We had very interesting class periods this past week. On Tuesday we had a guest speaker, Lisa Koontz, who I thought was extremely interesting and nice. When she introduced herself she told us that she had never discussed the topic of her being a queer parent mother. She was able to open up to us about almost everything in her life. She started describing her and her partner and how they were together for seventeen years before they decided to have a child together. I was so intrigued by everything that she was saying because she had raised her daughter a little differently and she was so polite and open to discussing it all. One of the first things that I thought was really interesting was the fact that they decided to home school her. Their daughter is only four years old right now and hasn't been home schooled for a while but the intentions to home school her are so genuine. They really want her to have a good education and believe that if she were to go to a public school than she wouldn't learn as much and that schools focus a lot on behavior. Another thing I noticed is that Lisa said they dress her in 'boy clothing.' The reason for dressing her in these clothes is solely just so that she wont be constricted from doing anything physical or just being comfortable in her clothing. I thought they have good intentions for her daughter and I'm sure they will let her decide what she wants to wear when she grows up, weather it be dresses or cute dress pants and dress shirts. Another very interesting thing I noticed is that they do not have a TV at home. I know that some people would think this is really surprising, but I kind of agree with Lisa because my dad raised me by saying that TV isn't important and that you should be limited to only so much a week.
Thursdays class was also very informative. We had two articles to read this week and a section from our Look Both Ways book. We split into three groups, each discussing a different reading assignment. Then after discussing it in our small groups we discussed them all as a class. I thought this was very effective because I know me and some of my fellow classmates had some difficulties understanding parts of the articles. When discussing the articles as groups and as a class we were able to explain what we each understood about the article. Then once we had to go in front of the class to explain it to everyone it helped me understand it even more. It really helped me understand the material because my fellow classmates were the ones that were explaining it. We covered the main topics of each reading and what terms were the most important.
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Thanks for keeping up with your blog, Keli. This one does a good job of summarizing what Lisa talked about and what we did in class Thursday, highlighting the parts of Lisa's visit that spoke most to you. What did you see as most connected between Lisa's experience and the "It Takes a Lesbian Village" reading, or even the discussion of woman-identification in Baumgardner or Rich? If you are struggling to understand the readings still, please come see one of us to talk further about them. Your blog should include more highlights and analysis from the texts. Garrick's blog does an especially good job of this this week.
ReplyDeleteAnd since we're not all throwing out our TVs, coming soon will be a discussion of LGBT representation in the media. Please continue to write about class but also add in reading.