January 19, 2012 Blog
I've decided that I'm going to keep track of all the homophobic comments that are made in the classes I'm observing in at Frazer. Two were said by my second day. Today is my third day and three more incidences came out, all in the last class of the day. A few of the 8th grade boys were making comments to one another and someone was called a fag. I heard what they were called by what was said afterward, "It also means a bundle of sticks! Or a cigarette. You bundle of sticks." They continued to go around calling each other a bundle of sticks to get around calling one another fags. This is without teacher intervention, just their own sense of humor. I was helping one boy do an optical illusion and he told me about the LMFAO song, "Sexy & I Know It." He told me to check out the video. I let him know my 9-year old niece introduced me to it awhile ago. He said he cried himself to sleep after watching it because he doesn't want to see a guy shake his dick around. Obviously he likes it or wouldn't be bragging about it or roping other people into watching it. The distain boys feel for the idea of being gay or seeing other men express themselves that way is disturbing.
The same boy I'm talking about is somewhat talented in art. He came in the first day with about 15 drawings of male action figures he was proud to show off to the teacher. The kids in the class are working on an optical illusion project. They have some freedom and are engaged in the book my cooperating teacher showed them. It's the first class I've seem dive into a project and spend days working on it. Yesterday the boy who is sick thinking of the LMFAO video had no interest in the project. He told me he didn't like to do anything but draw. I tried to encourage him to go outside of his comfort zone and let him know that although you may not know it, doing things that are uncomfortable for you can make you more versatile and influence the art of what you do like to do and enhance how good you are at it. He blew me off completely. The boy sitting across from him was very engaged everyday so far. He did many large circles, about 75 on a sheet of paper. Enough to make you dizzy.
Yesterday I worked with him and let him know how he could color the intertwining circles to create an illusion. He got really into it and saw it as a challenge as did I. I was impressed by his ability to take it on. So far I don't know many of the kids that well or in depth so I don't expect them to care if I'm engaged or not, but today I felt rewarded by realizing that may not be true. I talked with my cooperating teacher about my lessons for tomorrow. I'm trying out a lesson for kindergarten for the first time and 7th grade. Time ran out during our down time and the last class of the day came in so I tried to get some work done on ideas she gave me in revising my lessons for tomorrow during the last class. Within the first couple minutes the one boy I worked with yesterday said, "Hi Miss." I was working on drawing something and wasn't facing him and turned around to see he was talking to me. I said, "Hello, how are you doing today?" I realized right away he liked working me with so I went over and spent a lot of the class with him. It feels like a team effort, and he promised me he would continue until it was done. We made some major progress. His piece is very complex and took a lot of thought to figure out how to go about doing it.
After he handed in his assignment, a boy brushed up against him on the way out of class. I heard, "Get away from me. I don't do that faggot shit. I'm not going to do that faggot shit. Get off of me. I will kick your ass" (with fists raised).
My cooperating teacher and I went over behind them as all the other students left the room. She made him stay after and asked him what happened. He explained himself and she let him know just because he touched him doesn't mean he has other intentions. I wasn't sure if I should be in their area while they talked or not so I was a few feet away. I did feel we had a connection so I took a moment to say to him, although he was upset, in the future not to use those words to communicate being upset. He agreed.
The number of times I'm hearing homophobic comments in the classroom is really upsetting. If in my classroom at one school I am hearing these things multiple times a day imagine how many times they are said in an entire school, city, state, etc.
I stayed after and talked with my cooperating teacher and another art teacher that comes twice a week about how to handle these comments and how much of my personal life to disclose. We had a lengthy conversation about it. The part-time art teacher said if female teachers can reference a husband, then if I was married I should be able to call my wife my wife. I said I am married and do have a wife. She said that shouldn't be a problem to mention.
I already know that people are afraid to be out because of all the things people will say and do and people are afraid to lose their jobs, etc. I purposely do things to see what happens and document it and enjoy educating others by sharing those stories. I really have nothing to lose. I will use my discretion about how I handle situations once I know the kids and these issues arise. It was left as an open ended conversation to revisit.
Other that that, I am excited to try out my new lessons tomorrow. One is a collage project for kindergarten students based on a book called "My Many Colored Days" by Dr. Seuss, another is a collage based on a color personality test I found online where I will be putting the class together into groups of two, and they will be making art for each other.
For Sage, we have to do a series of 5 lessons as a unit plan for this placement, and I am going to do Cultures Around the Globe for the 7th grade class. I asked them today which cultures they wanted to know about and got a list (Vietnam, Honolulu, Puerto Rico, Yemen, and Italy) to work with. Two students have family in Vietnam, one was raised in Yemen, one speaks spanish and is from Puerto Rico, the teacher is from Italy, and one was born and lived in Honolulu for one year.
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