Talking Point #3 - Carlson

Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community
Dennis Carlson

Author's Argument: Carlson argues that it should be part of the Public Schools curriculum to talk about sexual identity (gay, lesbians, travesties). He also believes that a democratic multicultural education must become a dialogue in which all "voices" are heard and all "truths" are understood as partial and positioned.

Quotes:
1. "Within normalizing communities, some individuals and subject positions (i.e. white, middle class, male, heterosexual, etc.) get privileged and represented as "normal" while other individuals and subject positions (i.e., black, working class, female, homosexual, etc.) are dis empowered and represented as deviant, sick, neurotic, criminal, lazy, lacking in intelligence, and in other ways "abnormal."

I am starting to like Delpit. When I read this quote I immediately saw the connection with Delpit's idea "the culture of power." Carlson and Delpit are basically saying the same thing. In order words those who are considered "normal" have the privilege to be part of the normalizing communities and those who are considered "abnormal" have not any privilege.

2. "Willard Waller, in his 1932 classic The Sociology of Teaching, argued that homosexual should not be allow to teach for several reasons. Teachers were presumed to be lecherous and develop "ridiculous crushes" on students."

I don't know if this could be a quote, but when I was reading this part of the article I said to myself how about heterosexual teachers, they have ridiculous crushes on students and they are allow to teach.

3. "Not only do these silent spaces work to make those on the margins invisible and silent; they also, and at the same time, make the cultural center invisible as a center since it never has to "speak it own name."

I can see this quote connected to Johnson's argument about saying the word in order to recognize the problem. I agree with Carlson and Johnson. When we don't express our feeling it makes hard to comfort the problem. It is like being able to see, but not wanting to see the reality.


Comments/Point to Share: This article was somewhat difficult to read. There were paragraph where I did not have a clues what Carlson was trying to say, but there were other parts that were clear and I was able to make connections with other texts that I have read.
It is sad to think that gays and lesbians are associated with disease.