Protect Maine Equality Needs Effective Response to School Fear Mongering

“Stand for Marriage Maine” has just released “Everything to Do With Schools,” the latest TV ad in their campaign to revoke marriage equality. Some of you may recognize the name from an ad used during the Prop 8 campaign. As Jeremy at Good As You has pointed out, not just the name is the same—the ad is almost identical, right down to the script and an appearance by the Massachusetts couple outraged that their son’s school taught him that boys can marry other boys. (As they can in Massachusetts!) The ad’s creators did put a new woman in the “teacher” role, Charla Bansley. Jeremy astutely notes, however, that she doesn’t teach at a public institution, but at Calvary Chapel Christian School, and is also the state director of Concerned Women For America.

From a marketing perspective, I can’t blame Stand for Marriage Maine for using the same formula. It worked in California.

I hope, however, that Protect Maine Equality has a better response than the No On 8 campaign did. When No On 8 correctly insisted that Prop 8 would not require schools to teach about marriage equality, they were in effect playing to the idea that there was still something “wrong” about discussing LGBT families in schools. Their ads also focused on the lack of harm that marriage equality would cause the children of straight parents rather than stressing the harm to children of LGBT parents and LGBT youth themselves. The former will lead to many straight parents not caring whether the measure passes; the latter has a chance of appealing to their protective parenting instincts.

Sound familiar? I wrote about it at length just after the election last year. Read the piece again after the jump. Read the rest of this post »

New Books Showcase Stories of LGBTQ Youth

(I’ve been meaning to write about these books for a while, and back-to-school time is giving me the motivation I need.)

Ongoing incidents of students (and teachers!) harassing LGBTQ students, students perceived to be LGBTQ, and children of LGBTQ parents are one of the scariest and most frustrating things for me as a parent. I take hope, however, not only in the fact that more parents are organizing to prevent this, but that these students are sharing the stories of their experiences.

Two recent books have compiled many of these stories, and are highly recommended resources for parents, schools, libraries, religious congregations, and anyone involved with youth today. Read the rest of this post »

Back to School Songs from Erin Lee and Marci

Children’s musicians Erin Lee and Marci bring us the next of their regular posts with thematic recommendations for kid-friendly music, plus activities to make the songs an interactive experience for the whole family.

Look for Erin Lee and Marci here on the first Monday of each month, or visit their homepage, www.gottaplay.org.

I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album image or name), plus links to Amazon MP3 downloads, when available, for those who want only the singles. (Click the song name.) I also have a widget after the jump that will let you preview most of the songs without leaving Mombian.

Summer’s over and we’re all back to school. We’ve met some kids who are thrilled, some who have first-day-of-school jitters, and lots of kids who don’t know WHAT to expect. So whether you are psyched or psyched out, here are some tunes to help you through the first week! Read the rest of this post »

Kindergartens Under Pressure

Last week, I mentioned the demise of PBS Kids’ Reading Rainbow and the perils of teaching the mechanics of reading without the love of it. I also mentioned a New York Times editorial about some of the failings of No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

Seems like several papers are all over this issue as we start the school year. Last Sunday’s Boston Globe Magazine had a feature titled, “Pressure Cooker Kindergarten,” which explored how the NCLB-driven focus on testing has affected young children:

But increasingly in schools across Massachusetts and the United States, little children are being asked to perform academic tasks, including test taking, that early childhood researchers agree are developmentally inappropriate, even potentially damaging. If children don’t meet certain requirements, they are deemed “not proficient.” Frequently, children are screened for “kindergarten readiness” even before school begins, and some are labeled inadequate before they walk through the door.

This is a troubling trend to an experienced educator like [38-year veteran teacher Christine Gerzon], who knows how much a child can soak up in the right environment. After years of study and practice, she’ll tell you that 5-year-olds don’t learn by listening to a rote lesson, their bottoms on their chairs. They learn through experience. They learn through play. Yet there is a growing disconnect between what the research says is best for children—a classroom free of pressure—and what’s actually going on in schools.

Read the rest of this post »

Goodbye, Reading Rainbow

Some sad news this morning from NPR: Reading Rainbow, the 26-year veteran of children’s television programming, airs its final episode today. The show has won more than two-dozen Emmys, and is the third longest-running children’s show in PBS history, after Sesame Street and Mister Rogers.

The show is ending because no one will put up the several hundred thousand dollars needed to renew the show’s broadcast rights, says NPR. They also report the opinion of John Grant, head of content at WNED Buffalo, Reading Rainbow’s home station:

Grant says the funding crunch is partially to blame, but the decision to end Reading Rainbow can also be traced to a shift in the philosophy of educational television programming. The change started with the Department of Education under the Bush administration, he explains, which wanted to see a much heavier focus on the basic tools of reading — like phonics and spelling.

Grant says that PBS, CPB and the Department of Education put significant funding toward programming that would teach kids how to read — but that’s not what Reading Rainbow was trying to do.

“Reading Rainbow taught kids why to read,” Grant says. “You know, the love of reading — [the show] encouraged kids to pick up a book and to read.”

