Sexual Orientation Awareness in Schools

After watching the videos last week in class, I thought about It's Elementary and how it was very interesting to see what the children in elementary school and middle school believed was true or false about gay/lesbian sexual orientation. I think it was interesting the way teachers introduced the topic in the younger age groups, having them tell stories and draw pictures. The older age group was more of a lecture style class and the kids typically asked more questions, however I think that many of the questions that some of the older kids asked weren't just uneducated. Once one reaches a certain age, regardless if its been addressed in school or at home, we all have a cetain amount of common sense. Just because they were in middle school didn't mean that they couldn't be held accountable for some of the inappropriate things that were said, knowingly or unknowingly. In my opinion, I think that it is important to educate children about the gay/lesbian lifestyle, but I feel that it could be taught in a more subtle way. For example, incorporating non-stereotypical family situations into children's books. The only effective way, however, to teach about this lifestyle would more than likely be to start at younger ages because its not a topic like calculus that can just be sprung up. With age comes experience in the world and with experience can come bias, as seen with the older children in the It's Elementary video. Needless to say, just because there isn't course-specific or set aside time to teach specifically about gay/lesbian lifestyle doesn't mean that if it isn't addressed in the school setting then it will gain less acceptance. I went to private catholic school between Kindergarten and 8th grade and for what I can remember about those years, I don't think the topic was even addressed. When I was in 7th grade, I had a friend that had two moms and I didn't think anything different about the situation than from a man and a woman. Obviously, everyone's situation and upbringing is different but I think, on the whole, in order to effectively introduce the gay/lesbian lifestyle to school age children within a school setting is to start at a younger age.