May I add my experience as a K-4 librarian? Several years ago I had
a run-in with parents and administration over trying to address
homophobic name calling in the fourth grade. I couldn't read a book
to these fourth grade classes that had the syllable "gay" (as in the
name Gaylord), without getting titters and snorts. "Gay" was a very
common put down. This kind of name calling not only hurts the kids
who are not heterosexual, or whose parents are gay or lesbian. The
limits of acceptable behavior for boys are being tightened when they
fear being called "gay" by their classmates. Read Oliver Button is a
Sissy, by Tomie dePaola. A fourth grade girl who I first mistakened
for a boy acknowledged being teased a lot. And I heard she attempted
suicide later on in middle school. Which reminds me, we are talking
life and death here. One third of the teenagers who attempt suicide
are gay or lesbian.
To quote from the letter I sent to my administration during the bruhaha:
Some people think that gay and lesbian issues should not be discussed
until middle school or high school, but this contradicts both the
Department of Education guidelines and current research which shows
that by seventh grade acts of discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation are firmly entrenched in our educational environment and
harming both the victims and the perpetrators. By seventh grade, the
harm has already been done. Name calling by elementary school
students leads to physical and verbal harassment and abuse by seventh
grade. We need to address the issues at preschool and elementary
levels in order to prevent this harm at the middle school level.
I'm in a conservative community. My emphasis in book selection is on
presenting families with two moms or two dads. Most of the books
don't use the words "gay" or "lesbian". This is NOT about sex, any
more than talking about a family with one mom and one dad is. It is
about making ALL children feel affirmed. Not so many years ago, you
never saw stories about parents getting or being divorced. Kids
whose parents were divorced were quiet about it, fearful of what
others would say. I try to do the same thing for single parent
families, for kids being raised by their dads, their grandparents, in
foster families. For me, it is an issue about name-calling and about
different kinds of families.
Here's another link for bibliographies:
http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/booklink/index.html
Johanna
--
Johanna Halbeisen, Library Media Teacher
Woodland Elementary School (K-4)
80 Powder Mill Rd, Southwick, MA 01077
johanna.newsong@rcn.com
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