Talking Point #3

GAYNESS, MULTICULTERAL EDUCATION, AND COMMUNITY

BY CARLSON

Quotes:

1.      “No state currently recognizes gays and lesbians as legitimate minority or cultural groups to be considered in textbook adoption or to be included in multicultural education; and a number of states explicitly prohibit teaching about homosexuality.”

·         Making fun of someone for their sexuality is the same thing as making fun of someone for the color of their skin.  It’s called racism.  If we want to teach these kids that racism is wrong then we can’t pick and chose which type of racism to teach, we need to teach all of them.

2.      Like communist states, they have been based on the presumption that if students in the school community can be kept shielded from “bad influences” and provided only positive representations of community life, that they can be molded into good well adjusted citizens and workers.

·         To me there is no such thing as bad influences.  There are only bad influences if you let it be.  The more we learn the better we will be.  No matter if it’s good things we learn about or bad things we learn about it makes us more educated.

3.      For the first time in their lives, they begin to talk openly about sexual feelings with peers and friends of their own age and adult role models, whom they can admire.  Their worst fears are that they are out of their minds, full of sin and sickness, that they are doomed to dress as transvestites, molest children, hate the opposite sex or contract AIDS.”

·         People who are homosexual think that because they are different they are a bed person or that they will do bad things.  When truly that’s not true, you can be different and still be normal.  Without difference in the world it would be very boring.

This topic is a very emotional topic for me.  This was a thing that always bothered me.  Kids in my school never understood anyone else besides them self.  A lot of my friends were gay or lesbian and they were picked on all the time.  I don’t think that people should pick on anyone for who they like.  This article was an easy read just very emotional.

MEIER

Why Cant She Remember That?

By Terry Meier

Quotes:

1.       “Marisa transformed her Original threat into a game by playfully naming all of the family members she supposedly would hit.”

·         A lot of kids do this type of thing.  They turn what ever it is that they said into a game so they don’t get into trouble for it.  I have a six year old brother and he does this type of thing all the time.  Kids will do what ever it takes to get out of trouble.

2.       “Many children who are unused to books and being read to find it difficult to sit still for the time it takes the teacher to read even a fairly short picture book.”

·         On top of children having difficulty paying attention, if there not read to at home they will be behind the other kids learning wise as well as not understanding they have to sit there, quietly and pay attention.  It is very important to teach them at home as well as in school the basic learning techniques for entering school.

3.       “As an African American child, I have never saw my face pr the lives of my family, friend and neighbors in the books that I read.”

·         This quote is very true.  I have seen very few books about people of color or of different races.  Most books are about rich white people or just white people in general.  This is not right how are we suppose to teach these kids that its not ok to be racist when the material we use to teach them doesn’t show it as well. 

Overall this article was a very easy read for me.  I like how there are a lot of real life examples in it.  Like allthe other articles we’ve read they point out stuff that I have never noticed before.  This article goes to show you how much we have to change so racism changes too.

White Privilege by Peggy McIntosh

Quotes

1.   “I have come to see White Privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but which I was meant to remain oblivious.”

·         This quote is very true, it means that white people can have anything and everything, but we need to act like they don’t know. 

2.      “Whites are thought to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit other, this is seen as work that will allow them to be more like us.”

·         I truly don’t see this quote being accurate.

·         This quote states that we want others to be like us.  Why when supposedly whites don’t like the colored people. 

3.      “Many, perhaps most of our white students in the US think that racism does not affect them because they are not people of color, they don’t see whiteness as a racial identity.

·         We need to stress to these children that yes their white but people of color are racist against whites just as whites are racist against people of color.  It’s just as dangerous.

This article was right on the button with everything it said.  A lot of the stuff in this article, people doesn’t want to see it or even acknowledge it.  But it is there and it is true.  This article is very blunt and forward.