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my local public school board's new policy proposal

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hyperlexian
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24 May 2011, 8:06 pm

my public school board is trying to encourage openness and diversity, and a new policy has been drafted to support that aim. here is a link and a summary:

http://www.epsb.ca/policy/aaadraft_ifa.bp.shtml

Quote:
This is a new policy to address the Board’s expectation that all members of our diverse community are welcomed, respected, accepted, and supported in every school. The Board believes that a separate policy is required to address the specific needs of those students, staff, and families who identify or are perceived as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirit, queer or questioning in their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Administrative regulations will be developed to support the implementation of the policy once approved. The administrative regulations will address leadership, safety and anti-harassment, guidance and counseling supports, staff development and education, curriculum, learning and library resources, student programs, employment equity, school community partnerships, gender identify and gender expressions, and definitions.


personally, i wish that such a policy was unnecessary and that everyone was open and supportive and loving, but in our current political climate in Canada this is a necessary step to enhance communicatiion and support for people of gender and sexual variants (blahhhh i don't know the correct phrasing, but you get the idea).

there is some resistance, but people are working to push this through. since it is an internal proposal, i think it will go ahead.

is this a common trend in other regions too?


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Todesking
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25 May 2011, 1:03 am

I remember a gay kid in school told me I was the only person he knew who got picked on as much as him. That's probably the reason we got on so well. I remember one a**hole called me a ret*d in my mainstream social studies class. He was the only one who said something in my defense. He asked why is he a ret*d? The a**hole said "Because he is in ret*d classes." So the gay kid asked him "So this is a restard class, it certainly would explain why you are in it." The a**hole just called him a gay slur then shut up. The teacher told the a**hole I had a 97% in the class while he had a 68% so who is the dumber of the two of you?


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hyperlexian
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25 May 2011, 8:27 am

that's funny that the bully got pwned!

yeah, i think people in the LGBT community can be bullied just to a similar degree like any other "different" people. i went to a progressive arts school, so it wasn't so much of an issue for students. teachers still had to hide their status though, and this new policy should encourage more openmindedness towards staff.


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visagrunt
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25 May 2011, 11:47 am

This rather serves to reinforce my view that many educators teach best when left alone to get on with practicing their profession.

That's not to say that we don't need policies--particularly those that affirm the direction of an organization on issues of change. But I wonder whether we have become so enamoured of policy frameworks that we have lost sight of the ability of professionals to get on with doing their jobs.


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hyperlexian
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25 May 2011, 11:59 am

visagrunt wrote:
This rather serves to reinforce my view that many educators teach best when left alone to get on with practicing their profession.

That's not to say that we don't need policies--particularly those that affirm the direction of an organization on issues of change. But I wonder whether we have become so enamoured of policy frameworks that we have lost sight of the ability of professionals to get on with doing their jobs.

i see what you are saying, but teachers do talk incessantly about their marital status, children, etc. so it doesn't seem quite reasonable to have an informal gag order on teachers who have different orientations.

teaching concerns a lot more than content; practicing in the teaching profession also involves connecting with students on other levels. students retain a lot more information when it is couched in personal terms and offered as conversational exchanges. of necessity, that does involve offering some limited levels of personal information.


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puddingmouse
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25 May 2011, 12:39 pm

hyperlexian wrote:
visagrunt wrote:
This rather serves to reinforce my view that many educators teach best when left alone to get on with practicing their profession.

That's not to say that we don't need policies--particularly those that affirm the direction of an organization on issues of change. But I wonder whether we have become so enamoured of policy frameworks that we have lost sight of the ability of professionals to get on with doing their jobs.

i see what you are saying, but teachers do talk incessantly about their marital status, children, etc. so it doesn't seem quite reasonable to have an informal gag order on teachers who have different orientations.

teaching concerns a lot more than content; practicing in the teaching profession also involves connecting with students on other levels. students retain a lot more information when it is couched in personal terms and offered as conversational exchanges. of necessity, that does involve offering some limited levels of personal information.


What you say is very true, but I think teachers will gag themselves anyway.

I know that if I had a girlfriend I would never bring it up in front of my students. A lot of people are homophobic even if they don't show it. I know people (in my family) who would never dream of discriminating against LGBT people, but they think homosexuality is some kind of perversion, nevertheless. They have this weird disgust and they can't help but see someone more negatively once they find out that someone is LGBT. Also, the majority of my students are Muslim. I can't even say 'pork' around them, let alone 'gay'. :lol:


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hyperlexian
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25 May 2011, 12:54 pm

puddingmouse wrote:
What you say is very true, but I think teachers will gag themselves anyway.

