© Copyright 2001 Jack C. Straton

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Both courses focus heavily on race as the model for exploring the consequences of interpersonal and institutional "isms," but gender or disability issues would serve as well. However, some exploration of another oppression is helpful so that students can see how the net of oppressions are mutually supportive (e.g., the same people seem to always come out on top). We therefore spend a few days on gender early in the sequence. (In the Values course we also look at oppressive patterns in student-teacher-school dynamics through reading Paulo Friere. ) They read
• Susan Glaspell's "A Jury of Her Peers", a gender-based short story that reveals how our prejudices put limits on what we can perceive; and
• Jamaica Kincaid's poem "Girl," a description of her socialization though her mother's comments. We have the students write their own poems on this theme and in this style.

See also Male Privilege.

References:

Paulo Friere (1970), "The Banking Concept of Education," The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, as reprinted in Ways of Knowing, 207-221, Continuum Pub. Co.

Links:

A portion of the Racial Intervention Story Exchange (RISE) focuses on closely related area of intervention across gender lines.

The National Organization for Men Against Sexism is an activist organization of men and women supporting positive changes for men. NOMAS advocates a perspective that is pro-feminist, gay-affirmative, anti-racist, and committed to justice on a broad range of social issues including class, age, religion, and physical abilities. We affirm that working to make this nation's ideals of equality for all people a reality is the finest expression of what it means to be men.