Gender Issues in Schools and History Lessons

Elizabeth J. Meyer wrote in her article, "Gender Harassment in Secondary Schools: Understanding Teachers' Interventions" about the difficulties that teachers face when attempting to respond to heterosexual harassment, homophobic harassment, and harassment for gender nonconformity issues in the classroom.  Meyer sees the situation as a layered, complex challenge; one with varied moving parts acting separately, making matters more difficult.

Meyers touches upon ‘external influences’ that effect teachers who are attempting to deal with these uncomfortable issues.  One of the most striking aspects was the administration versus teacher issues that crop up during these bullying incidents.  Meyers writes there was “a trend of teachers not trusting their administrators to support their actions and feeling that they have to handle most non-violent discipline issues alone” (8).  While the actual aspect of teacher vs. administration didn’t necessarily surprise me, the amount of times the issues came up was shocking.  It seemed to me there was a major bias in powerful positions, a sad fact that I didn’t expect to find in the article.  Since those in power speak the dominant discourse, it should not have surprised me, but reading all the accounts certainly bummed me out.

I also took issue with the teacher who said:

“[I don’t stop name-calling] if I’m too tired, if there are set things I need to get through in a lesson.  I know my lesson is going to take 60 minutes, I’ve only got 70 minutes to deliver it, I’ve got 10 minutes to waste.  Right now my job is being a teacher and I have to get through the math before the end of the year.  It’s not my priority list.”       

While I understand this as supporting evidence of the exhaustion suffered from the constant work teachers face, I do think that name-calling problems should be seen on a case-by-case basis.  If a student, for example, is teasing or giving another student a hard time, a teacher should use their best judgment whether to intervene.  If the line is crossed, then the teacher should speak up, no matter the exhaustion level. 

I think this example was a little broad – there are plenty of battles I didn’t want to fight, but chose to because it was the right thing to do.  Sometimes teachers focus too much on lesson planning and curriculum and forget that we’re also teaching proper sociable behavior.  I always remind students this when I hear off-color remarks or homophobic jokes – they won’t be tolerated in the real world and they won’t be tolerated in the classroom.  Plus, it's just plain cruel and wrong.

The last quote I want to write about was actually the most frustrating part of the article.  Meyers wrote that “the challenge that this finding presents is how to raise the awareness of educators who have not personally felt the impacts of discrimination or exclusion from dominant culture” (17).  I was irritated by this quote for a couple reasons.  First, doesn’t everyone feel left out or alienated at some point in their live?  Is it really so difficult to empathize with students who face gender discrimination?  Are people so callous?  And some of these people are my colleagues?

I think it’s sad to think only teachers who are directly affected by discrimination are the ones who actually do anything about these bullying abuses.  Being an observant person should be able to clue in to teachers that there are students that get picked on, they need to be specially attended to, and ones who are on the other side (the bullies) should be taken care of, as well.       

         Perhaps I’m naive about the awareness of other teachers to these issues.  Although I was from a town that doesn’t look at these issues in a good light, I did slowly become aware of the injustices through my interests in history and pop culture.

         I found several parallels between the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s and the modern LGBT Movement.  Today, racism against black people from the 50’s and 60’s is a common lesson taught in classrooms across the country.  I think one day the word ‘fag’ will be looked on as badly as the n-word.  Hopefully, this day will be sooner than later.

         I think that I was made more aware of this, like I wrote above, through my interest in history and pop culture.  As I explored the GLSEN.org website, I found myself looking at different profiles of great gay/lesbian/transgender people throughout history.  I think the more these are presented in the classroom chances are more students will become more sensitive to what they say to each other.

          For example, I think the Stonewall history lesson was interesting - people couldn’t go out to the bar to hang out!  This seems like a simple injustice to show to students, something they could easily relate to. 

The other history lesson that I thought was interesting was the fact that there were people who fought to take homosexuality off of a listof mental disorders.  I think it would be good for students to read that homosexuality isn’t a choice – genetics are never a choice.  Once students see this more clearly, I think it will be easier to bridge the wide gap currently found in classrooms.  

Lastly, I wanted to mention how I was not aware that it was LBGT awareness month this past month!  One of the resources on the website has the month of October and a famous LBGT person for each day, much like Black History Month.  Hopefully, this will month will be more prominent in our nation’s consciousness in the future.

         Finally, I wanted to note that the movie “Milk” played a major part in my awareness of the difficult history of LGBT people in Ameria and I think it helped expand my consciousness about homosexuality rights in America.  Harvey Milk was a fascinating character, a sorta Martin Luther King Jr. of the LGBT-rights movement, and in the right context, could be presented as one of the heroes of America, not just the LGBT movement.