Teaching Gender and Sexuality

Two class periods have been devoted to gender and sexuality this semester. For the lesson on gender issues, we had a guest speaker present, and she really pushed people's buttons. It was amazing to see how each of my four sections responded differently to her presentation. I taught the following lesson on human sexuality and spent time discussing students' responses to her presentation. I spent only five minutes clarifying one idea for one class. For the other three classes, I spent nearly the whole hour working through student opposition to many of her points. But, it was a great opportunity to get them thinking critically, and it was the most fun I've had since I started teaching. In one class, students wanted to understand the causes of homosexuality and we discussed the biases present in the textbook and elaborated on research findings and theories not found in the book. In another class, students wanted to explore Obama's position about repealing the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy as it relates to homosexuality. I think what was fun about it was that students felt free to express their opinions, that students were interested, and that students began respectfully addressing each other's points in a whole class discussion. I wish more lessons could be like this one was, but I don't think the rest of the material will really hit home with people's strongly held beliefs like this one did.