Blog Post Three

The second chapter of the book detailed discussions on how sexuality and gender identification affects everyone, not just a single person. It provided insight about how many students struggle to deal with their parents having non-normative sexual identification. I like how Paula Ressler discussed how the scene featured in the chapter was based on a "real-life experience". I think that it is too often that students are not provided with real life scenarios, and therefore struggle with their reactions in the real world.
I also liked how Ressler was willing to talk about how "homophobia affects everyone" (Ressler 34). I think that this detail, while obvious, is often overlooked in schools and society overall. Its important that these kinds of issues are discussed with students, in order to expose themselves to these issues. After all, if they aren't being talked about, how can we really expect things to get better?
After reading through the scene, I thought that it was quite interesting that the trashcan was used to mediate conversation between the son and his mother. I think that this would appear to be much more effective as opposed to having the two converse directly with one another. By having both parties simply air their grievances, I think that this was much more realistic than having the two talk so openly with each other. Adolescents have enough trouble communicating with their families, I think that adding another twist, like sexuality, would make this communication even more troublesome.
One section of this chapter that I really connected with was the idea of sharing personal anecdotes in a classroom setting. I think that this is an extremely important idea that more teachers should take advantage of. The book claims, "any deep learning that takes place occurs on both a cognitive and an affective level as students connect what they are learning to their own lives" (Ressler 37). I think this applies not only with the idea of sexuality, but a wide range of "touchy subjects" (i.e. LGBTQ+, addiction, mental health, etc.) As a future educator, these are topics that I would love to consider incorporating into my classroom, even if I had to do something slightly scary like open up about my personal life. I think that there are valuable lessons to be taught in doing so.
Ressler also discussed the learning benefits that occur when students are allowed to talk openly about major issues in their lives. One way to tackle these issues is by using creativity. Patti Drapeau published a book about using creativity in the classroom. One aspect of the reading that I connected to Dramatic Changes was the idea of the teacher's role in these activities. Drapeau claims, "creativity demands emotional risk taking" (Drapeau 15). I think this is a strong connection to the ideas discussed earlier about incorporating the teacher's personal anecdotes into the curriculum when discussing difficult material.