Safespaces

 Safe Spaces talks about problems faced by LGBT youth in society.  The goal of the writing piece is to inform the readers of the hardships the LGBT youth face and how those hardships are unnecessary and can be avoided.  The chapter we were given to read covered the problems the youth face in classrooms and the affects they have on the youth.  Classrooms are traditionally seen to stay apart from a students outside life, yet thats just simply not the case.  What goes on in a classrooms can spill over into a students outside personal,religious, and extracurricular lives.  An interesting piece from this article is how much the author places the job,of being a safe place for exploration of the world as well as ones self, on the schools to be an inclusive learning environment.  This is just not true as most classrooms do not do this job.  The authors also place blame on teachers yet explain that they understand that sometimes teachers don't mean to marginalize LGBT youth, “They simply follow the path of least resistance.  They put one foot in front of the other in what seems the natural, even the right, direction without critically examining the journey or the destination”.  I see the authors point of view as most teachers follow the mainstream way of teaching and follow their set curriculum and don't stray off what they are told to teach.  I feel as though sometimes teachers have a responsibility to help guide children and making class a space where everyone is equal and a place where people want to be is the first step.  Later in the chapter Postcards from Buster  an old children show, meant to provide literary intervention for easy elementary level learners, is exampled for an episode that aired in which there was a lesbian coupled portrayed.   This episode titled sugartime got brought to the attention of the Secretary of Education who showed opposition to the episode warning that “Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed this episode”.  The show stopped at season 4 episode 10 after the Sugartime episode.  I personally have no problem with integration of LGBT experience in certain classes in schools, yet I feel as though most people who oppose are stuck in their way and the parents who are partially in charge of the students if they are minors, also may have a big pull if they are opposed as they hold position on school boards. 


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