Love, tolerance, cooperation, acceptance.
Schools teach children how to get along, but rarely encourage them to apply these values to homosexuals, according to an event sponsored Monday by the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Alliance.
About 25 Northwestern students watched and discussed the video “It’s Elementary: Talking About Gay and Lesbian Issues in School” at Annenberg Hall Monday night as part of Rainbow Week, a week of programming organized to raise awareness about bisexual, gay and lesbian issues. Richard Rykhus, a Northwestern graduate student and fund-raising chairman of the Chicago chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, led the discussion.
“Our mission is to create safe schools for all people, regardless of sexual orientation,” Rykhus said about GLSEN, which produced the video and sent it to 630 Chicago public schools with training materials. The video was an excerpt from a documentary aired on PBS last summer.
“It’s Elementary” profiled elementary and middle schools that incorporate programs dealing with homosexual issues in their classrooms. In an eighth-grade social studies class, the teacher had pupils write two paragraphs about their perceptions of gays and lesbians.
In one elementary school, a fourth-grade teacher had her pupils write down words they associated with gays and lesbians. The final list included words ranging from “fun” to “pervert.”
The fourth-graders then discussed the list and shared their definitions of homosexuality. Many children cited movies and television talk shows that had influenced their perceptions.
“The effects of the media are so key,” an NU student said during the discussion after the video. “Students remember that. That plants a seed.”
But the video also showed positive depictions of homosexuals in schools. One elementary school held a photo exhibit entitled “Love Makes a Family,” which showed pictures of gay and lesbian families. Despite some complaints from parents and community members, the school principal stood by her decision.
“The children in this community need to be educated,” she said in the video.
Gay and lesbian issues can be more than a one-time awareness event, as the video showed in its feature of a Quaker elementary school that has held a Gay and Lesbian Pride Day for the last four years. Students wore pink triangles and attended an assembly where a gay teacher spoke.
Another NU student said that kind of program would never happen in his community.
“It makes me think about how big of an impact school has,” he said. “Something back in my upbringing tells me there’s something weird about that.”
Many students who watched the video said they were surprised that schools in the United States teach children about homosexual issues.
“I didn’t know that this kind of education was happening and working,” said Stephanie Sasso, a Weinberg senior.
