Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education
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Response to Lunch and Learn Diversity series-Gender
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Author:  Catherine Langley [ Wed Nov 04, 2009 5:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Response to Lunch and Learn Diversity series-Gender

Today i attented the lunch and learn diversity series that takes place every week in the student union. today's topic was on Gender. there were only about 20 people there; some were students as well as a few adults. a lady from the counseling center led the discussion, as well as two students that are involved in LGBT. One of the students that was answering questions and taking was the guy that had been on the panel in out classroom discussion on LGBT. he even mentioned that he and other students often do panels for different classes, and that they always enjoy them and seem benefecial to the classes, and they have never had any problems doing these. when we first started out, the speaker went over appropriate guidelines and ways to be respectful when asking questions and giving our opinions about this topic. i was glad to see that this was not an issue, everyone was interested to hear what others had to say and respected each other. it was also very helpful to recieve a handout that was passed out when we got there. this handout listed many terms used related to transgender. it was helpful that everyone in the room didnt expect everyone to know all the terms they used, so they gave us this handout to refer to. one topic i found very interesting during the discussion was the fact that our school, appalachian, as well as boone, is very accepting of transgendered people. one of the speakers refered to it as the "boone bubble," because even once you go about 30 minutes away, the people are not nearly as accepting. however, one issue the school is still facing is the dilemma of on campus housing and transgendered people. it is hard to find away to accomodate them, without making them feel secluded or draw attention to them. however, they mentioned that RA's are recieving an increasing amount of training to accomodate transgender students. finally, we discussed the process of coming out as a transgender to your parents. the speaker mentioned that for some parents it can be like a grieving process, because in some way they are losing their son or daughter. it was interesting for the speaker to talk about ways they help parents when working with them in counseling. i really enjoyed this discussion, and i learned a lot from it.

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