I know that if I had a girlfriend I would never bring it up in front of my students. A lot of people are homophobic even if they don't show it. I know people (in my family) who would never dream of discriminating against LGBT people, but they think homosexuality is some kind of perversion, nevertheless. They have this weird disgust and they can't help but see someone more negatively once they find out that someone is LGBT. Also, the majority of my students are Muslim. I can't even say 'pork' around them, let alone 'gay'. :lol:

i had a habit of being *somewhat* open as a teacher in other regards, though i didn't share to much in terms of personal experiences. i wouldn't want to hide anything either, but i didn't exactly have a girlfriend or anything when i was a teacher so it was a non-issue.

i used to talk to my ultra-conservative farming classroom (Hutterites - an Anabaptist group) about animal rights and vegetarianism... that didn't go over too well as the community wanted me to keep the kids sheltered from outside ideas. but i just took that as a challenge. critical thinking FTW (sorta. didn't exactly get my contract renewed there).

in the more open-minded communities where i taught, i did discuss the idea of gay and lesbian couples and encouraged acceptance.


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cdfox7
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18 Jun 2011, 12:20 am

I don't know about school policy in the UK now, tho one of my school teachers keep his
sexual orientation private due to fear that it have an impact on his professional career in education.
he's retired now, any as few months back my partner (she when to my school) told me that a friend of our (who is a lesbian BTW) bummed into our old school teacher, he came out to her about being gay.

let as your know hyperlexian about how I personal identity my gender roles in life, am effeminate and sometimes label that with difference words about I view and class my sexuality and gender both physically and culturally. One of the main reasons why am moving home is that I been victim of hate crime and harassment over the last three years. I had school kids in my area physically assault a number of times and had verbal abuse about from theres 'people' the insults have been down to there miss perception of there view of my effeminacy thinking that am gay plus implying that I am an sex offender.

Last year that harassment got to the point that I tried to take me own life! When the positive of that negative experience is that I final got my AS autism diagnosis and support to get my life back on track. To help me recover from that experience I did a bit of research into hate crime in the UK and found out that school policies have a hand in increasing the numbers of reported hate crime from school kids outside of school time. In some respects we need theres policies in organisations to remember of that its total out line to have prejudice then again if the world was a more tolerance and kind place to live in we'll have no need for theses policies.

Over the last few years my city had been more friendly and tolerant to the LBGTQ communities thought a large of acts mostly policies, the police taking an active role in supporting the communities plus a good number of local politicians publicly coming out, etc..



hyperlexian
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18 Jun 2011, 2:56 am

cdfox7 wrote:
I don't know about school policy in the UK now, tho one of my school teachers keep his
sexual orientation private due to fear that it have an impact on his professional career in education.
he's retired now, any as few months back my partner (she when to my school) told me that a friend of our (who is a lesbian BTW) bummed into our old school teacher, he came out to her about being gay.

let as your know hyperlexian about how I personal identity my gender roles in life, am effeminate and sometimes label that with difference words about I view and class my sexuality and gender both physically and culturally. One of the main reasons why am moving home is that I been victim of hate crime and harassment over the last three years. I had school kids in my area physically assault a number of times and had verbal abuse about from theres 'people' the insults have been down to there miss perception of there view of my effeminacy thinking that am gay plus implying that I am an sex offender.

Last year that harassment got to the point that I tried to take me own life! When the positive of that negative experience is that I final got my AS autism diagnosis and support to get my life back on track. To help me recover from that experience I did a bit of research into hate crime in the UK and found out that school policies have a hand in increasing the numbers of reported hate crime from school kids outside of school time. In some respects we need theres policies in organisations to remember of that its total out line to have prejudice then again if the world was a more tolerance and kind place to live in we'll have no need for theses policies.

Over the last few years my city had been more friendly and tolerant to the LBGTQ communities thought a large of acts mostly policies, the police taking an active role in supporting the communities plus a good number of local politicians publicly coming out, etc..

glad to hear things are improving in your area too! school divisions have a long way to go but they are getting there


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cdfox7
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18 Jun 2011, 3:21 am

hyperlexian wrote:
glad to hear things are improving in your area too! school divisions have a long way to go but they are getting there


Well sorry to say had to take some sick homophobic attacks over the three last years for that to happen, James Parkes a police officer and the Michael Causer murder come to mind.



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22 Jun 2011, 7:04 pm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009 ... de-apology

Gives a quick overview of the history of section 28 which was unpopular with many people and repealed some time ago, after being mostly ignored in practice and much campaigned against.