Charter Schools and Saving the World

I watched the documentary The Lottery, a film about the lottery to get into the Harlem Success Academy, a high performing charter school in New York City. A charter school is a school that receives federal funding but is not subjected to some regulations of other public schools.

This lottery is, for some of the children, their one shot at a good education. These students generally come from lower income families, whose parents can’t afford to move to an area with better schools, or take their children out of the children’s zoned schools and place them in a private school. The film portrayed both this charter school, as well as charter schools in general, in a very positive light.

This film was an hour and a half long, but took me close to two and a half hours to watch, because I kept pausing the film to take notes and to talk with my mom.


My mom's job has to do with civil rights in education, and she is generally against charter schools because she has seen them used in the context of parents in the south who put their kids in charter schools because their children's zoned school (also known as home school) is too "integrated". She also says that many charter schools seem to think that they are above the law and don't have to follow various federal 
nondiscrimination laws.


She takes the position that instead of making charter schools, the money that would go to charter schools should be used to improve already existing schools.
What really struck me about the schools in the movie is the enormous difference between the performance of the students in the Harlem Success Academy and the students at the zoned schools.

I don't think that giving money to the already existing zoned schools would be able to save them in this situation. It would take a full overhaul of the education system in New York and maybe in America to do that. 

It seemed that the difference between the charter schools and zoned schools in the movie was that zoned schools expected the students to fail. No one at the zoned schools expected the students to succeed in life, and consequently, most of them didn't. In the Harlem Success Academy, the teachers hadn't given up on the kids. They were still pushing their students to succeed, regardless of what the world thinks of their chances at success.


And that's not something that can change with more money. That's something that will take school systems reassessing the way that they approach education as a whole.


From there, my mom and I started talking about how unions played into education. In the movie, the teachers union was presented as harmful to schools because union contracts make it difficult to get rid of incompetent teachers and make any change to the schools efficiently. This is something that charter schools don't have to deal with because they can hire teachers who are not members of the teachers union.


This was something that I was very conflicted about because I think that unions are important, but at the same time, I recognize that the currently, the way that the unions function may not be the most efficient or effective.


So my conclusion on that was that the unions also need to be reformed. Not gotten rid of, which how the charter schools dealt with them. That is not a real solution. But improved so that teachers and students and parents all get their needs met.


At this point, I came to the conclusion (and shared with my mom) that the world needs to be reformed. Just in general. The schools, the unions, the economy, gender, the government, the entire structure of our society.


And I know that that's ridiculous. It’s unrealistic and overly idealistic. I realized it as I said it. And my mom also pointed it out to me. She said that she fundamentally agrees with me, that this type of thing takes time, that change is a long and continuous process. She also pointed out that change takes all types of people. The idealists and the realists.
 
I think that she makes a good point. I think that people often forget that it takes both sides of the spectrum to make a difference. The idealistic extremists and their strong beliefs are needed to make change. But the more logical, realistic people also need to be there. These people create a balance, giving reality checks, helping things stay structured and not get lost in the craze of ideology.
 
I often tend to be an idealist. Some people think that that’s pointless, that  idealists are stupid because they ignore the realities of life for the world that they think should exist. I think that being an idealist is also valuable. Without idealists, the ideas for a lot of the progress in the world wouldn't exist. At the same time, realists are also needed to keep any movement grounded in reality.
 
So I don't think that I can fix the world. I don't even think that I really know what needs to be fixed. But I hope that I can make some kind of difference. I think that as crazy as it can sometimes be, my way of looking at life is valid too.

A bit about PFOX

This week I'm going to talk about my documentary topic, PFOX. I'd like to open with the clarification that this is going to be an impartial post. I am writing this to post some information about this organization  not to share with you my personal beliefs.

I'm writing a blog post on this because it seems that many of my peers know of PFOX, but don't really know anything much about them, which I think is never a good thing, especially when it comes to a topic that is this controversial. When the PFOX flier was sent out last year at Blair, some of the people I talked to didn't really understand what the flier was saying. Now when I say that my partners'and my documentary topic is PFOX, some people vaguely remember that they were"the flier people", but not much else.

PFOX, or Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, is a national nonprofit organization. It was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Virginia. It state that it id an organization that works to educate the public on sexual orientation and the ex-gay community. It also says that "PFOX supports an inclusive environment for the ex-gay community, and works to eliminate negative perceptions and discrimination against former homosexuals."

To give this some context, PFOX describes ex-gays as people with unwanted same-sex attractions who, "Make the personal decision to leave homosexuality via secular therapy, Homosexuals Anonymous support groups, faith based ministries, and other non-judgmental environments."

PFOX supports the idea that people should have the option of "self-determination", or that people should be told that with the proper guidance, they can leave homosexuality.

According to PFOX, "PFOX families love their homosexual child unconditionally. Unlike other organizations which insist that parental love is conditional on affirming homosexual behavior, there are no conditions on our love for our children. We do not have to approve of everything our children do." 

The website links to PFOX's statement of principles (if you click this link, please don't skip the intro), a site that opens with the statement that ""Path [the site] is a non-profit coalition of organizations that helps people with unwanted same-sex attractions (SSA) realize their personal goals for change -- whether by developing their innate heterosexual potential or by embracing a lifestyle as a single, non-sexually active man or woman." In other words, PFOX's principles are that people should have access to organizations that help them leave "unwanted same-sex attractions".

