I know that all broken bones heal, all bleeding stops, all bruises fade, but a wound that has deflated your self esteem never fully heals" - Andrew W., age 13 - Vorhees NJ*
GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) has announced today (here) that Reps. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and 33 co-sponsors have introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives to recognize and support GLSEN’s annual Day of Silence on 17 April. The Day of Silence calls on schools to combat name-calling and bullying of LGBT students.
As the GLSEN press release about the Day of Silence notes,
As GLSEN’s resource materials note, it is very important that colleges and universities prepare future teachers to deal with the challenge of bullying of gay and lesbian youth in classrooms, on playgrounds, and in our schools in general. I’m convinced that one important way to do this is to take advantage of the shift that various polls show now underway among American youth regarding the place of gay and lesbian people in society. There is growing acceptance among American youth of gay and lesbian people.
Colleges and universities that hope to educate the youth of this generation well, to retain students, and to move them to graduation, are wise to develop freshman programs (e.g., freshman colleges) that capitalize on the social awareness of students, and make that awareness asignificant part of their educational experience. Studies show that colleges and universities with well-run freshman programs (often called freshman colleges on many campuses) centered on learning communities and geared to civic engagement have a better chance of moving students to graduation than do colleges and universities that ignore the unique needs of entering students, and/or refuse to engage those students in projects of positive social engagement and in dialogue about those projects.
I’ve long been struck by the approach of the prophetic founder of Bethune-University, Mary McLeod Bethune, to the responsibilities of educators. Dr. Bethune once stated that she never passed a young African-American girl in the streets without thinking to herself that this little girl might one day be Mary McLeod Bethune. Bethune placed herself in the shoes of the students she taught, and drew forth from them the best they had to give, engaging them in the social and cultural world in which they lived, and building on that engagement to bring them into the world of higher education. She put her students above her own ego needs and reputation as the leader of an educational institution, and in doing so, she became a powerful educational figure and world leader.
There is still, unfortunately, resistance to the extremely important goals of groups like GLSEN in some church-related institutions of higher learning. As I’ve noted on this blog, I had an unfortunate experience in the past when I was asked to lead a faculty project to train students in civic engagement at a United Methodist university. When I recommended GLSEN among many other organizations working for progressive change in a variety of areas, my supervisor informed me that I had put my “lifestyle” in the face of the campus community by this recommendation. I was punished for suggesting to the faculty I was leading that bullying of gay and lesbian students in schools was a valid concern for the students we were teaching at our church-related university, even though the body that accredits the teacher education program of the school requires that prospective teachers address these issues and that the faculty model diversity and inclusion.
This needs to stop, this resistance to the inclusion of gay and lesbian people in our world, on the part of churches and church-related schools. It needs to stop because, as the GLSEN report cited above notes, bullying of children who are perceived to be gay or lesbian hasn’t stopped in our schools. As long as such bullying continues, educators (and churches and church folks) need to be concerned about it.
*From the January 2009 annual GLSEN No-Name Calling Week Creative Expression Contest.
As the GLSEN press release about the Day of Silence notes,
Nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT youth (86.2%) reported being verbally harassed at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation, nearly half (44.1%) reported being physically harassed and about a quarter (22.1%) reported being physically assaulted, according to GLSEN’s 2007 National School Climate Survey of more than 6,000 LGBT students.
As GLSEN’s resource materials note, it is very important that colleges and universities prepare future teachers to deal with the challenge of bullying of gay and lesbian youth in classrooms, on playgrounds, and in our schools in general. I’m convinced that one important way to do this is to take advantage of the shift that various polls show now underway among American youth regarding the place of gay and lesbian people in society. There is growing acceptance among American youth of gay and lesbian people.
Colleges and universities that hope to educate the youth of this generation well, to retain students, and to move them to graduation, are wise to develop freshman programs (e.g., freshman colleges) that capitalize on the social awareness of students, and make that awareness asignificant part of their educational experience. Studies show that colleges and universities with well-run freshman programs (often called freshman colleges on many campuses) centered on learning communities and geared to civic engagement have a better chance of moving students to graduation than do colleges and universities that ignore the unique needs of entering students, and/or refuse to engage those students in projects of positive social engagement and in dialogue about those projects.
I’ve long been struck by the approach of the prophetic founder of Bethune-University, Mary McLeod Bethune, to the responsibilities of educators. Dr. Bethune once stated that she never passed a young African-American girl in the streets without thinking to herself that this little girl might one day be Mary McLeod Bethune. Bethune placed herself in the shoes of the students she taught, and drew forth from them the best they had to give, engaging them in the social and cultural world in which they lived, and building on that engagement to bring them into the world of higher education. She put her students above her own ego needs and reputation as the leader of an educational institution, and in doing so, she became a powerful educational figure and world leader.
There is still, unfortunately, resistance to the extremely important goals of groups like GLSEN in some church-related institutions of higher learning. As I’ve noted on this blog, I had an unfortunate experience in the past when I was asked to lead a faculty project to train students in civic engagement at a United Methodist university. When I recommended GLSEN among many other organizations working for progressive change in a variety of areas, my supervisor informed me that I had put my “lifestyle” in the face of the campus community by this recommendation. I was punished for suggesting to the faculty I was leading that bullying of gay and lesbian students in schools was a valid concern for the students we were teaching at our church-related university, even though the body that accredits the teacher education program of the school requires that prospective teachers address these issues and that the faculty model diversity and inclusion.
This needs to stop, this resistance to the inclusion of gay and lesbian people in our world, on the part of churches and church-related schools. It needs to stop because, as the GLSEN report cited above notes, bullying of children who are perceived to be gay or lesbian hasn’t stopped in our schools. As long as such bullying continues, educators (and churches and church folks) need to be concerned about it.
*From the January 2009 annual GLSEN No-Name Calling Week Creative Expression Contest.
