Talking Points #3

Dennis Carlson
"Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community"

1. "The abuses get tolerated because gay teachers and students operate in an environment where they feel afraid to stand up for themselves, and because any discussion of gay people continues to be absent in the curriculum so that homophobia is not interrogated. All of this also takes a considerable toll. It no doubt drives many good teachers out of the profession, and it furthers the alienation of gay youth who remain in schools."

- It bothers me that all of this alienation makes gay teachers feel so uncomfortable that they quit. It is not fair that because of something out of their control will control their job status. But also, why don't they try to stand up for themselves more? Why not try to change that submissive attitude toward the abuses? Also, as Carlson said, it does directly effect students who are gay. These students lose a potential mentor or even just an adult that has common ground with them that they could vent to.

2. "Thus, I am not merely a gay person, but rather a gay, white, male with a particular working class background and middle-class status and occupation. As an individual, my identity is multifaceted and this means that I am freer to "make myself" as a unique subjectivity."

- I chose this quote because it reminded me of Johnson. The fact that Carlson said his identity is multifaceted reminded me of Johnson's diversity wheel. Also, I liked how Carlson sad that he is freer to make himself unique. I think that it is important to establish your own identity using all of those predestined factors such as age, gender, orientation, etc. and then to make the rest of your life what you want it to be.

3. "Finally a democratic multicultural education must become a dialogue in which all "voices" are heard and all "truths" are understood as partial and positioned."

- This quote reminded me of Lisa Delpit. Carlson talks about a dialogue where all voices need to be heard. This directly reminds me of Delpit and her argument about the silenced dialogue. If the controversial issues surrounding gayness in multicultural education are not voiced, nothing can or will be done to try to change things. Also, this links to Johnson as well. Johnson says we need to name the issues in order to face them.

I really liked all of the connections I was able to make between Carlson's document and all of the different documents we have already read in class. I must say I did not really enjoy this reading though. First I was daunted by how large it was. Then as I read it it was not as interesting to me. I thought that the content was informational, but the way it was presented was boring and tedious. Also, I noticed the reference pages at the end which make it seem more like a research paper to me.