Free Speech and Acceptance

Our last class discussion was pretty thought provoking; and it really got me thinking about teaching acceptance. A few students continually made the point that GLBT acceptance needed to be taught in class so that hate crimes (such as the murder of 15 year old Lawrence King) don’t continue to happen. Another student then brought up the idea that maybe schools should focus on acceptance of all not only the acceptance of GBLT. I really agreed with the second student, our society needs to focus on accepting everybody despite their differences. If we all learned to be a little more respectful, understanding and accepting of people we would have as many problems will hate crimes, limiting students education and teacher rights…

If people learned to be more accepting of religion maybe parents wouldn’t be so afraid of creationism being taught as one of many theories. If religious people would be more accepting of people with different beliefs then maybe silly theories like intelligent design wouldn’t have been made up. If children were taught that a person’s sexual orientation doesn’t make them un-human nor determine their worth then maybe hate crimes against GLBT wouldn’t happen. If people were taught to respect everyone and treat others how they themselves want to be treated maybe bullying in schools wouldn’t happen.

I think children from an early age should be taught that they are allowed to think and feel however they want but that acting on those feelings isn’t always right. Children should be taught at accept everyone no matter what their differences are and no matter how they personally feel about it. Children should be taught how to respect and treat other people; and take others into consideration before acting. People need to have some common courtesy.

I don’t think that teachers should be banned from teaching students these lessons. If a teacher wants to use a book with gay characters they should be able too; I mean it should serve a purpose just as any school book should. Teachers should have the freedom in the classroom to teach students lessons of acceptance. Maybe once people start to be more accepting there will be less fights about what to teach in the classroom and more learning going on in the classrooms. Maybe ones people start having some basic common courtesy and respect we will see an end to bullying and hate crimes.