Sharon Hushka (sharynh@earthlink.net)
Thu, 14 Jan 1999 11:11:39 -0800
What standard do we want our children to have? Do we really want to
accept disrespect, harassment, and a hostile learning environment? Or do
we want to emulate the girls and boys who are respectful; the students
who do not use put downs, sexual inuendos, or other degrading behavior.
The intolerable behavior that is accepted as "boys will be boys" is a put
down to the young boys (future adult males) who respect their female
peers, female teachers, and mothers, aunts, grandmothers, senators,
council members, presidents...
There is a clear difference between friendly teasing and offensive
harassment. The recipient of the continual taunts knows when they are the
target of ill-will. In the gender equity training I've taken, the focus was on
implementing a variety of learning styles. Emphasizing the fact that differences
are greater within genders than between genders. Also factored in in different
learning styles is an awareness of race, ethnic, religion,
class, and others childhood and cultural expectations and assumptions
that affect how a student learns and how a teacher teaches. By utilizing
a variety of learning styles the quiet boys are included, the loud girls
are included, the confused student is included, the high achiever is
included. The point is to have high expectations of all students. To have
a learning enviroment that respects EACH student and makes it possible
for each student to reach their individual potential.
Keep in mind, the learning enviroment, the athletic fields, and the
social climate permeating the schools is teaching the students about the
acceptable social, moral, and ethical enviroment when they enter the
adult world of work, politics, and culture.
Striving for an ideal learning enviroment is better than lowering our
standards to unacceptable behavior just because it is plentiful. Parents,
teachers, educators, and schools must make respect the norm by example,
by policies, and in practice.
Sharyn Hushka
sharynh@earthlink.net
Cary Brown wrote:
> W. Warren Plowden, representing the Monroe County Board of
> >Education in
> >Georgia, warned about ``opening up the courthouse door to all
> >kinds of
> >lawsuits.''
>
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