Talking Points # 3 

Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community

Dennis Carlson

Authors Argument:

Carlson is arguing that communities, and schools should teach the people how to realize everyone is normal, and there isn't normal or abnormal people, just people.  He also states that it is the job of teachers and leaders to use the words "gay", "lesbian", "homosexual", etc. in their language, because it isn't something to be ashamed of just another aspect of life different from the "normals".

Quotes:

1)  "gay people have for the most part been made absent, invisible, and silent within this community and at the same time represented as the deviant and pathological 'other'."

When I first read this quote, I thought to myself, I never thought of gay people as invisible or silent.  It makes me wonder who really starts pointing out someone that is different.  I'd like to know what the normal persons looks like, or what the normal should be.  There are infinite number of different people, how can there be a normal.  That's pretty sad that some people stay "silent" because of their sexuality, and not because of the person they are.

2)  "(ie. black, working class, female, homosexual, etc.) are disempowered and represented as deviant, sick, neurotic, criminal, lazy, lacking in intelligence, and in other ways 'abnormal'."

Wow.  This quote is insane.  Because of someone's gender, sexuality, or race, they are dumb or lazy.  I am almost speechless about this.  I wonder is this the parents who help the kids to grow up like this, is it the views they are taught in school, I don't know what it is but it needs to be figured out and stopped.

3)  "The objective of classroom discourse is thus not so much to achieve consensus on "truth" or "objective" depiction of reality, but rather to clarify differences and agreements, work toward coalition-building across difference when possible, and build relationships based on caring and equity."

This is our future job, this is what as future teachers we need to strive to do.  I read this quote over a couple times and I thought to myself, I hope that I can really do this.  I hope I'm up to the responsibility as a teacher to shape and mold young people to become better than what I am and how everyone else is.  I am really excited to inspire and change you children's lives.

Questions/Comments:

This piece was actually pretty hard for me to read.  I don't know if it was the language or if it was his writing style, because it wasn't relazed, but I had to read a couple things over a couple times to understand it.  I think this is good that we are learning about gender, because I know in a high school classroom, which I'm looking to teach in, I will definitely have to deal with such things a gender, sexuality, race, etc.