Eckrich, EAF 228
Notes on creating inclusive learning places, including inclusive of gay and lesbian identities
A. The video “It’s Elementary” is under girded by the following points of view, which I share:
1) First, homosexuality, bisexuality, and heterosexuality are three main variations of sexual orientation among humans, and all of us fall somewhere on some more or less bell-shaped curved continuum of sexual identities. This human sexuality continuum might look something like this:
[Note: Here, on the hard copy, I draw in a standard bell shaped curve with heterosexual at the highest peak, and bisexual to its right and left somewhere down the slopes, and homosexual to the left and right of them somewhere lower down on the slope. How steep or flat the bell-shaped curve is, and where exactly the shifts to bisexuality and homosexuality occur on each slope are empirical matters. Surveys of the population, such as the Kinsey Reports, attempt to answer this with respect to behavior at any given time.]
2) Second, these orientations are not solely biological or somatic in causation, whether that be genetic and/or hormonal, nor are they 100% socially and/or culturally constructed. Nor, I would add, are or could they be 100% personally constructed.
Rather, most researchers agree that biology does not completely account for sexual preference and that society, community, and environment also contribute to how and to what extent and in what ways our sexual identities develop.
This is obvious from just considering the brain. Cognitive science involves an interface among the biological or physiological, the social or cultural, and the individual. This is the case in part because, as brain research has revealed, the brain does not fully develop in uterus and is not fully developed at birth. Rather it takes until a child is about two for that organ to finish becoming a full-fledged brain. This is a major reason why those first few years of life are so crucial to a person’s well-being. Even beyond then, the brain continues to develop physically until early adolescence.
3) Third, because the norm in our society is, as yet, exclusively heterosexual (or almost so, as this has been changing in our lifetimes), the heterosexuals among us may have given little if any thought to our sexual identities.
Many of us who are heterosexual have probably accepted unreflectively the assumptions and expectations about male-female relationships and sexual relations that surround us (& through which & according to which we’ve been socialized) in our families and social circles, whether those be at school, church, synagogue, sports fields, boys and girls clubs, or fraternities and sororities. We’ve simply learned, taken up, practiced, and abided by the norms around us.
Of course, surely some of those among us who are heterosexuals have—for diverse personal reasons—problematized, analyzed, critiqued, and selectively accepted or rejected or altered the expectations and norms around us regarding sexual relationships and intimacy. But whereas for heterosexuals this reflection has been an option—undoubtedly a fruitful and healthy one, in the eyes of anyone who has gone through it—for homosexuals in our society it is not an option. It is a necessity, & often an extremely conflicted & difficult one.
4) In other words, persons whose natural interests, tendencies, needs, and desires as sexual (and/or as gendered) beings violate what is assumed to be the case in their society are constantly confronted, whether they like it or not, with their difference, their “otherness.”
This heightened need for self-reflection and social or cultural analysis is by all means not all bad. It can be a real asset by leading one—even if by necessity—to a much clearer and deeper sense of self and self-understanding than most “normal” people ever attain.
But that is not always the case. As evidence makes clear, suicide and non-fatal forms of self-destructive behavior occur to a much greater degree in the gay community than in the population at large, especially among those in their teens.
And even when it is the case, that journey of self-discovery almost never happens for socially marginalized persons without quite some personal turmoil.
5) Finally (and tangential but crucial to recognizing the links between sexual identity all other aspects of people’s identities), this is not only the experience of homosexuals. It is the experience of members of many groups of people who fall for whatever reasons outside what their society has considered “normal” or normative. Interestingly, in many societies such groups also have suffered and/or still do suffer discrimination.
Try to identify some such groups. In our society they might to varying extents include: blacks or African Americans; American Indians or Native Americans; little people or dwarfs; blind or visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing, crippled, or otherwise handicapped or differently-abled persons; Albino persons; non-native speakers of English; mongoloid persons; persons with down’s syndrome or cleft lip; the underclass, lower class, and working class; ethnic immigrant groups; non-Christians; and females.
Now think of persons who do not share the above-listed identities. Just as most heterosexuals probably spend little time or effort thinking about our identities as such (though we fruitfully could and ethically should), those of us who are able-bodied probably spend little thought on what it means to be able-bodied in our society. In contrast, deaf and hard-of-hearing and blind and visually impaired persons are confronted daily with those aspects of their identities as long as they are in environments inhospitable to them. While most if not all blacks or African Americans have spent quite some energy focusing on their racial identity, and even non-blacks think about racism, how many of us who are white have spent much effort thinking about our racial identity as whites? How many of those who are Christians have explored the experiences of being non-Christian in the U.S? How many of us who are not female have spent much effort problematizing our gender identity? To the extent that we do confront our identities of dominance, and enrich our lives with experiences that enable us to see & feel & know from the subordinate positions, we will begin to understand our own selves and others much, much better, & we will be more likely to embrace difference in genuine ways. Doing so will help to change the dominant culture.
B. It follows from this point of view on human sexuality, that educators have not only a moral but also an educational responsibility to create classroom and school environments in which persons of any sexual orientation can feel welcome and accepted.
A point to underscore here is that, according to this point of view, it is not enough if we attend to gays and lesbians only when we hear derogatory language or when we discover that one of our students or their parents is gay.
1) As we know, lower elementary children are seldom if ever thinking about or aware of their sexuality, not to mention their sexual orientations. On the other hand, they are very much aware of their and others’ gender identities, behaviors, and roles (though, of course, they don’t know these as “socially constructed”). Thus, creating learning spaces for young children characterized by non-gender-specific opportunities is crucial to their realizing their potential and flourishing as persons throughout their lifetimes.
2) Whereas lower elementary children are not thinking about sexuality, upper elementary school children at some point may be. Furthermore, all elementary children are very aware of and involved in relationships among families, relatives, and friends. Their ideas about relationships and fairness are shaped during these years.
3) And while many teenagers are very much preoccupied with their sexuality, many are—as the handouts indicate—often unclear about their sexual identity and orientation.
Thus, it is crucial—morally and educationally—that we as teachers create learning spaces in which persons of any sexual orientation and role preferences find room to discover and get to know themselves and blossom as full persons, never being limited by previous choices, but also never being forced to assume somebody else’s gender or sexuality expectation for them. The educational imperative should be clear. The moral imperative arises directly from our need to preclude and prevent the self-destructive behavior of persons who come to know themselves as gay and indirectly from the educational imperative.