Tuesday, November 1, 2011
The New Long Island PTA
I don’t often say “Yay, Long Island,” but, yay Long Island. This is a great step forward.
A new parent-teacher organization is forming on Long Island to support gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students, and push for expansion of curriculum to include information about GLBT leaders and history.
The Long Island Gay Parent Teacher Association, which is to hold its first meeting Wednesday, has its mission already set: Use the backing of parents and teachers to make Nassau and Suffolk public schools more inclusive and safer.
One of the best ways to do that is to talk about GLBT people in mainstream lesson plans, not just in gay-straight alliance clubs or events promoting diversity, said David Kilmnick, chief executive of Long Island GLBT Services Network, an association of five nonprofit organizations.
Just as students learn about Martin Luther King Jr. and his civil rights efforts, they should be taught about Harvey Milk, the assassinated gay rights activist, who was born in Woodmere and graduated from Bay Shore High School, Kilmnick said.
“If kids start to admire gay people … it starts to break down the illogical reasons for homophobia,” Kilmnick said......
http://inthefade.tumblr.com/post/12140502199/the-gay-pta
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Pressured to Perform, Not Pressured to Learn":
ReplyDeleteDear editor
Please post this as a seperate topic.
In todays Newsday(page 10) there was a very disturbing story about a new kind of PTA being formed. The Long Island Gay Parent Teacher Association. I beleive in the rights of all children including that may be confused , think they are gay or may be gay . What bothers me about this article are two things. First that this new group would "like to push for a curriculum to include history about gay and lesbian leaders". This is ridiculuous that people have an agenda to force children to be exposed to this kind of learning and try to legitimize this about sexual orientation. Tolerance and acceptance , that is what is taught now which I strongly agree. If your going try forced exposure of alternate lifestyles, then this will only cause more resentment. The second issue that really disturbs me is that our highschool principal has the nerve compare SEPTA to this Gay PTA .Children who are born with the need of special education can not be compared to alternative lifestyle children. The princpal states that "anything that we can do to support them we will" . That is a direct quote that tells me that the principal will fully support a GPTA as if it were the same as SEPTA & PTA. This I find very offensive. Not to mention that this is also very offensive and against the many religous faiths and beleifs in our community. As The Principal of our school I think he should think about his comments before having them posted in the newspaper. I also think he has more important issues in our school such as teen alcohol and drug use.
@Anon- I think your feelings are part of the problem that the newly formed PTA will be addressing. Religion has no place in the public school system so I'm not what that has to do with anything. There are many things that are taught as part of the school curriculum that may or may not go along with the beliefs of one religion or another. Still we teach them.
ReplyDeleteWe should have a curriculum inclusive of all people. This isn't about pushing a so-called 'Gay agenda' it is about providing our children with an environment that includes all people, no matter what their orientation is. Not including them because of their orientation.
The fact of the matter is that someone like Harvey Milk is likely not covered BECAUSE he was a Gay man trying to bring equality to the Gay community. The latter is a problem.
Whether you want to accept it or not children in our community are being ostracized everyday because they are self-identifying as part of the LGBT community. As parents we have to acknowledge this, not ignore. We should be helping them, just as we help all other students.
You mentioned teen alcohol and drug abuse- you should look at the latest data that shows that children most at risk are those who are struggling with their LGBT identities. Parents cannot ignore this growing problem.
I find this very offensive as a Catholic living on Long Island. This is just wrong. They can take God out of schools but yet they will teach this! I dont care what liberals think this is right. This is not a Yay! Its just ridiculous and wrong!
ReplyDeleteMaybe instead of religion we should be should teaching some morals instead of forming a pta for alternate lifestyle children. Have you seen the way children in the highschools dress and I am not talking about just Plainview either . It is all over the place and it is a disgrace that there is such a lack of morals in our pre-adult society and the greed that abounds our society. Just look around us at all the crooked self serving politicians and their corporate crooks who continually rob our children of a chance at a future where they have the chance to make something of themselves. That is the real problem today not teaching our children alternative lifestyles.
ReplyDeleteI understand your adverse reaction to teaching leadership, whether it be gay, African-American or Jewish. I really don't want my kids learning about Harvey Milk, Martin Luther King or Menachem Begin. I am like you, I want the teachers in Plainview to be teaching morals! Whatever morals our teachers have, I want them taught to my kids. I know that the union is such a great proving ground, and that our district hires only those with high morals, I want those teachers instilling their morals in my kids. I want my kids instilled with the morals of the Catholics, the Christians and the agnostics that our teachers have. I'm too busy complaining about the high cost of living to be bothered teaching my kids morals, so I want the district to teach them!
ReplyDelete@Anon @ 4:36 pm
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to send your child to public school.
Did any of the previous posters bother to read up on this? This isn't about 'teaching children how to be Gay" or teaching about a so-called 'Gay lifestyle". It is about making our curriculum a better representation of the world around us.
ReplyDeleteDiversity, tolerance, acceptance are what we should be modeling for our children.
My kid does not need this in their curriculum. Morals and old fashioned values are what our children need. We need to focus on higher English and math skills. How about teaching math at a higher level? I agree that the greed and all of materialistic things are causing more bullying than anything else in this world today. There are too many self-centered people. By teaching about gay history, we will not stop this...I want my kids to learn academics in school, we can teach the rest. Diversity is good, but stick to academics!
ReplyDeleteTo the poster on 11/1 11:42
ReplyDeleteI find your comments insulting and clueless with the fact that you could even compare the acheivements of Martin Luther King and Menachem Begin to an alternative lifestyle topic. You are sadly mistaken if you think you are like me. My children have been taught about tolerance and acceptance of all kinds of people . Your sarcastic comments wreak of ignorance of which I am very far from, having been highly educated on some of the greatest political, religous,and labor leaders(to which you are probably unaware of) in American History without discussing their sexual orientation.
To the other poster who stated that this is not about teaching children to be gay. No one ever said that this was about teaching children to be gay. You said that diversity , tolerance , and acceptance are what we should be modeling for our children . I agree. What I do not agree with is teaching children about alternative lifestyles.
I think its about making sure that LGBT may be included in curriculum where appropriate, not promoting a apeciic study of it.
ReplyDeleteWhy not teach about alternative lifestyles? Schools teach about various religions and beliefs whih may or may not be what is practixed at home.
I do not agree with many opinions expressed in these posts however only by listening to and respecting each other's alternate opinions can we thrive as a community and teach tolerance to our children.
A PTA is a PTA. They should have the same underlying goal, advocacy for students.
ReplyDeleteWe are lucky to have a HS principal willing to apeak up and support this important atep for the LGBT community.
The whole reference to being a member of the LGTB community as 'alternative' shows we still have a long way to go in this society. As if somehow being a Gay person makes it something other than regular old living. I don't know about all of you but I'm well aware of the large number of Gay members in our community and I don't find anything 'alternative' about them.
ReplyDelete