Teachers can begin at addressing the ways in which our school systems can be more open to homosexual, trans, bisexual, and queer people are by not segregating. In my opinion, the most oppressive thing for any marginalized group is to be segregated. In many situations throughout the day in schools, there are segregated moments that can be avoided if the teacher is able to distinguish them. The main one would be gendered bathrooms. The issue with this is that by having a separate bathroom for homosexual, trans, bisexual, and queer people that segregates but by having individual bathrooms that everyone goes to then there is no chance for children to feel like they are different. Another time is in gym class when teachers often separate kids into groups based on gender. This is not ideal because the teacher will then make assumptions about children’s gender that could be very harmful. The last one that I think is very important is just about the books that we have on our bookshelves. By having books that are based on not just boy-girl couples or boys play football and girls wearing pink we are able to change the way that students will think about the world around them. And will not have problems because they are a boy and they do not like football or a girl who does not like pink.
To me integrating queerness into the school’s curriculum is by being me. I am majoring in math and minoring in physics and I think this is a huge queerness that is not often seen in many schools. Growing up I had two women math teachers and no women physics teachers. By being a math and physics teacher and being a woman, I can queer the gender norm of always having male math and science teachers. I will be able to show young women that they are so smart and able to excel in maths and sciences.
With my understanding, I believe that teachers should be the provider of care for all students. As teachers, it is not our job to push our own agenda. We are there to help the students learn and to grow and become whole humans. We must respect and care for all students as well as support them in any way that we may see fit.
I like your ideas. They prove the point with your own experiences. And I love why you are following through with your idea of having for female math and science teachers, as I had neither in my highschool. The only thing I saw from your post is just some punctuation errors. I am and English major so I pick up on them very quickly. Besides that your post was very thorough and straight to the point instead of leading the reader into your post, which can sometimes be boring for the reader.