Expected, Inspected, & Respected.
"We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience."
-John Dewey |
"We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience."
-John Dewey |
In my career as an EA, I have heard students call each other “gay” many times and I will admit that I have at times ignored it. I’m embarrassed that while I was new to the job, I had a tendency to avoid conflict and I would let that kind of language go unchallenged as long as I thought that the offender didn’t have malicious intent. However, it bothers me more now than it used to because I have come to strongly believe that there is no excuse for using part of someone’s identity as a pejorative. I agree with Ryan Caster when he says, “By allowing students to call each other or things ‘gay,’ we send a message to the class - that it is okay to insult someone or something at the expense of a group of people. The classroom thus becomes unsafe for homosexual students, and students do not learn to examine their prejudices” (69). I believe it is important for schools to be a safe space for everyone and in the interest of making it so, it is well worth my discomfort with confrontation. Reading Caster’s article reinforced this attitude for me and encouraged me to take further action during my practicum on January 18th. Let me explain. Before the winter break, the class was working in groups of three on writing collaborative pourquoi stories on Google Docs during Language Arts. I was at the front of the room at the smartboard, checking on their progress as they typed. I finished reading one group’s story and switched tabs to read the next, but instead of seeing a pourquoi story I saw, in 72 point font, the sentence, “Joseph is gay!” I was immediately angry. I stood up, faced the offending group and said in my sternest teacher voice, “You need to erase that right now. That kind of language is unacceptable in this classroom and I don’t ever want to see it again.” The classroom went absolutely silent, the phrase was erased, and eventually, work continued as before. My intention was to take that group of boys aside later in the day when we were all calm and had had a little distance from the incident to have a conversation about why I reacted so strongly to those three words. I wanted them to know that their words, “have meaningful consequences, that can as easily be unintentional as intentional,” and that, “people must be thoughtful and careful in their use of language” (67-68). Unfortunately, in the busy hustle of the school day, it slipped my mind. Then came the weekend and by Monday I figured that too much time had passed to bring it up again. I decided to let it go. I started to rethink that decision when I read this sentence: “Sometimes addressing an incident a few days after it occurs communicates just how important it is” (68). I was further convinced when I read, “it would be wrong to make a habit out of ignoring teachable moments” (69). I was absolutely certain I would revisit this incident after reading, “...what would be the use of reflection if the theoretical never informed one’s practice?” (69). He was absolutely right. So, on January 18th, about a month after the incident, I asked the boy who had written the offensive phrase, to come and talk to me in the classroom’s library space. He immediately claimed that he didn’t write it (he did), but my purpose was not to conduct a witch hunt, my purpose was to turn a transgression into a teachable moment. I called the other possible suspect to join in the discussion as well. I think the boys, and the curious folks with desks near the library space learned a lot about how, “associating gay with negativity is oppressive, even if it is unintentionally so” (70). I believe they will choose their words more carefully next time and not just because an adult might yell at them but because it’s the right thing to do.
I was slightly nervous about having this discussion, but it went so well, I won’t hesitate to have the conversation with the entire class next time. When I have a class of my own, I want to do as Caster suggests and have a proactive discussion about this kind of language early in the school year by involving the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance. And if the school has no Gay-Straight Alliance, perhaps use that as an opportunity to start one.
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David Wiebe
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