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| Re: New School for LGBT Students Opens in California [message #92680 is a reply to message #92547 ] |
Fri, 05 March 2010 19:29   |
 LanieB 
Messages: 462
Registered: August 2008
Location: Florida |
Senior Member
BL3d |
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Very interesting and good points made by all. Lisa, there is actually significant in school time, twice a week, in a very small class (4-5 students, I believe the article said), which allows for lots of attention to the student. Remember, most of these kids are starved for positive attention.
These few hours per week are WAY MORE than they would get in a regular school. Ask any teacher.
Also, it might be true that they are sort of doing this "in a vacuum" except for the fact that it has been put together by an already existing mentoring program in conjunction with a Gay and Lesbian Community Center. There are lots of opportunities for interaction. Having an LGBT and Allies prom is a very big deal, too!
Just think of the creativity we are developing (and saving). Just think of the youngsters who get to LEAD THEIR LIVES, and to have as much happiness as the next person. No more, no less.
Lastly, I believe the article mentions that this is a temporary measure. What is great about a charter school is that it does not have to follow the traditional pattern of a school. It can build into it's mission statement or operating procedures, a way to look at its efficacy on an annual or biannual basis, for example. It can have as a stated mission to put itself out of business!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnRqYMTpXHc
Here's my fan letter to the teacher:
From: Elaine (elainebac@hotmail.com)
Sent: Fri 3/05/10 9:59 PM
To: msircher@emsofl.com
Dear Molly,
I just read about the new Lifeworks school. I am so excited. If we don't already have one in the works in MDCPS (Miami FL), I am going to make it a point to do whatever it takes to get the "downtown" administrators to start looking at this as a real option!
Molly, two years ago we had a gay young man at my high school. He was troubled, from a non-accepting home environment. Mom and a sibling had already passed (I do not know the details). He was from a culture that has a VERY difficult time accepting GLBT people. He was a Best Buddy (http://bestbuddies.org/), which is how I met him. I am a speech-language pathologist for mentally handicapped students. He was the Best Buddy assigned to one of "my" students. We talked briefly on a field trip. We went to a mall and the kids went off with their buddies....the idea is for them to do "normal" things together. It is a great program. Lots of adult supervision in the form of teachers and paraprofessionals visible and available throughout the mall.
Well, I didn't see him after that. Turns out he had dropped out of school. No outreach. Dropped out is dropped out. He had been in counseling in school, but when he dropped out, he ceased to be "our" problem.
A couple of months later, I heard from the Best Buddies teacher that one of her Best Buddies students had committed suicide. "Was it the gay boy?" I asked. "How did you know?" she asked. "Sad to say, I just guessed. Gay kids have a high rate of suicide."
Had there been the option to go to a school like yours, I believe this young man's life would not have been lost. Not one more more bullied, beaten, self-annihilated youngster. G-d bless you and the work you do!
Lastly, someone I love very much is transsexual.
Smiles,
D. E. S. B
elainebac@hotmail.com
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| Re: New School for LGBT Students Opens in California [message #92692 is a reply to message #92689 ] |
Fri, 05 March 2010 21:06 |
LanieB
Messages: 462
Registered: August 2008
Location: Florida |
Senior Member
BL3d |
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| CarolynnL wrote on Fri, 05 March 2010 23:39 | Hi Lanie. I am of two minds on this. The problem the kids face is from our society and its bigoted mentality fostered by political and religious ignorance. Since I do not see any redress of this in the next 200 years, then I suppose that a school like this is the next best thing. However, I do worry that it does not prepare the kids for entry into the larger world where they will still have to deal with the bigotry. All the education in the world does no good if the people who hire you or work with you are not accepting of diversity. Taken to its "logical" extreme, what's next, entire towns and cities composed of diversity friendly folks? Such separate but "equal" segregation was tried several generations ago and much more recently to take care of the "race" problem. Didn't work then either.
CarolynnL
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Yes, Carolynn, I concede your point. My point is I don't want the kids to die. Dead kids don't get any chance at life. Too many dead kids. (1 is too many).
My answer to what's next? Happy kids. Did you know that studies of home schooled kids show that they are extremely well socialized? Yeah. And I have no worries about our junior members in that regard. Alive, they stand a chance anyway of becoming happy, well-adjusted, educated (so they can afford all the expensive medical stuff, etc.), gainfully employed, tax paying, VOTING.... let me say that one again....V O T I N G....members of society.
Hey, teachers, if you're out there, how about your thoughts??
LanieB
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