Monday, February 23, 2009

Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community By: Dennis Carlson

I believe Carlson's argument is to raise awareness in how America's public education system is still "normalizing" today's students, but at the same time, the system has made improvements. When she sums up her article, she says "We have a responsibility as public educators in a democratic society to engage them (students) in a dialogue in which all voices get heard or represented and in which gay students and teachers feel free to "come out" and find their own voices."

1. “Three techniques of normalization and (hence) marginalization have been of primary importance in this regard: (1) the erasure of gayness in the curriculum. (2) the “closeting” and “witch hunting” of gay teachers, and (3) verbal and physical intimidation of gay teachers and students.”

Two of my teachers were lesbians at my junior high school and I did not find out until other students in the class told me much later into eighth grade. As my friends told me, we laughed as if it was a big deal. If my friends did not tell me that my teacher was a lesbian, I never would have known. In fact, she was one of the best teachers I ever had and I still remember some of the ways in which she conducted her class. When she asked a student a question and the student said, “I don’t know,” she would work with that student no matter how stubborn that student was until that student gave an answer. My teachers knew that being open with their orientation at school was frowned upon and therefore, I never knew and they “closeted” their orientation. My school consisted of one thousand students and I only knew of one gay student. He felt tremendous discrimination and any guy that was friends with him was considered a loser. It especially shows the intimidation of students because I find it hard to believe only one in one thousand was gay. Gayness was definitely not in the curriculum at my school and I do not recall learning any of the history of gay people. I agree with Carlson in how the erasure of gayness in the curriculum encourages America’s students to see it as something that is abnormal.

2. “Willard Waller, in his 1932 classic The Sociology of Teaching, argued that homosexuals should not be allowed to teach for several reasons.”

I found this part of the article to be confusing. Why would Carlson bring up one person’s argument from the 1930’s? This was a long time ago and does not reflect today’s methods in regards to normalizing. I feel like Carlson is digging for an argument and is bringing up something from a long time ago to strengthen her case when I think it weakens it. For example, Attorney General Eric Holder is not going to talk about racism in the past as a means of showing how it is still portrayed today. Holder spoke about new things like how Americans simply do not talk to each other enough about race. I am not saying that Carlson believes this 1930’s view is the view of America today but she definitely uses that 1930’s view as part of her argument.

3. “For example, it is now estimated that up to one-third of all adolescent suicide victims are gay, approximately one quarter of all homeless youth in the United States are gay, and dropout and drug abuse rates among gay youth are likewise high (Gibson 1989).


This is very important because it shows how gays are not respected in society and are so hurt because of it that some give up on themselves and some give up on life. This is a staggering statistic and definitely needs more attention. It shows the extent to which American culture is normalized. Whenever a small portion of the population makes up a large portion of a depressing statistic, I believe it is because of injustice within a system. Why do over ninety five percent of students in Providence schools get free or reduced lunch? Why do African Americans make up such a large percentage of people in prison when they do not represent the same percentage of people in the population? These people are oppressed because they are not part of the culture of power and I hope Carlson is right when she says “the modernist idea of homogeneous, normalizing community is being more seriously disrupted than ever before.”

This article took me a long time to read because it is a scholarly article and I needed to look up many words. I hope we talk more in class about marginalization and normalization. Sometimes when you are immersed in a community where there are “normal” and “abnormal” views, you do not take time to seriously look at why some views are “abnormal” and address them. I never thought about how textbooks are normalized to disregard a whole gay community and never really took time to think about how intimated gay students are in coming out. It has always been so easy to “go with the flow” and not upset common views.
It relates to other texts that we have read like “Johnson” in which it talks about those with power and privilege. Carlson talks about markers of difference including class, gender, and race. She also talks about white, middle class, male, and heterosexual versus black, working class, female, and homosexual. Johnson talked about how mentioning you are homosexual before giving a speech will totally change how a crowd will receive you and that being heterosexual will not surface weird feelings. Where Johnson names homosexuals those without power, Carlson names them abnormal according to today’s society. They are both referring to the same problem and are trying to raise awareness on the issue and offer insight to solving it.

2 comments:

  1. ""Why do over ninety five percent of students in Providence schools get free or reduced lunch? Why do African Americans make up such a large percentage of people in prison when they do not represent the same percentage of people in the population?""

    that's so awesome.
    thank you for saying what needed to be said
    i love your connections :)

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  2. You worked really hard trying to make sense of this piece, Pat. Really nice job. I know we didn't get to talk about words like "marginalization" and "normalization"... don't ever hesitate to bring those things up in class!

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