QUESTION: Teaching Sexual Orientation and the Battle of Parents

[Colin Edward MacKenzie]

Hi Everyone!

So, I'm an ELA teacher (Grade 8)and also the RCH in our school, so I like to get my feet into all sorts of things which cause students to explore social issues. Last year I did a lot around battling homophobia and dispelling myths, and the students responded positively. Amazingly, in fact. 

Parents, as we all know, don't always. For the most part, however, I did have good reactions.
This year I'd like to do a book study on Geography Club by Brent Hartinger. For those that don't the text here is a synopsis from Amazon...

Gr. 7-12. Russel is gay, and he knows he better keep it secret, or he'll be a total outcast in his small-town high school. But then he discovers that there are others like him--including Min, his longtime best friend, and her lesbian lover, as well as gorgeous, popular jock star Kevin. Seven of them form a support group (the "Geography Club" is their cover-up name), and for a short time, life is blissful. Russel has friends with whom he can be himself, and he also makes love with Kevin. Then things fall apart. Russel refuses to have sex with a girl, and word gets out that he's gay. Kevin can't come out, so he and Russel break up. Things are settled a little too neatly in the end, but there's no sermonizing. With honest talk of love and cruelty, friendship and betrayal, it's Russel's realistic, funny, contemporary narrative that makes this first novel special. The dialogue is right on; so is the high-school cafeteria; so is the prejudice. Booktalk this. Hazel Rochman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

My "I'm stuck" point is the approach to parents as to the fact that I am doing this book, outside of of "It's approved so I can". I want to take an approach that doesn't easily open the door to alternative books for students - I know I have to allow for that, but I don't want to everyone jump on the wagon.

Anyone who has read the book and maybe done it, I'd love to see your ideas that you did with it as well!

So, I guess the ultimate question is:

How do we approach parents that we are looking at gender orientation OUTSIDE of PDR/Health curriculumn?

Colin

[Ryan Goble]

Colin what does PDR and RCH stand for?

[Colin Edward MacKenzie]

Hi, sorry, PDR is Personal Development and Relations (middle school health). RCH is Race Relations, Cross Cultural Understanding, and Human Rights. We have a board level office, and then all of our schools (at least in Nova Scotia) have advisers who attend in-services and may assist in a school to promote equality and diversity.

[Ryan Goble]

Cool - if you want you can click on "option" above (upper right hand corner) and edit your post to include that info (and then I can delete our discussion here) before we send it to everyone for the crowdsource broadcast - up to you!

[Shirley Durr]

Like a writer, one must know one's "audience" -- in this case your students and their parents. It's difficult to advise you since I don't know yours. However, this was my experience:

My 8th grade students were interested in anything that explored sexuality, naturally since they're at the height of puberty; their parents, for the most part, were not. I never had the courage (or whatever it takes) to tackle something as explicitly sexual as The Georgraphy Club, even though it's not that sexual.

 My question: Are your students' parents the knee jerking type? If not, I say  approach them about the book and the true reasons you are teaching it. I always led with truth, wrote letters when I thought I was inviting controversy -- something I didn't anticipate in the two instances the waters got dangerous for my continued employment.

If I were teaching 8th graders now and had the kind of parents I had then, I think I would choose Jacqueline Woodson's The House You Pass On The Way because the protagonist is  that age and struggling with issues my 8th graders actually faced. I'd approach the parents with this information and the reviews and awards the author has won.

My 8th grade students' parents jerked their knees on a regular basis. (I hope they're different in Nova Scotia.) This is probably why I'm not anxious to teach that age level again. High school parents are more willing to let their children be teens, I think.

 

[Elizabeth Simpson]

There are national organizations that deal specifically with this issue. The Gay-Straight Alliance has very good resources and a mission statement that is hard to argue with (gsanetwork.org). If you look at the "Organizational Support" tab under About Us on the website youthfirsttexas.org, you will find links to organizations that might also be helpful.