Ashley Berner says in this article, "What if a robust body of research found that heteronormative schooling inevitably damaged children who were not heterosexual ..."
Of course heteronormative schooling would be harmful to non-heterosexual students just like racist schooling would be harmful to people of color. Keep in mind that heteronormative is a judgement statement by the homophobic on how they think the world should be and not how the world actually is. Heteronormativity is the presumption and privilege of gender conformity and heterosexuality over any other form of gender expression or sexuality.
Ashley Berner (in her article) is promoting segregation rather than inclusion, and acceptance. I dare say that heteronormative, racist, and sexist schooling would be harmful to ALL children. What we need is diversity training. Diversity training programs aim to boost awareness and appreciation of the cultural, religious, racial, sexual, ability, and gender differences among co-workers. Further, the training seeks to increase co-worker's understanding of the positive impact a diverse organization brings with it, and to provide knowledge and strategies to enhance communication skills across a diverse organization to help build a positive work environment.
No publicly funded school (whether it is a neighborhood, magnet, charter, or voucher funded private school) should be racist, sexist, or homophobic. The attacks on diversity training are harmful to our state. Ashley Berner promotes segregation and DeSantis seeks to ban diversity training.
I beg the voters to vote out the legislators who are trying to take us back to a hateful and violent period in our history.
References:
I hope Ashley Berner's words scare you into wanting to improve our neighborhood and magnet schools and to oppose efforts by our legislators to divert our tax dollars to charter schools and vouchers. This 2020 News4Jax video which featured Ashley Berner as an “expert” was produced by Gary Chartrand (former Rick Scott appointee). The video appears to me to be calling for the privatization of K-12 education. Shame on News4Jax for giving Ashley Berner and David Osborne a platform to promote the privatization of our public education system.
The Florida legislature (under the leadership of Governor DeSantis) keeps passing bills putting more unfunded mandates on district-run schools while allowing charter schools and voucher funded private schools to be exempt from the rules. I hope people wake up to the dangers of the privatization of our public school system. Segregation is not the solution. Reducing prejudice based on negative stereotypes is the solution. How do we reduce prejudice? A few quotes from a group who has a plan: Schools had been steadily integrating for more than 25 years, and these diverse classrooms offered the perfect opportunity for teachers to put empathy, compassion and appreciation of diversity into their lesson plans. This generation, we hoped, would reject hate and exclusion. https://www.learningforjustice.org/topics
More excerpts from Ashley Berner's article which I hope will scare you into advocacy to save our public school system:
The Supreme Court rulings reinforced its principles by limiting the practices of private schools, too, even those that had made a religious-liberty case for segregation [but will the new Supreme Court overturn Brown like they overturned Roe and other long standing precedence?]
Eyewitnesses claimed that book banner Baggett said that somewhere in the Bible it says that it is a sin for the races to mix. So the book banner wants books in the school library that promote segregation?
From this article: DeSantis' office sent a memo to every university and state college in Florida asking for the cost and number of positions associated with campus diversity, equity and inclusion programs. ... Among DeSantis’ appointments to the [New College] board was Christopher Rufo, best known for fueling the culture wars around critical race theory and instruction on LGBTQ issues. ...Within a day of the governor’s announcement to turn New College into the likes of Hillsdale College ...
Excerpt from this 2016 article about Hillsdale College:
... These colleges and universities “take taxpayer dollars and seek to opt out from protecting LGBT students and women from discrimination,” said Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington and one of the lawmakers who demanded that the list be made public.
Students at a Northeast Florida performing arts high school say they’re being censored and they believe that the state’s recent new law targeting LGBTQ+ youth is to blame. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/jacksonville-theater-students-indecent-shut-down
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