PFOX feels that "former homosexuals" are the least visible minority group in America. PFOX works to gain recognition and acceptance for "ex-gays" and the organization itself, which is often met with a negative reaction from the liberal community

PFOX, an organization who's main target audience is children and teens, sends fliers explaining itself and its goals to school around the country. As I'm sure that some of you remember, Blair was a recipient of those fliers last year. Some of you may not have received the fliers, as some teachers made the decision to not had them out to students. I can't find the specific flier that our school received but this flier is similar and has pretty much the same information.

PFOX also supports students in starting an Ex-gay and Straight Friends club at school. The website explains that this club would be a safe environment for students to discuss "alternatives to homosexuality". It states that "gay student clubs encourage questioning youth to immediately self-identify as 'gay and proud.' With an Ex-Gay Alternatives club at their school, students who struggle with same sex attractions have the option of receiving all the facts on sexual orientation in a fair and balanced manner instead of being pressured to adopt a gay identity."

Honestly, I'm going to stop short of drawing any real conclusion here because I don't know how to do that in an unbiased manner. I feel like this post isn't all that substantive because I couldn't put any of myself into it. This was very difficult for me. Maybe it was a good exercise though. I think that it is a valuable skill to be be able to explain one side of a very charged topic while removing your personal opinions from your explanation.

  I plan to return to this subject when I'm done with the documentary. In the meantime, please, please, please, comment with your own opinions. Do you agree with PFOX? Disagree? Interested in starting an Ex-gay and Straight Friends club at Blair? Think that would be a bad idea? Really, I would appreciate all reaction in the form of comments.

I'll leave you with this video posted on the PFOX YouTube channel:

There's a Girl in the Girls' Bathroom

For this post, I'd like to share an experience that I had recently.

So all of you who know me know that the way that I dress is generally pretty androgynous. It's not super masculine  but it's not particularly feminine either. My hair is pretty short, not a crew cut, but shorter than a bob. The day that this happened, I was wearing a loose grey fleece sweatshirt, loose jeans, and tennis shoes. I'm used to having people mix up my gender every once in a while, and refer to me as a boy, or use male pronouns, but on this occasion  something that goes beyond that happened.

After school, I stopped at the Community Center to use the bathroom. When I entered the bathroom, there was a gaggle of middle school girls standing there gossiping. When they saw me, they got quiet. Then they started giggling nervously. One of them muttered, "what the h**l." I ignored them. As I went into a stall, one of them said to me, "Wait, this is the girls room." I replied with, "yes indeed." Normally, that's enough to clear up any confusion. Not for them. They continued to giggle nervously, whispering to each other, "What's he doing?" They then left but continued to discuss me loudly, right outside of the bathroom door.

"What is wrong with him?" "I think that's a girl?" "Why is he still in there?" "Should we tell someone?"

They decided that they should take action on their own. They opened the door to the bathroom and switched the lights off, then hastily retreated. As there were no windows in the bathroom, it was pitch black. I could barely see my hand right in front of my face.

As I groped to unlock the door of the stall and find the light switch, I felt like crying. I don't think that anyone deserves to be treated like that.

First of all, leaving then returning to turn off the lights on me was not the correct way to handle the situation at all. If they were that confused, they could have specifically asked if I was a girl. If they truly thought that I was a guy, they should have gotten security. Not that I would have appreciated that either, but turning out the lights was just stupid and immature. If I was a guy and I had gone into the girls bathroom on purpose, I don't see how turning out the lights would really make a difference. If anything, it would have just made me angry.

I recognize that these were middle schoolers and middle schoolers are, by  nature, not always the best at handling this type of situation. At that age tweens, egged on by their friends, are infamous for doing stupid things without thinking about how their actions might affect anyone else involved. I understood that fully, even as it was happening. But that really doesn't make their actions any less hurtful.

I don't mind that they initially confused my gender, that's just one of the things that happens. I do mind the way that they continued to treat me after my gender should have been clear to them. Just because I didn't say, "I am a girl," does not mean that I'm not one. That is not something that I should have to proclaim whenever I go into a bathroom.

This all fits into my first blog post rather nicely. Gender is ridiculous. It's just a series of stereotypes put in place that tell us that our genitalia should dictate how we look and act. And that if we don't fit in with those stereotypes there's something wrong with you.

But really, there isn't. As cliched as this sounds. Everyone is exactly who they are supposed to be. I am just as much of a real girl as the middle schoolers in the bathroom were.

So please, don't make assumptions on gender based on appearance. It is absolutely unnecessary. Please don't assume that you know everything about a person because they fit your image of a girl or a boy. If you don't know and you're worried about offending someone, ask as politely as you can, and if they seem offended, explain that you didn't want to hurt them by drawing the wrong conclusion. And just be nice. Please.

This link is targeted towards parents raising gender nonconforming children, but I think that really, it's something that anyone can benefit from.


Also, Stephanie commented on my first blog post with this link, but I think that it's a great video and really fits here as well so I figured I'd share it here as well.