Journal Entry 3- Article Connection

“Haha you're in the girls line!!”

“Haha you’re in the boys line!!”

These are things that I hear students say every time I volunteer in the classroom. I never thought anything of it until we read The August reading about talking to kids about gender and sexuality in schools. But now I want throw out the entire concept of “boy’s” and “girl's” lines. It's outdated and restrictive to those who may not fit nicely into the gender binary or to those who don't look like a member of the gender that they identify as (although what does a girl or boy look like?)

Whenever the students walk through the halls in their boys and girls lines and someone accidentally drifts into the “wrong line” other kids immediately laugh and the child who did it ends up embarrassed and quickly goes back into the “right” line while being very defensive and feeling the need to quickly explain what happened and assert their gender as the “right” one. I have not seen any evidence that any of the students feel like they don't exist in the gender binary or that any of them could be transgender but for all I know these seemingly harmless and funny comments about being in the “wrong” line are keeping them silent and making them feel ashamed or invisible.

The teacher doesn't say anything and honestly neither have I. August stressed that talking to the kids about sexuality and gender is important and that they are certainly not too young to comprehend it but this is so much easier said than done. I know that if they continue to have these harmful ideas about gender it could turn into a problem one day when they don't know what to say or what to do when they encounter someone who is lgbtq. But I also know that teaching kids about the lgbt community has to be done right and I know that I am not in the position to do that right now. I only see these kids once a week for two hours and during that time I am not the one in charge.  

One day I will be in a position where I am more educated and I have more time and authority and I would like to first of all eliminate the gendered lines but also sit down with kids and be straight with them. But for right now I think that August would be disappointed because instead of challenging the ideas that these children seem to have about gender being such a rigid concept both the teachers and myself have, as August phrased it, “follow the paths of least resistance.” We “put one foot in front of the other in what seems the natural, even the right, direction without critically examining the journey or the destination.”