Yes, the basic tools are important, but they have to follow the love. (I’ll spare you my usual rant about the many failings of No Child Left Behind.) Read the rest of this post »

Organizing for Safe Schools in Minnesota

I posted a blurb in my last LGBT Parenting Roundup about the Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota, which agreed to pay a $25,000 settlement to the family of a high school junior after two teachers harassed the boy in the classroom about his perceived sexual orientation. I received the e-mail below from a local mother who is taking matters into her own hands and working for change, even though she has “never done any type of activism” before.

While I don’t often post about purely local events, I thought this one was a good example of community organizing and helping to create positive change in our schools, which seemed especially relevant this time of year.

Hi Dana,

Thanks for running a blurb about the situation in my school district. Monday evening was the first School District Board meeting after the incident hit the papers. The board room was full with parents and concerned citizens that wanted to let the board know their dismay with the incident and with the way it was handled, and in response to a public letter the board sent out minimalizing the occurances of such incidents. Two students, two district employees and several concerned citizens addressed the board during the period open for public comment with personal stories and experiences. They made it very clear that the largest school district in the state of Minnesota has been hiding its head in the sand, and frankly, we as citizens are fed up with it.

I have opened my home to concerned citizens and parents for a round table discussion on how to organize and get some changes implemented in our district. Phil Duran, the staff attorney for Outfront MN is planning on attending, and so far I have heard from about a dozen parents and district staff that will also be attending. I have never done any type of activism, but this to me was so aggregious, that I could no longer say that attending the PRIDE parade was enough to show support for GLBT issues.

Anyways thanks again for blogging this!

Take Care.
Robin Mavis

http://www.facebook.com/robin.mavis
[Ed. note: Personal Facebook page. Event Facebook page is below.]

After the jump: The invitation to the discussion Robin is hosting. Read the rest of this post »

COLAGE Speak OUT Camp Coming Up This Fall

[Editor's note: Passing along this press release as-is. —Dana]

Do you have/had one or more lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer parents?

Do you want to connect with a fabulous and fun community of others who share that experience?

Do you want to learn and strengthen your skills for making change in the world?

Join COLAGE at our first-ever national Speak OUT Camp!

http://www.colage.org/programs/events/speakoutcamp/

What: COLAGE Speak OUT Camp
A brand new COLAGE program for teens and adults, this long weekend will engage current and emerging COLAGE leaders in community building, popular education, skill building, action planning, and fun. Speak OUT Campers will gain the knowledge, tools, and support to make a difference on the issues that matter most while getting to immerse in COLAGE community, relax and celebrate our fabulous movement of youth and adults who have or had a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer parent. Read the rest of this post »

Curriculum, Community and Conversation

(Originally published in Bay Windows, August 6, 2009.)

It is August now, and for many parents, that means the all-too-swift descent towards back-to-school time. It seems apt, then, to take another look at the ongoing issue of including discussion of LGBT families in classrooms.

Many ultra-conservatives warn that our schools are being invaded by nefarious homosexual activists with an agenda to turn America’s children gay or teach them about gay sex. They seem to forget that children of LGBT parents are already sitting in those classrooms. (LGBT children may be there already, too, although they may not yet be fully aware of their identities.)

The conservatives argue that elementary students are too young to learn about “such things.” The fact is, my son has known he has two moms ever since he was born, and it hasn’t seemed to bother him—or his many friends with straight parents—a bit. What the conservatives really mean, of course, is that these children are too young to learn about sex. I agree.

We’re not talking about sex, though. We don’t talk about it when we discuss families headed by opposite-gender parents, and there is no need to do so when we discuss families headed by same-gender ones. (Not only that, but because opposite-gender parents usually create their families by having sex, and same-gender parents don’t, shouldn’t conservatives be more concerned with children learning about sex when they discuss opposite-sex parents?) It is simply a matter of supporting all children in the community by acknowledging their families in classroom discussions and activities. Read the rest of this post »

Back-to-School Time: Questions and Answers

It’s back-to-school time for many of our children. For those of you, like me, prepping our kids and ourselves for the transition:

What are you looking forward to about having your kids in school? What are you dreading (or at least not looking forward to)?

If your kids are not yet in school, or you have questions for other parents about anything school related:

What might others here offer opinions and advice about?

If your kids have graduated from all their formal education:

Ensure us we and they can survive it.

LGBT Diversity Film Trailers Now Available

I’ve written many times before about the excellence of the LGBT-inclusive diversity-education films by Groundspark, the organization headed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Debra Chasnoff. (Here’s my interview of Chasnoff about her latest film, Straightlaced, and an earlier one about the 10th anniversary of It’s Elementary.)

Now comes the happy news that trailers for all of the films are up at the YouTube channel of film distributor New Day Films. Watch clips of Straightlaced, That’s a Family, Let’s Get Real, It’s Elementary (and the expanded It’s STILL Elementary). Each film targets a different age range (It’s Elementary is for educators and parents), and deals as appropriate with issues such as family diversity, bullying, name-calling, and gender stereotypes. (I recapped all of them in my recent post on New Resources for LGBT Families.)

For those of you who have pre-ordered a copy of Straightlaced, other good news is that it is now ready on DVD and should be shipped any day now. If you would like to order it, or any of the other films, you may do so via the Groundspark Store.

As always, you can visit the the Mombian YouTube channel to find lots of videos with positive images of LGBT families.

After the jump, the clip from That’s a Family, which caused a ruckus two years ago in Evesham, New Jersey when the school board voted to remove it from its elementary health curriculum. Read the rest of this post »