Thursday, 5 March 2015

Randi Brooks 7


Blog #7

Throughout Chapter 7 of our textbook, it mainly focuses on the ascribed characteristics among us that affect how well a child does in school. What I found interesting was the topic regarding immigrants and how one reason why they may do better than Canadian born children is because “visible minority youth in Canada have high aspirations toward post-secondary education” (209). The text goes on to mention that visible minorities have higher aspirations than Canadian born youth to receive an education, as well as “first generation immigrant parents have higher educational expectations of their children compared to those parents who were born in the country” (209). This doesn’t really surprise me because when immigrants come to Canada from another country, it is difficult for them sometimes to pack up there entire life and move somewhere new. In fact, sometimes they don’t even know the language. So for immigrant parents to have a higher expectation for their children makes sense because they have to somewhat work harder in order to “fit in” with other Canadian children.
One thing that really interested me in this entire chapter was the section on sexual orientation and The Triangle Program. This program is an alternative school in Toronto that is focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered youth. “The goals of the program are to foster the success of students who are targets of homophobia and who are at a high risk of dropping out or committing suicide” (219).  I never knew that such a school existed and I think it’s a great idea. Some youth today are very self-conscious about their sexual identity and are afraid to go to school because of the bullying and homophobic comments. Even though these negative actions should never be occurring within schools, the reality is that they are still present. It’s nice to see that there is an alternative school for LGBT youth to attend if they do have those insecurities about being in a public school setting.
This section made me think of this video that I happened to see on Facebook a few days ago. It’s called “Love is blind” and it supports different types of diversity. Check it out, it’s a really cute video!


Discussion question: What are your thoughts on The Triangle Program? Do you think it's beneficial for today's youth or do you think it segregates LGBT youth?

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