Carlson Talking Points

I would like to connect Dennis Carlson’s text “Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community” to the writings of both Lisa Delpit and Patrick Finn. Carlson presents the dilemma today’s public schools have with accepting gayness and welcoming it into the curriculum.

Traditionally, public schools leave gayness out of curriculum, they have denied gay teachers the right to a job, and they have allowed verbal and physical abuse aimed toward gay students and teachers to take place. Gayness has essentially been “silenced” in schools by their history of phasing gay people out of teaching careers and ignoring that these people even exist. This reminds me of what Delpit called the “silenced dialogue.” Just as black educators have been silenced by whites, gayness has been silenced by predominately heterosexual public school officials. Public schools avoid textbooks that mention gays and teachers avoid dialogue that may lead to a discussion of homosexuality. School officials and teachers are afraid to upset community members by including any type of curriculum that involves homosexuality. Therefore gay people remain silenced and ignored within school communities.

Carlson believes that, in order to break the silence, there needs to be a “democratic multicultural education” provided in public schools. This education would need to include schools and educators willing to challenge the social norm, educators and community members letting go of stereotypes, teachers becoming comfortable discussing gayness in the classroom, a curriculum which provides students with a way to relate to gay people and their struggles, and an opportunity for all people (including students and community members) to have their voices heard regarding this issue. Like Finn, Carlson recognizes the importance of empowering dialogue being used as a teaching tool in the classroom. Carlson encourages gayness to be a part of classroom discussion in the context of human rights and caring for others. In this way students may be given the opportunity to “build alliances” and recognize the struggles that gay people face.

In this article, Carlson also recognizes “the need to forge a democratic multicultural curriculum in ways that maximize public participation.” He wants gay people to be involved in curriculum development so that their perspectives can be properly addressed. This relates to the views of Lisa Delpit when she includes the need for black community members to be a part of the curriculum development for black children.

In these ways, Carlson, Delpit, and Finn all want the same things for children. They want an empowering education for all children that includes the perspectives and cultures of all students and community members.