they are not going to take any thing into consideration. Since they are not taught that homosexuality is another community that exist they will just see it as "abnormal" and will find ways to make fun of it because they do not see it as part of their community.

Comments:

I honestly didn't find this article interesting what so ever. It was full of facts not much with life experiences like the other articles we have read in class. What this article is trying to state that in order to make the gay community visible and acceptable, the starting level is to educate students more about the community so that the abuse and rejection is not tolerated. Based on my religious beliefs I don't see gay/lesbian as being right, however I respect them because they are human just like me. I agree with Carlson's argument about school playing an important role because as a students in public schools I wasn't expose to the gay community as much. They would of bring up the subject however, teacher wouldn't go into much details because they feared that a conflict was going to arise in class. I believe that since it is a community that does exist in the community, schools should put it in their curriculum because it feel as though they are no preparing students correctly by trying to hide that community.