教育彩虹:一位老师的追求
2024年2月2日
2024年2月2日
在一个以禁书和限制课堂教学和讨论内容为标志的政治时代, 一位弗吉尼亚的老师分享了他将真实的自己带到工作和学生中的经历.
约瑟夫·托德·爱默生
三年前,这篇文章绝对不会被写出来,至少我不会. 为什么不? What’s happened that precipitated and empowered this lifelong educator to sit down in a bookstore coffee shop and tap this out on my computer screen?
是因为大流行吗?? No. 特朗普政府? No. 乔·拜登的当选? No. 我们国家确认了总统内阁中第一位公开的同性恋成员? 不,也不是那个.
而, 我在写这个, 很大程度上, 因为他们的前瞻性思维, 弗吉尼亚参众两院前任议员的进步性质, 是谁解除了禁止在英联邦范围内随意解雇公开的LGBT公立学校教师的禁令.
当我第一次听到这个消息时, 再次出柜是一种解脱, 这一次有了成文的专业保护, 让我在同事面前完全真实, 开放的管理员, 还有那些有眼光的学生,他们自己发现我不仅仅是一个盟友. 我也是他们的“兄弟”,克服了20世纪80年代对同性恋的恐惧, 我像他们这么大的时候,自己被关在壁橱里, 被以" f "和" q "开头的侮辱性言语伤害了吗,”,, 像他们一样, 仍然继续铺平有意义的前进道路.
当我在当时的约克郡农村长大的时候,我没有任何同性恋的榜样. I suspected some of my teachers were also same-sex attracted but would never dare to bring up the subject in conversations with my classmates, 亲自与老师交流, 甚至和我开明的父母也不一样. The various pieces of fiction and nonfiction I was assigned to read or were available in my school’s libraries were completely void of my desired relationships.
If those seeking to limit access to such books believed it was because such reading material could cause a person to “become” gay, the opposite is certainly 不 true: reading the acceptable tomes and essays certainly didn’t make me heterosexual. 电视节目更糟糕. 事实上, the only mention of anything having to do with the gay community was the horrific association of being homosexual with an immediate and lonely death from either disease, 拒绝, 或者野蛮的攻击. 电影也好一些, 但即便如此, propagated trope stereotypes of effete men who were either the subject of sadistic jokes or were seen as the unsexualized “third wheel” in heteronormative relationships. 至少那个时代的音乐出现了像Boy George这样的性别扭曲者, 乔治·迈克尔, 大卫·鲍伊, 提供一些充满希望的乐观.
然而,, 我就在那里, 成年男子:刚成年的成年人, ready to take on the world and the wonderful challenges of teaching social studies with the knowledge that I had to sacrifice a 有意义的 part of my life if I wanted to heed my calling as a Virginia public school teacher.
三十年后, 社会对LGBT群体的看法在数量上已经有所改善. 我最终会结婚的, and my future husband can be added to my school division’s health insurance plan and receive the survivor benefits afforded by Virginia Retirement System. 选举问题. 他们当时很重要, 当支持教育的人, 支持教育的多数派改变了州法典, 今年秋天,当弗吉尼亚人投票选举参众两院的全部140名议员时,他们就很重要了. This election was about more than just whether LGBT teachers can 开放ly and authentically serve in the classroom. It was also about protecting the ability of LGBT classroom professionals with an inherently unique perspective to best serve and mentor sexual-minority students.
幸运的是, 这是许多人没有预料到的, 具有更进步理念的立法者在我们的大会上取得了巨大的成就, hopefully heralding better times ahead for LGBT students and educators and for those who don’t fear the truth being told in our classrooms.
当我有幸在VEA儿童和公共教育基金的执行委员会任职时, my colleagues and I were consistently reminded that “every education decision is first a political decision.可悲的是,我们看到这句格言在佛罗里达州、德克萨斯州和田纳西州等州上演得很糟糕. 在弗吉尼亚, our current administration has been working to extend its misconstrued anti-Critical Race Theory policy to harming Virginia’s LGBT student population under the guise of a focus-group, 在“父母的权利”这一误导性口号的框架下,对公共政策采取不顾后果的做法.”
