You could be confused by my tile as it doesn't refer to
anything in particular that you might see as an “aha!”.
I love grapes! I bring grapes to class and I think I’m
wonderful at choosing the juiciest seedless grapes. When I’m bored or hungry due
to a very full class schedule where most times we don’t learn anything too
important, I whip out my grapes! I munch away and share with those around me.
There is a reason it is not just one big grape, its meant to be shared, each
one a burst of flavor that tastes like more.
A few weeks back I’m in some or other class where I’m
eating grapes because lunch time is also class time. As I pull a couple of
grapes off the branch one grape falls to the floor of class 3001 (If you don’t know it, it’s a lecture hall
with raked styled seating so the floor is at a incline). I’m sitting in my
usually spot halfway up, isle of course and here my grape is rolling to the
front of the class and I watch it in sadness as it comes to a halt at the front
row isle seat.
A week or two passes and on this particular day I was in
Diversity and Inclusivity – one of the few classes I learn or want to engage
in- I look to the front of the class and I see my lonely grape still sitting on
the floor! Two weeks later… this was my first “aha!” moment: Room 3001 in the
Education building does not get cleaned very often.. or maybe at all… who
knows…but I saw that the grape is gone now, so that’s nice.
So my second “aha!” moment came in a discussion on
schools and how they might be divided and how they serve students, or something
to that effect. A girl who shall not be named because I don’t know her name,
stated that schools should be separated by gender.
At first I was there with her as I had gone to an all
girls’ school and loved it, but then I really thought about it and thought
about my friends and their struggles. Gender based schools would be chaotic at
best. This was my second and hopefully not last “aha!” moment. I thought about
some of the problems school are facing with the students at younger ages openly
and maybe not openly, identifying with the sex they are not born with. What
kind of problem will the cause in schools where you either go to a boy’s or
girls’ school. We will then be forcing students into gender boxes that they
might not fit into.
This is a theme I would like to explore as my personal
project:
Sexuality and Gender
identity in schools
