Talking Points #3 on Carlson in Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community

Premises:
This article discusses...

• The meaning of the term "Gayness" in what is considered to be a normal school community.
• How gayness is ignored throughout school environments.
• How homosexual teachers and students are treated differently in environments due to the fact that it is neglected to be acknowledge in schools and societies in general.
• The idea of what is considered to be of normality and what is not.
• Discrimination against the Homosexual population.
• What others think about Homosexuality in general.

Authors Argument:
Carlson argues that communities categorize people to be normal or abnormal depending upon what their personal characteristics are. People of the normal communities are given more privileges and power then those of the abnormal communities who are discriminated against. These people of the abnormal communities are ignored and treated differently then others, especially in the school environments (referring to both teachers and students).

Evidence:

1. Throughout much of this century, the dominant idea of community in America was represented by what i will call the normalizing community. Within normalizing communities, some individuals and subject positions (i.e., white, middle class, male, heterosexual, etc.) get privileged and represented as "normal" while other individuals and subject positions (i.e., black, working class, female, homosexual, etc.) are disempowered and represented as deviant, sick, neurotic, criminal, lazy, lacking in intelligence, and in other ways "abnormal."
   
2. At the level of state educational policy, it is noteworthy that no state currently recognizes gays and lesbians as legitimate minority or cultural groups to be considered in textbook adoption or to be included in multicultural education; and a number of states explicitly prohibit teaching about homosexuality.
3. Normalizing practices, however, must reach beyond curriculum texts if they are to be effective in constructing a normalizing school community. Throughout this century, one of the primary means of ensuring that gayness was and invisible presence int he school was through the dismissal of teachers who were found to be homosexuals. Early in this century, the dismissal of gay teachers was legitimated as a way of keeping young people from being exposed to improper role models, lechery, and child molestation.

Questions/Comments/Points To Share:
In reading this article by Carlson, I would like to know why we as communities ignore the existence of Homosexuality and classify them as being "abnormal"? Homosexuality is all around us even when we do not know it. People who are homosexual of course are very different then people who are heterosexual, but that does not meant that they are abnormal. There are too many people in todays lifetime for homosexuality to be considered abnormal. We should not judge nor classify people who are different and ignore them in society. people of homosexuality have just as much rights as people of heterosexuality.

I believe that if homosexuality was not neglected as much as it is, then it would not be discriminated against as much in communities. By making it "invisible" in schools and in the communities in general, I believe that this makes the matter worse then it would by actually acknowledging its existence. If it was taught about and discussed more in school environments then I think that we would not have as many problems with it in societies as we do now. By making homosexuality visible to the communities, people would not classify nor judge against others as being "normal" or "abnormal" due to the fact that it would be more commonly known of. Also, people would not be uncomfortable to discuss it or talk about it in any way. While reading this article, Carlson has made me realize how much homosexuality is discriminated against and how heterosexuality is considered to be American cultural norm.