Aiming to answer Mollies Brief I have been reading news stories and watching reports around the issue of LGBT lessons in primary schools. The teacher delivering these lessons, Andrew Moffat, has developed a scheme of work that he calls No Outsiders, it acknowledges the differences within our communities and celebrates this. The scheme of work, that is free to access for any teacher to use, creates a conversation of difference, acceptance and community. Moffat has ben awarded an MBE to services in education and is pioneering this type of engagement in schools, teaching parents and aiming to prevent future generations from engaging in growing hate crime. He has opened the doors to his classroom for parents to engage with the program and teach them too about coexisting and living with people of different backgrounds. This programme has been well received by parents and children in the school; teachers credit Moffat for his work and suggest that he is a pioneer. The protests then seem to come as a shock, if parents have been actively engaged in this, why do some parents feel that there is an issue worthy of protesting. The disruptions had lasted 9 or more days and resulted in children being taken out of the classroom and placed on the picket line. One parent highlights this as an issue of communication, stating that they were not told about this curriculum and feel that is the main issue and that the school have not considered the religious backgrounds of its students despite the common theme of the curriculum, we are all different, lets celebrate that. I personally find it difficult to accept that anyone can have an issue with the work of Moffat, he is pushing the boundaries of a curriculum that only gives some attention to these issues of acceptance and coexisting. He had highlighted that the No outsider’s lessons aim to celebrate our differences and why should it be okay that we can talk about a parent’s mummy and daddy but not a child who has same sex parents.
I believe that these lessons do not inflict on religious views, of your religious views are of acceptance of others. It is argued that a strict orthodox view of ether Islam or Christianity frowns upon same sex relationships but Moffat is not teaching children how to be gay or sharing stories of a sexual nature, he is teaching the theme of No Outsiders, its okay that we are all different. Some of us have same sex parents, you may meet people in your life who are gay and that is okay. I believe that an insight from the viewpoint of someone who holds these views of same sex relationships being a sin or frowned upon would give me a more rounded view. Working in education I have to be accepting of other peoples views and believes, as too is Moffat but the issue here I think could be clarity and communication. I do not think that the actions of the parents sets a good example for children and that their actions are more damaging than they’re perceived view of these lessons.
This is a story of one woman fighting with her sexuality and her parents. She describes her father’s view of her relationships and suggests that her actions are a sin of the Quran. He disowns her and they never speak again as she cannot live a lie about who she is and her sexuality. I am beginning to wonder if the protests at the Birmingham school are more to do with same sex relationships being seen as a sin in some strict views of Muslims. Andrew Moffat, the schoolteacher celebrates our differences and promotes our willingness to coexist. He is not selling same sex relationships as perceived by the parents.
My role here is a difficult one. As a designer I am not here to change the religious views and beliefs of the parents nor should I aim to change the curriculum that the school is delivering. I think that my role should be to facilitate a conversation, one about acceptance and change. I guess that the irony of this story is that the parents themselves could benefit from this scheme of work. I feel sad that a teacher has been made to feel they have to stop delivering a programme that supports acceptance and difference, something that Moffat is clearly passionate about. I can see the point if view that some religious views see the act of same sex relationships as a sin or are frowned upon, however the world has moved on since the context of these religious texts, Brittan is great because of our diversity of cultures and belief’s, we need more teachers life Moffat making a difference from a young age, but I cannot allow this to sway my view of this story, I need to remain impartial and generate a solution to this problem that continues Moffats views but includes parents in the dialogue too.
Reflecting on the work Mollie has put into this idea it is clear that we both have had similar ideas about community engagement and developing a programme that aims to educate not only the children in the school but parents and the school itself. There is a conversation to be had about what parents seem to see as innapropriate and the school also should have its say and back up their schemes of work with evidence.
On a drive home from the beach, thinking about this project and how to answer this problem of communication I began to think about a podcast that I had listened to from Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat. The podcast looks at ways we can better our working environment and promotes its working manifesto of a work life balance. On one particular episode it was an interview with a member of the online retailer ASOS who spoke about their initative of community days. Members of the team can volenteer to give their time, paid to a worthy cause. This had me thinking back to the problem of communication with parents that seems to be an issue in schools. From my personal experience as a teacher it can be hard to keep a dialoge going with parents, its one more thing that is added to a never ending list. Add this to a tight financial situation schools are employing less and less teaching assistants, support staff and other roles that are less front facing. In a bid to combat the initial problem of communication, involvement and parent support for the teachers through this I will propose a solution that helps support this secondary issue of financial cuts to the education stystem. My initial reservations is that teachers may feel this is an aditional task or responsibility, however through training with the parents they can become volenteers in the class room. This system would enable parents to volenteer their time to support the school, see for themselves first hand just what is being taught to their children and hopefully have an appreciation for the work teachers put into lessons. The system would be managed by the school on a needs basis as not to have swarms of parents in one class. This gives some control back to the teachers in that they are able to continue teaching these ‘No Outsider’ lessons but empowers the parents to feel that they are being involved and are working towards their childrens futures in a more collaborative way.
Another idea that come to mind was similar to the ‘This Girl Can’ campaign, with the idea of people having to choose from the families or their sexuality the labels that we call carry I wanted to create a campaign around the concept ‘I Am’. People identify with being Gay, Stright, Christian, Muslim, the list goes on. We are all Brothers, Sisters, Parents but it feels like when having to make a choice of identity, for those in the crisis of choosing family or sexuality this option is taken away. They are still Gay and Muslim but people should not be made to feel emarased, outcast or victamised by these labels, the campaign would promote these indentities and break down the stigma within communities, it would aim to create a discussion between families, offer support for those in need. The campaign I Am aims to empower people to not hide away and feel emarased or worry about the consequences of their choices. Just as Andrew Moffat teaches his pupils, there should be no outsiders, we are all different and this should be celebrated.
Pixels and Serifs. 