Elizabeth Hart

Hypocrite

She spoke to me of Heaven And an Angelic Host She spoke of God And the Holy Ghost She spoke of Christ's teaching Of man's brotherhood Yet when she had to sit beside a Negro once She stood. In this poem, we see (as simply as it is stated) the kind of attitude that seems to be permeating our culture today, a sort of "Do as I say and not as I do" kind of attitude. With a poem as simple as this one, you can start topics that vary from racial intolerance, to homophobia, to religious bias, to socioeconomic inequality. How do you see yourself starting this discussion with your students? Can you think of any examples like this from your own experience? How can you teach students tolerance and diversity when they are being indoctrinated with this idea that one has to say the politically correct thing, but can turn around and do something that goes completely against that?

The Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, recently gave a speech at the University of Virginia.  He discussed teaching as not just a career or profession, but a calling.  He thinks that education is this generations civil rights issue.  This country has progressed when it comes to equality some since the civil rights era, but education is lacking the equality it rightly deserves.  He discusses that our country will within the next 5 years possibly lose 1/3 of it's teachers from the baby boom era, and that need for great new teachers will be immense.  Education in this country needs to change and be accommodated to the need for equality; we need a new approach.  As a prospective teacher, I found this speech very inspirational.  In the teaching program we have at UWM, I think that we are heading in the direction that Secretary Duncan envisioned for the future of education in this country.  I have attached a link to this speech below...

http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2009/10/10092009.html

Understanding Gender Roles

In the short story Go Carolina from novel Me Talk Pretty One Day, author David Sedaris comically narrates his public school experience of talking with a lisp. Sedaris actually has a "lazy mouth," but as he conveys to us through his description of family life we see that he also happens to be gay. So, while his parents seem to associate his lisp with his love for cooking, cleaning and lack of interest in sports, the audience understands that his lisp is actually a physical barrier (and not another stereotype).

When reading this short story, teachers need to realize the prejudice being conveyed from the perspective of the narrator. While this book made me laugh hysterically, there was also an understanding that Sedaris had to conform to certain gender roles. While sports didn't interest him, he pretended to be interested anyway. In the article Adolescent Gender-Role Identity and Mental Health: Gender Intensification Revisited, Heather Apriss, Sara M Lindberg, and Janet Shibley Hyde describe gender roles and the important social implications of such behavior.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122597253/HTMLSTART