Another day, another $200 after tax

[melwil]

Oh boy, do I detest days at the school 20 minutes away from my house. Today was grade 5, with the second most awful bunch of kids I've ever taught. The big problem in this class was rampant bullying - the names! I ran a short anti-bullying session at the end of the day, but when you miss almost 2 hours of the day with swimming, and it's not your class . . .

Can I ask the people of my friends list a question. I really hate it when the children refer to things as being 'gay', and when they use the words 'gay' and 'lesbian' as insults. I've stopped classes a few times to address this, but I've never quite been able to articulate myself properly, in a way that children (usually age 9-12) can understand/appreciate

Help!

Comments

[megthelegend.livejournal.com]

Oh, that shits me too. We were at Pizza Hut recently & I took Nick into the loo. Two girls came in together (and went into separate loos). One of them said, "My door doesn't lock!" then she shoved it and fixed it. The other one said, "The doors at the toilets at school don't lock" and the first one said, "That's so gay."

Yes. Because only the homosexual toilets refuse to lock. That's right. ::rolls eyes::

Can you compare it to calling everything disabled, or black, or something else that they know they shouldn't use as a negative term, maybe?

[melwil.livejournal.com]

I like that idea - I'm not sure it would get through to all kids (I had one today who kept saying he wanted to kill himself or others), but it would work in some of the saner classrooms

[megthelegend.livejournal.com]

Good luck, sigh. Those two girls made me feel so OLD.

[magratj.livejournal.com]

Ask if they know what the word means. If they don't, suggest they don't use it. You have to be careful though, as some parents won't want their kids to know. (I've had this arguement with before)

[melwil.livejournal.com]

The joy of supply work - I disappear before the parents have a chance to complain *g*

I worry that some of these children know what the word means, and simply don't care.

[sister-ananke.livejournal.com]

I generally say it's an inappropriate use of the word - gay isn't a bad thing to be.

I deal with an older audience though.

[melwil.livejournal.com]

That's usually where I'm at - but the kids tend to laugh/ not comprehend/ not care.

Some days I hate supply - if they were my own, at least I'd have measures in place to deal with it

[sangerin.livejournal.com]

I've had that argument with not!Ainsley. It's one of the things we do *not* see eye-to-eye on, as she thinks it's perfectly fine to use.

Sadly, the argument is very difficult to run: given that things like "retard" are possibly still used, and the greatest insult to a boy is to be called a "girl", it's probably a losing battle.

[sangerin.livejournal.com]

(I should clarify - not!Ainsley thinks that it's fine for children to use. She wouldn't use it herself.)

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

When I was in primary schools, the bullies used to come up behind me and ask really loudly if I was a lesbian. So I did what any eight year old would do in that situation: I looked it up in the dictionary. Next time they asked, I asked if they knew what it meant. They never came back.

Of course, that doesn't work so well when you're not eight...

[rebism.livejournal.com]

hmm, i'm not sure. mostly because although i tense up every time bitna say something's so gay, i somehow never manage to stop myself in time when i find myself saying something's retarded. which is the same thing, really. if i can't figure out how to train myself out of it, i surely can't advise how to teach others - at least not without some amount of either hypocricy, or fantasy at its expected success.

[e-scapism101.livejournal.com]

Hand them a dictionary and a thesaurus and tell them that they need to find five other words to use instead. Then they have to write each of those words five times.

[melwil.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like this. I must remember that one for next time

[mataeka.livejournal.com]

Can you compare it to calling everything disabled

only one comment to that one "That's retarded"

yup, kids use that one.

it's kinda hard sometimes because all words have double meaning, like I had a gay friend at uni who all the time would say "god I could use a fag .... and a cigarette too" (YAY! for double inuendo :P)

granted I use the word fag/gy more then I'd say gay, but I guess I don't link fag back to homosexuality unless you're calling another person a fag. Hmm. Kids definatly overuse words they shouldn't. All I could suggest is some sort of 'punishment' as you were for using inappropriate behaviour. Writing out alternative words from a dictionary sounds alright ... but could guarentee because it's a punishment they'd never use their newfound knowledge outside of class.