Talking Points #3 on Carlson

Dennis Carlson in "Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community"

Context/Premise- This article is about:

• gayness
• straightness
• lesbians
• embryonic communities
• democratic community
• American culture
• tolerance
• homosexuals
• heterosexuals
• public schools
• class
• gender
• race
• culture
• normalizing school community
• silence
• stereotypes
• sex education
• personal lives

Author's Argument- Carlson argues that public schools in a democratic society need to have teachers educate students to have tolerance for homosexuals as they do for heterosexuals, and this is a vital step in accepting race, gender, and sexual preferences. In other words, educate on the issues rather than silence them.

Evidence-

1) "While public schools have long been viewed by progressive educators as embryonic communities that should engage young people in building a democratic community of mutual support and respect, 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". (233)- This quote states that there is a certain silence and ignorance towards gay people in the public school system, and that homesexuals are seen as morally wrong.

2) "Public schools in particular have often promoted such "normalizing" conceptualizations of community that are based on defining a cultural center or "norm" and positioning class, gender, race, and sexual Others at the margins." (234) -Carlson is explaining that the public school systems force teachers to educate an unattainable image of normalcy on students. He questions what happens if a child is not what is considered "normal". For example, if the child is a homosexual and then this way of teaching makes that feel like their a freak, uncapable of being like everyone else.

3) "Normalizing practices, however, must reach beyond curriculum texts if they are to be effective in constructing a normalizing school community." (237) This quote explains that it is just as vital for learning about proper normalcy outside of the classroom as it is inside.

4) "These abuses get tolerated because gay teachers and students operate in an environment where they feel afraid to stand up for themselves, and because any discussion of gay people continues to be absent in the curriculum so that homophobia is not interrogated" (239).- This example shows that this type of homophobia is somewhat accepted because gay teachers and students are afraid to defend themselves, and I have a sense of compassion for these individuals because they are human like the rest of us and have feelings too.

Questions/Comments/Points to Share: Although I found this article to be difficult to comprehend at times, I found it eye opening as I did with the other past readings on the different forms of racism. I liked how Carlson used specific examples of ignorance towards homosexuals, especially in pop culture, because here gayness is basically invisible. I was able to relate this to the SCWAAMP activity because we talked about how few movies there are about homosexuals and also how they are stereotyped in the media. I agree with Carlson, in that all sexual preferences should be equally accepted and one should not be deemed more "normal" than the other.