http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_2_59/ai_54099135/
Some quotes that piqued my interest:
"Homosexual teachers know that, by and large, academic systems and structures reward the closet and punish the person kicking at its door. Many heterosexual teachers may feel, 'Why make such an issue of my sexuality? It's nobody's business.' Yet their wedding rings and casual remarks about a "husband" or "wife," in the classroom and out, suggest that sexuality in America is everybody's business, that institutionalized heterosexuality constantly makes an issue of sexuality."
It's always in the finer details that reveal the larger concepts that are embedded in particular colourings of the workings of the world.
"The closet, though, is also a role model."
True.
"Whenever a teacher feels shut up, censored, and believes that the result of not being shut up or censored is either violence or unemployment, he or she has essentially one option: silence."
Nothing new. Old concept applied in a more progressed form of societal pressures. In many workplaces, being gay/straight/closeted/out has less relevance to the work done on a project than it does in a place where one is in charge of the formation of other individuals. While the workplace in general would benefit from having more relaxed workers once they were out (though that might end up becoming a zero sum gain in that other employees undoubtedly would feel more anxious in that they are aware of out coworkers), it is often less critical in many fields where the personal details of someone's life do not affect the quality of the developed product. This is simply an extrapolation of peer pressure to a higher-ordered, less personal environment where personal lives still play an equally influential role."The closeted English teacher may be keeping the writers she or he is teaching --often with such passion and admiration--locked in the closet. When a writer's sexuality influences his or her works, can we leave such inquiry out of our presentations--at least at the college level--and still feel we are honestly grappling with the work? Or does a presentation that incorporates silence give students the impression that there are some questions...with which the role model is uncomfortable? By keeping gay-identified work out of the classroom, do we even give students a chance to ask questions? Aren't we enforcing a ban of silence on them as well?"
I would encourage that such questions be raised at the high school level. By the 11th/12th grade, most students are mature enough to deal with such themes as long as they are guided by a teacher who would treat the material with respect and maturity. (Notice how my language is distancing myself from LGBTQ literature, etc -- i.e. "such themes", "the material." Wow...I have some issues to work on.)
"Sometimes I wonder, though, whether we often receive safe essays because our teaching is safe; as teachers, we're not willing to be vulnerable, to speak openly. If the role model can speak only from the surface of her or his life, why should the student be expected to reach a deeper place?"
I don't believe I have anything to add to this remark.
"In Sue McConnell-Celi's 1993 book, Twenty-first Century Challenge: Lesbians and Gays in Education, Virginia Ramey Mollenkott remembers her days as a closeted teacher: 'Being in the closet took a great toll emotionally, especially when I recognized that certain of my students were lesbian or gay, yet was not able to be frank with them about my orientation.'"
This is only too true. I often fear alienating students with whom I have a plethora of life experience to share that is pertinent to their lives and yet from whom they can rarely receive it. No matter how much I try to "bring out the gay" of my thoughts cached in my gender-avoiding statements and pontifications about the morality of being oneself with respect and love, in trying to make everything so universally accepted, I fear that a lot of the personal flavour can be lost.
Go read the rest of the article. I'm getting bummed-out and pessimistic. Back to "The Office" on Hulu. Maybe some "Modern Family" reruns, too. =P
