Year 9: Week 1 - Same Sex Marriage, And Choosing To Be A Minority, And Positionality

This is how it began...

With my 3rd graders, I started the class with a movement activity with Brandi Carlile’s “Dreams.” It was a fun way to do some pre-assessment, and work together as a class. After we worked through the song, I out of this picture of Brandi with her family backstage at the Ellen show.

I introduced her wife and kids. One 3rd grader exclaimed, “she’s a married to a woman.” “Yes, she is. Brandi identifies as lesbian,” I replied. Other students nodded in acknowledgement and we moved on with the lesson. Another class didn’t say anything when I showed the picture, it accepted how her family. This was a great feeling knowing that these students had done work around diversity in families so that this felt normal to them.

After teaching my 5th graders the chorus to “Wagon Wheel,” I told them a story.

A couple years ago, I had the opportunity to go to an Adele concert. A friend of mine warned me that if I went I would be one of the few men in that audience. This made me think. Did I really want to be in a space when I would be in the minority? Well, I love her music, so why not? So I went, and yes, the vast majority of people there were woman. It felt a little strange at first sitting in a sea of women but as the concert started, it didn’t seem to matter that I was one of the few men, and I had a great time.

I explained that Darius Rucker made a similar choice when he made a country music album, entering a world when he knew he would be one of the few African-Americans. I asked my students to think of a time when they may have done this, like joining in a game at recess as a girl when only boys were playing. Planting seeds for later conversations about race and identity, we started our journey together with this important work.

With both grades I taught the students a dance to go along with Aretha Franklin’s “Think.” We talked about how this song had other layers of meaning and when she exclaimed “freedom,” it was about more than her own personal life.

In 8th grade, I repeated my lesson I did last year on musical identity. I added a part about positionality, based on the quote, “Where we stand in relation to others shapes what we can see.” by Oslem & DiAngelo. I gave them examples of how parts of my identity help me see things that others may not. A couple of students understood this concept. One of them talked about how she didn’t see upperclassmen as intimidating because she was a younger sibling. Then I hinted at the opposite piece of this idea, what we don’t see because of our positionality.

There was a lot going on this week. There was an assembly I was involved in organizing and a lot of little tasks as department chair. But it all came together and I felt much more prepared for these opening classes than I did last year.

 It was a good start.