what frustrates me...

Today in class, a former student of mine (we'll call him Sean) stopped by to say hello. While he was in the room, a current student of mine (we'll call him Ethan) asked who he was. The visitor introduced himself and said something about how he plays football. At that point Ethan, who is a soccer player, eagerly exclaimed..."Football's gay!"

Now, this is a fairly typical middle school response. However, I took the opportunity to explain to my entire class that a sport does not have any sort of sexual orientation...they are neither homosexual nor heterosexual. (Last year I had to do the same thing when a student insisted that the classroom printer was gay!)

I say all of this because it's frustrating. I used to refer to things as being "gay" (and maybe I find myself doing it a bit more now that I'm constantly surrounded by 7th graders who use the term like it's going out of style), but I try to avoid it at all cost. During college I realized that I was inaccurately and inappropriately using the term. So, now it's my mission to ensure that any child who walks through my door no longer jumps to the conclusion that something is gay.

(I know what you're thinking...this post is gay!)

Above is a picture of my gay printer.