Hi! This week I will be discussing the topic in module 3, “Gender and Sexual Orientation.” After reading the two articles and watching the Laramie Project video , I felt a sense of sadness that children in America face this much hatred on a daily basis. In an article I had found in addition to the assigned readings, “ Why your Child’s Brain is like a Sponge” (Age of Montessori, 2022) the author discusses how absorbent children are to their surroundings, and how adults may not realize the impact of what they expose their children to at a young age has on their beliefs, growth, and development. The article states the fact: “ Children develop 85% of their core brain structure by the time they are five years old. Your child will now build on this core foundation for the rest of her life.” This just further supports the fact that parents need to oversee what their children are playing with, listening to, or watching because what they hear now will impact their future.
In the first article, “Hate in Schools” by Francisco Vara-Orta talks about real events that took place at Council Rock High in Pennsylvania. The article reports swastika’s drawn in on bathroom stalls, along with other hate speech. One Mexican student even reported finding a note in her backpack that red “ go back to Mexico.” As a result of this, the district formed a diversity council that focused on informing and educating faculty and staff on how to appropriately handle to hate incidents. The school made a statement staying that although they are making efforts to try and create a more accepting enviornment, some students may live in homes that accept the behavior, but supress it when in public. Another interesting piece of information to consider is that most of these incidents were recorded around the time of the presidency of Donald Trump. The article questions if his speech is an influence on the children of America. The article states “Anecdotal reports aren’t enough to suggest that the president’s inflammatory talk has led to increased rates of bullying and new data show that bullying rates held steady in 2017, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey.One expert on school climate cautioned school leaders to avoid blaming acts of hate and bullying in the last couple of years on Trump’s influence.” So although it is interesting to note the correlation of hate speech and acts in schools with the election of our 45th president, we can not entirely place the burden of these hateful acts on his back.
I also believe that it is important to listen to the voices of the students who are affected by this hate. The article includes a quote from Jayla Johnson, who graduated Council Rock. She stated ‘I don’t think my classmates and teachers really grasp the pain we feel, It runs deep.” I feel like this can also open up another discussion wether students fully understand the strength of the hate speech and symbols that they demonstrate? Maybe today in 2022 it is well understood that words have great meaning and anything hateful you say or do does have an impact on people, but did children have this understanding a few years ago? The children in our schools simply may not fully understand the grave meaning of how serious certain words, actions, or symbols can mean. I acknowledge that some children fully understand what this hate speech means and it’s effects on others, and still chose to demonstrate this anyway. But is it fair to say that not all children fully grasp these ideas? I think one way to implement change and create awareness is to educate students via school assemblies, workshops, or educational videos on how important hate speech is and it’s serious effects on the victims. I feel like a comparison can be drawn to cyber bullying in the early and mid 2000s. When cases of suicide and violence acts became noted as an issue across America, schools and local governments took action as to what they can to do educate children and create consequences for bullies. Many schools have lists of resources and counselors that can be utilized when children feel they are experiencing bullying. Also, many bullying organizations became prevalent such as “stopbullying.gov” which serves as a resource for both students and parents. There have also been laws created to take action against bullying such as those that protect students with IEP’s and disabilities. It is my hope that racism and hate speech has the same reaction that bullying received where there are mass efforts put in place to try and prevent and reverse the effects of racism. I feel like a small but notable step that is happening present day is that many TV show episodes that are deemed racist are taken off air and streaming services. Back when many of the racist shows were created, it wasn’t seen as an issue. Now, with the newfound created awareness that exists, companies are taking the right initiatives to do their part in ending racism.
After reading the article “ As More States Require Schools to Teach LGBTQ History, Resources for Teachers Expand” I realized how important it was to teach LGBTQ curriculum in schools. The author talks about a woman named Larah and her experience as a woman who knew she liked girls, but felt that she could never come out to the public. After listening to a pod cast from a nun who organized Gay Lesbian groups, she felt inspired and slowly came out to friends and family at the age of 18. She stated It helped give me the courage to come out publicly. I realized how much history there was that was being kept from me and from everyone.”( https://time.com/5747670/lgbtq-history-resources/) This article shows the importance of including LGBTQ history into school curriculum. Many teenagers along with Larah feel this way like they can’t express themselves and know who they are as a person. By including the history of this community, many students will feel more comfortable in schools, and this may even decrease the bullying of students for their sexual orientation by creating a sense of awareness among all.
Lastly, tying into the previous article, the Laramie Project is an example of a very sad case that took place in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. Matthew Shepard was a young man who was brutally attacked and murdered by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson solely because he was a gay man. This was classified as a hate crime and it exposed the lack of hate crime laws in Wyoming. The Laramie Project is a documentary play that analyzes the death of Matthew, and as a result of this Heinous crimes the U.S. Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which is a legislation that enhances and strengthens the laws surrounding hate crimes.
In conclusion to this weeks module blog, I can say that I definitely had learned a lot of new information concerning LGBTQ rights, and hate speech. I feel like these two topics can also relate to what we discussed last week when we talked about Racism in schools. All of these behaviors falls under the category of bullying, hate speech, and racism. In the Anti Racism module, I read about patents doing their best to incorporate lessons about dealing with and preventing racism and racist behaviors. By making children aware of what behaviors are right and wrong, it will enforce the awareness in schools and public spaces, hopefully influencing the next generation of children to finally end racism, homophobia, and hate.
References
Age of Montessori- “Why your Child’s Brain is like a Sponge” https://ageofmontessori.org/why-your-childs-brain-is-like-a-sponge/
Kaufman, M. (Director). (2002). The laramie project [film]. Good Machine, HBO Films.
Leins. C. (2019, August 14). States that require schools to teach LBTQ history. U.S. News and World Report. LINK
Vara-Orta, F. (2018, August 6). Hate in schools.Education Week. LINK
Waxman, O. (2019, December 13). As More States Require Schools to Teach LGBTQ History, Resources for Teachers Expand. TIME Magazine. https://time.com/5747670/lgbtq-history-resources/
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