Youth from sexual and gender minorities in Canadian schools

Discrimination Faced by Youths in Sexual and Gender Groups


Many academics in the recent past and today are interested in the issue of discrimination faced by youths in sexual and gender groups deemed unacceptable. Significantly, certain citizens are denied such rights and privileges. Les Samuelson and Wayne Antony, in their book "Power and Resistance," are two such scholars who have paid close attention to the topic. Abuse, racism, violence, pollution, crime, poverty, and homophobia are among the novel topics. For this book review, the chapter "Homophobia High" will be addressed, taking into account some of the topic's content regarding evidence given, logic or political perspective and presenting some of the questions it raises. The topic addresses the challenges faced by the group of student categorized as LGBTQ proposing some of the changes that should be implemented to ensure equal treatment of all learners.

Challenges Faced by LGBTQ Students


In the chapter “Homophobia High” authors present the fact that some people use their powers to enjoy privileges when it comes to access to resources including education imposing enormous challenges to those who are less privileged. For instance, authors claim that students in the group of LGBTQ are harassed and at times denied the opportunity of accessing education. They argue that this is a crime that is perpetrated by educators and parents. This information may be lacking regarding logic since authors achieve their objective by highly generalizing the ideas they present. For example, they hold the notion that institutions have become frozen and lacked the ability to protect the rights of learners (pg 90). This can be misleading since the assumption they make is that such institutions do not have policies that recognize the sexuality and gender of learners. Instead, they maintain that there is a need for change in the officials in the offices. Which one is easier, laying off staff from offices in all levels of the ministry of education or coming up with policies that govern LGBTQ and implementing them? Maybe they do not see the deadly education crisis this will engender.

Survey on Discrimination and Harassment


The same chapter includes a section on a survey for the LGBTQ and the non-LGBTQ to help understand the extent of the problem of discrimination and harassment (pg 80). It gives evidence about the level of harassment for the two groups of students. The study reports that 30.2 % of the LGBTQ and only 11% of the non-LGBTQ skipped classes which was attributed to feeling unsafe at school or on the way to school in Canada. They brush aside the fact that there could be other underlying factors that could result in skipping of classes. Would it be appropriate to close eyes to other factors apart from harassment? Perhaps they consider the issue to bring point home regardless of other surrounding factors. They present another argument akin to that of skipping classes. For example, the readings state that poor performance of the LGBTQ is associated with the poor perception their educators have about them. Would it be right to dismiss other factors such as the role of the student and home background in determining his/her performance? The studies fail to combine all the factors that could easily affect the performance of students with the exemption of the other main factors. The performance of students is affected by a wide range of factors, and therefore it is inappropriate to settle on a single factor as the main influence of the same.

Reference


Samuelson, L., & Antony, W. A. (1998). Power and resistance: Critical thinking about Canadian social issues. Fernwood Publishing.

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