quote:85% of teachers oppose integrating lesbian, gay and bisexual themes in their curricula.
The fact that this is considered a problem alongside something like violence against homosexuals or increased suicide rates is exactly why a lot of people oppose SSM laws.
Not that anyone wanted this to become that kind of thread...
posted
I guess I am too heavily into the science majors but really, in how many subjects would it be appropriate to add lesbian, gay and bisexual themes?
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posted
Literature and history, mostly (it might warrant a brief mention in biology). I wonder if the teachers polled were teaching a relevant subject. If it includes math teachers and the like, 85% sounds about right.
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posted
It of course also depends on what "themes" mean. If it means including the fact that homosexuality exists that's one thing, if it means having a unit on why homosexual relationships are as good as, or equal to heterosexual relationships that's something else. Probably it lies somewhere in between but if all someone asked me was "would you teach homosexual themes in your classroom" I would assume it to mean something much closer to the latter.
posted
I don't ever recall any heterosexual themes in school either. Well, except for health class...
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quote:Originally posted by Hobbes: It of course also depends on what "themes" mean. If it means including the fact that homosexuality exists that's one thing, if it means having a unit on why homosexual relationships are as good as, or equal to heterosexual relationships that's something else. Probably it lies somewhere in between but if all someone asked me was "would you teach homosexual themes in your classroom" I would assume it to mean something much closer to the latter.
Hobbes
And this response is exactly why some people think those who oppose SSM are idiots.
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posted
We discussed that Walt Whitman was gay and Shakespeare might be gay ("68 academics just punched the air") and Oscar Wilde. But this was in the late 80's early 90's. It's possible public education has gotten less liberal since then, it was the tide just before "politically correct" became a slur.
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posted
Really? I mean that comment wasn't even about good or bad, just the meaning of the word "theme". Am I an idiot because I thought "homosexual theme" would mean teaching homosexual relationships as equal to heterosexual ones, or am I an idiot for thinking that it might mean just mentioning homosexual relationships? Or am I just an idiot on general principles?
quote:Originally posted by pooka: We discussed that Walt Whitman was gay and Shakespeare might be gay ("68 academics just punched the air") and Oscar Wilde. But this was in the late 80's early 90's. It's possible public education has gotten less liberal since then, it was the tide just before "politically correct" became a slur.
Ah, the ultimate irony.
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quote:We discussed that Walt Whitman was gay and Shakespeare might be gay ("68 academics just punched the air") and Oscar Wilde. But this was in the late 80's early 90's. It's possible public education has gotten less liberal since then, it was the tide just before "politically correct" became a slur.
I'm a little confused. Why would this topic be verboten? Surely the romantic interests of Whitman and Wilde, in particular, are directly relevant to any serious study of their writings.
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posted
James Baldwin: It's important to know in studying someone's literary work, that the isolation and discrimination they experienced affects their art.
Alan Turing: It's important from a historical standpoint to know that gay people have made enormous contributions to society, and been persecuted terribly in return. Of course, Turing cracked the Enigma code in WW2, and practically invented digital computers, and then was forced to have hormone treatments that made him grow breasts in order to "cure" his homosexuality, and eventually took his own life.
We need to know stories like that because a great injustice was done, and we need to stop perpetuating that sort of injustice in the future.
I think Shakespeare must have been bi.
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posted
*nod* Wilde, too. By all indications, he spent a lot of time trying to sleep with people's husbands and wives.
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Teaching the way homosexuality has been practiced historically will not do any favors for people who wish to avoid conflating pedophilia with homosexuality.
Unless, of course, that particular part of history should be whitewashed to make a prettier picture.
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quote:Originally posted by katharina: Teaching the way homosexuality has been practiced historically will not do any favors for people who wish to avoid conflating pedophilia with homosexuality.
Unless, of course, that particular part of history should be whitewashed to make a prettier picture.
Heterosexuality too. For most of history it has not been uncommon for a much older man to marry a teenage (often early teenage) girl.
Now days, they don't bother getting married.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:Originally posted by katharina: Teaching the way homosexuality has been practiced historically will not do any favors for people who wish to avoid conflating pedophilia with homosexuality.
Unless, of course, that particular part of history should be whitewashed to make a prettier picture.
Heterosexuality too. For most of history it has not been uncommon for a much older man to marry a teenage (often early teenage) girl.
Now days, they don't bother getting married.
Well in some places they even use such marriages as a way to square debts. I think your point is well taken.
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I think your point is well taken.
