August - Quotes

Three quotes that I picked from the article "Safe Spaces" by Gerri August are: "Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the life-styles portrayed in this episode." by Margaret Spelllings in response to the PBS show "Sugertime!" episode that had little girl with two moms. What this means is that parents would be upset if their child watched this episode and thought that a little girl having two moms was normal rather the stereotype of having one mom and one dad. This quote is relevant to the text because it proves that the LGBTQ community is not represented a young child's learning. Another quote that I picked was "When someone with authority of a teacher, say, describes the world and you are not in it, there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked into a mirror and saw nothing" The meaning of this quote is that when someone with authority like a teacher or staff member talks about the world and the different people in it but not you, they teach you about how things should be but not about how they are in reality. Basically erasing yourself from existence in society by saying you don't matter. The reason that this quote is relevant is because it teaches teachers and future teachers that what we say to our students helps shapes the way they view the world and themselves. The final quote I choose is from a principal explaining to her school's librarian why a book she chose to put in the library was not okay, "I'd love that [book] to be available to counselors that work with families that maybe have this situation, but in this society here, in this town anyways.. I don't know if it's our job to expose [children]" What the principal meant in this quote is that children with parents that are the same-sex aren't acceptable in the society by restricting the book to the children that have same-sex parents. She influencing the stereotype that a child has to have a mother and a father to be normal and accepted. This quote is relevant because it proves that some principals refused to incorporate the LGBTQ community in her school's learning environment and are blind to the damage they are doing to their students.

Something I would like to bring up in class that that I think as educators it's our job to try and help teach our children that sometimes in this world they will come across concepts or people that are different than them but that doesn't make them any less normal or accepted than them because if we don't do it, who will then? It's our job to create safe spaces in our classrooms for all kinds of children and make them feel welcomed in order for them to grow up in a world a society that has all sorts of different people and to spread love, not hate in the world