Guest speaker Jamie Nabozny

Only a few days before Jamie Nabozny came to speak at Stout, my friend had sent me a recent article published in Rolling Stone Magazine titled "One Town's War on Gay Teens." Until I read the article illustrating a few students in Anoka, Minnesota's stories dealing with their experiences in school, I was fairly unaware of how severe of an issue harassment of GLBT students in schools is.

I've always felt overwhelmed with the responsibility that comes with being a teacher. Your responsibility goes beyond teaching your subject matter. You're expected to teach kids how to have good morals, be polite, know right from wrong, be positive attributes to society and be active in their communities. In the words of John Sculley, "We expect teachers to handle teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, and the failings of the family. Then we expect them to educate our children."  It's a ton to think about and be accountable for. Even so, I entirely believe that as a teacher, you should have that passion and be willing to help kids with these other issues. To think that your job is merely to teach a student how to paint a still life, solve an equation or write in pros and you don't need to think about them after they leave at the end of the day, to me, is not fulfilling your role as a teacher. You have a responsibility to provide a safe environment for your students to learn. In addition, I believe that even outside of your classroom, you have a responsibility to keep students safe.

I was appreciative of this presentation because Nabozny gave the audience specific things that we as teachers need to be aware of in our schools. What stuck with me the most was that it isn't enough just to tell students who use words such as "fag" "retard" "dyke" or "bitch" (among others) that that language isn't acceptable in your classroom. Nabozny said a way of addressing that sort of vocabulary in the classroom can be done as easily as saying "I have a cousin who has down syndrome and I take offense to the use of the word 'retard.'" This way, students get an "oh shit" feeling, and if even briefly, they put themselves in your shoes and think about how it may have hurt your feelings or someone's feelings who has down syndrome. Teaching students to be empathetic is huge and I entirely agreed Nabozny in stressing it's importance in schools.