Governor Glenn Youngkin’s nod to graywash and bleach the rainbow is permitting local school boards to initiate policies and procedures requiring teachers to use pronouns which don’t comport with students’ cognition, 限制进入浴室, 并审查学习材料的获取. 我可以向尊敬的州长保证, 任何学校董事会的成员, 关心社会的公民, or worried parent who supports such authoritarian measures that when I was coming of age as a closeted teenager, 我害怕上厕所, 或者在更衣室里换衣服, 或者试图像我高中的学生教练那样给脚踝包扎 不 来自其他男同性恋、女同性恋或性别扭曲的同学. 而, my profound safety concerns arose from hypersexual straight peers and teammates who I feared would beat the pulp out of me, and those teachers and administrators who turned a blind eye when I was sexually assaulted during a hazing incident in an effort to promote “team-building.”
今天, 整个英联邦, local school boards are debating which pieces of age-appropriate literature should be “restricted” or “removed.“作为一名训练有素的历史学家, I can不 help but see parallels between arguments these locally elected officials are using to justify their positions with those utilized across Germany in the 1930s. 此外, I can不 help but wonder if they would agree that my nephews’ parents also have the right to ensure their sons are given equal opportunities to read a diverse set of literature from multiple perspectives, 激发自己的好奇心, 质疑他们所在社区的约束和限制, 并挑战振兴我们民主制度的需要. “父母的权利”是双向的, 现在是支持教育的父母站出来反对成人欺凌的时候了,他们说审查制度是 不 美国价值观. In a national effort to protect college-level curriculum for AP students from such locally inspired censorship, 大学理事会表示不会修改, 编辑, 或者对AP心理学课程进行课程审核,以适应佛罗里达州的“不要说同性恋”法律.
值得庆幸的是,自从我青春期以来,文化已经变得更好了. 越来越多, 学生们可以接触到更多反映他们生活和爱情的高质量文学作品. 和, 说实话, I actually have a tinge of jealousy when I think about the wonderfully diverse television programming and literature young people today are able to access that did 不 exist when I was a teenager. 比如改编自爱丽丝·奥斯曼(Alice Oseman)小说的《凤凰体育app买球平台》(Young Royals) Heartstopper 漫画小说, 以及即将上映的《凤凰体育买球》改编电影, 白色, and Royal Blue” are wonderful examples of strides made in progressive offerings by popular streaming services.
每个老师都知道书面文字对人类思想的影响. We can expand our students’ consciousness and foster positive mentoring relationships with just the right word. 一个恰当的例子, 上个学年, 一个认同, 我的一个未出柜的双性恋学生买了一本 男朋友的材料, 亚历克西斯·霍尔的书,因为他看到我在午休时间读这本书. His purchase of that specific novel and the themes of finding love and living an authentic life sparked a series of 有意义的 conversations about a sense of worthiness and safe and proper methods of finding happiness, 在他最近毕业之后还在继续吗. 是什么促使了这些深刻的系列的出现, 有意义的, 有时是日常对话? 是我们教室里挂着的进步骄傲的旗帜吗? Was it my hand-drawn caricature of Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and his husband sharing a sweet kiss? No. 是一本书. 和 不 just any book–a novel about two men who learn to grow into love and care deeply and passionately about each other. 这不就是我们希望所有的孩子,不管他们的性取向如何?
像我们很多人一样, ensuring that each student is properly affirmed has been a hallmark of my personal educational practice since I started teaching in 1991. 然而, the additional layer of having such sacred conversations and providing a safe harbor could 不 have taken place had the forward-thinking members of a pro-education, 几年前,我们州立法机构中支持教师的多数人认为不适合修改法律, 因此,我们中的许多人都可以在职业生涯中展现出一点点完整的自我.
政客们经常开玩笑说,我们应该“投票给我们的希望,而不是我们的恐惧”.“嗯,这些天当我走进投票箱时,我同时做这两件事. 在全州范围内, 当地学校董事会和其他选举, 我把票投给那些相信接触多样化文学能带来希望的候选人, 机会, 和验证. 我反对那些认为弗吉尼亚“佛罗里达化”是一条正确的政治道路的候选人. 这样做的时候, 我投票给我的侄子一个积极的未来, 以及所有需要我们做他们老师的性少数青少年, 教练, 和导师要积极向上, 开放, 在他们的生活中肯定生命的存在.
愿它永远如此.
爱德华·爱默生.D.他是纽波特纽斯教育协会的成员,在登高高中教授社会研究.