Woke Read Alouds: They, She, He Easy as ABC

November 11

Woke Read Alouds: They, She, He Easy as ABC & Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Guidance for Rhode Island Schools on Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students

The video of the read aloud of "They, She, He Easy as ABC" is such an important reminder of how the world is constantly changing and adapting and as educators we need to do the same. As educators sometimes we are the only support some children may have, which means we need to be the most accepting and welcoming we can be. I remember a specific situation from an internship in my senior year of high school where I was working with an elementary school art teacher. A student in that same class kept asking another one if they were a boy or a girl and the other student was starting to get frustrated saying "I'm neither, I'm a they". The student who asked wouldn't accept that answer. Fortunately, the student being questioned was content with their identity and wasn't afraid to try to educate their peers. This is a perfect example of why we need to educate our students, so that someone less comfortable than that student was isn't put in a position like that where they have to defend their identity and end up questioning themselves. 

It's so important to support and respect students' gender identity in schools for numerous reasons. Their school files may say one thing where they say another and this could be for many reasons. School may be the only place they can be openly or safely out to their peers. They may not have a safe home life for them to express their true identity there. School may be the place they choose to test out different identities and figure themselves out. It's also important to support and respect identities to help end the stigma about certain gender identities. Educating students about them is crucial to spread awareness and help everyone feel welcome, accepted, and valid.

Toward Ending Ableism in Education

 November 3

Toward Ending Ableism in Education by Thomas Hehir

"Toward Ending Ableism in Education", as the title suggests, explains some key ways of how we can help end ableism in school like expanding diversity efforts to include disability and encouraging students with disabilities to develop and use skills of expression that are effective for them. It's important for different disabilities to be represented just like race, gender, sexuality, etc. is. People with different disabilities and different severities of disabilities all require different accommodations and will have different ways of working with their disability. In the education field as well as in general, we need to support students who have disabilities and encourage them by following accommodations, learning their personal ways of expression, as well as providing representation of disabilities and not only in powerful roles, but also average, everyday normal roles. We also need to keep in mind, as Hehir says, "the most damaging ableist assumption is the belief that disabled people are incapable."

This reminded me of our very first reading by Johnson and one of his main points about how a large part of working on fixing an issue is first acknowledging it is an issue instead of denying it exists in the first place. He explains this in the context of racism and how white people need to admit that they are privileged for there to be progress. Hehir explains that part of ending ableism in schools is first admitting that it does exist. I am also reminded of Lisa Delpit's "Culture of Power" and how those who are not disabled need to use our privilege to advocate for and support those who do. People with disabilities do not fit into our ideal S.C.W.A.A.M.P outline and therefore do not get the representation, accommodations, and acceptance they deserve.