Last week left me feeling a little confused. The education and awareness campaign, No-Name Calling Week (which we highlighted) conflicted with messages I heard when a California ruling said private schools could expel LGBT students. How can we, as a nation, teach young minds the importance of equality when we communicate contradicting messages?
GLSEN reports that 9 out of 10 LGBT students (86.2%) experienced harassment at school in the past year. Furthermore, the organization released a report in mid-January studying the unique challenges students of color face in the classroom and on the playground. Across all groups, sexual orientation and gender expression were the most common reason LGBT students of color felt unsafe at school. This victimization leads to poor grades, low self-esteem, and anxiety from feeling unsafe and experiencing harassment. To download the full report, click here. Oppression as a result of race, class, religion, and/or sexual orientation constructs barriers to the success of individuals and the community.
In the workplace, we have repeatedly stressed the importance of acceptance, inclusion, and visibility of the LGBT community. Workplace diversity is about people — people focused on embracing differences to achieve a common goal. If these messages aren’t reaching students, classroom structures, and districts, ignorance and bigotry will continue to cultivate in the workplace. Thus, if we are able to instill messages of inclusion in our children today, our next generation of the workforce will exhibit an improved morale, outside-the-box thinking, greater teamwork, and an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect.
The solution? Not sure if I have one, but I do have an idea – coalition building, key opinion leader outreach, and grassroots outreach. What if corporations’ diversity programs and initiatives developed an advisory panel on a nationwide level to stress the importance of diversity and inclusion training in school curriculum and structure, then discussed the negative effects “intolerance” has in the workplace? This highly visible advisory council begins to create a dialogue amongst themselves, with nonprofit organizations aimed at diversity education, and with both traditional and online media. Through a concerted effort, they reach out to school districts across the nation to disseminate a message of the necessity of inclusion education.
What are your thoughts on inclusive education in schools and its effects on the workplace?
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I think you are on the right track with a coalition as corporations are great social change agents. Tolerance will take time and we have made great strides quite rapidly. I’m in favor of a big campaign similar to the “Black is Beautiful” one years ago.
Michael Lamb
http://www.echelonmagazine.com
Michael,
Thanks for your feedback! I think coalition building on a corporate level and within the school system will be essential to changing behavior and changing mindsets. National campaigns like P&Gs and Unilevers are able to break down stereotypes and give the community an empowering message of acceptance. Thanks again for reading our blog!
Hi,
as your page is dealing with diversity/ability-topics, we would love to inform you about or contest on the topic of inclusion.
We are trying to build an international database and discussion plattform for the various definitions of inclusion/inclusive education.
You can find more information at: http://www.definitely-inclusive.org/
We would be pleased if you would link definitely-inclusive.org on your web site, either by writing a post or using one of our banners:
http://www.definitely-inclusive.org/banner.php
You can instantly use my favourite one with this code:
You can see from what countries we already got some definitions:
Best regards and thank you for your support
Frank J. for the team of definitely-inclusive.org