Speaking the Unspeakable: Sex Education
ARGUMENT
This writer states many valid and arguable points in this piece discussing the issues of gender identities in schools and places outside of school and how these places connect. The ideas of place and space, public and private and the combination of these is quite confusing because of the many topics that can relate to any of them. In this piece the argument was that place is neither a unitary experience nor a neutral stage upon which social relations are enacted. This means that the idea of place is always changing and it is based on the social relations that surround it. The argument is then reiterated at the end of the piece, "the public and private boundary appears to have a permeability that challenges the notion that sexuality is necessarily contained in one sphere or another, and the notion that there is indeed such a boundary despite the fact that our own perceived ‘private’ spaces can come to take on a material existence that we truly believe in, spaces can never really be fixed, for their boundaries are always open to continuous struggle and they are continually being made and remade through social relations". The process of bringing young children to the light of reality is not an easy process and there are many things that need to be taken into consideration before teachers begin forming lessons around those ideas and plans. Many teachers decided to come out to their children in the hope of making them more comfortable discussing it in the classroom and in turn discussing it at home as well. This is proof that the public space of school and the discussions that are based in school meld over into the private places of the students homes. Both public and private spaces go hand in hand and affect the other. This piece reminds me of the video we watched in class about the teachers introducing a day in the school that is dedicated to teaching children about the differences in sexuality. It was then melded into their home lives because they would ask their parents many questions about what the teacher had taught them in school. This can create controversy because the parents may not want the child to grow up thinking a certain way. The most amazing thing in the video was a little girl who was sitting with her two mothers looking so happy and comfortable in the classroom environment. This combines the home and school lives, public and private.

Points to bring up in class:
In the piece there was a lot of discussion about the staff room and how it becomes a more private place for the teachers to discuss issues but they are in a public place, the school still. I wonder, as a future teacher how I will react to such an environment and if I will face these decisions one day also. I would also like to talk to the parents in the classroom about how they plan, if they haven't already, to talk to their kids about gender identities in the public and private spaces.

I found an article describing a disorder that is Gender Dysphoria:
http://psychcentral.com/disorders/gender-dysphoria-symptoms/