![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Pitzer college and the Joint Science Department brought a bunch of middle school kids to campus today to give them a taste of college, and I ran an activity where they could experiment with various kinds of waves. To introduce the topic I asked the whole group to make a circle and link hands: we "did the wave" by raising and lowering our hands as the wave moved around the group. It's a nice hands-on introduction to the concept.
But I'd overlooked a crucial issue: these kids did NOT want to hold each others' hands. Most of them came around pretty quickly, but a few of the boys held out for ages against touching each other. (We even had a minor "teachable moment" when our wave reached a boy who had refused: the wave stopped, with everybody staring at him. He did link up after that.)
My best guess is that the boys were trying to avoid looking "gay". I'd honestly forgotten how pervasive homophobia is at that age, and I probably underestimate it in our culture in general. Most of the people I spend time with strongly favor gay rights: it's easy to forget about the others until they vote for Proposition 8. But as usual, the silent prejudices embedded in the culture become overt and magnified in kids: they've figured out what they're supposed to dislike but not that they're supposed to be subtle about it.
Along similar lines, it also failed to cross my mind that one of my student assistants for the day might strike the kids as a bit unusual: they probably don't see many guys wearing skirts (much less ex-military guys). I didn't notice their reactions myself, but the student commented that the second group of kids had been less mature about it than the first. Once again, I think that's a sign that I've acclimated to an awfully diverse crowd. I like to think that's a good thing, but it pays to be aware that campus communities are far from typical.
But I'd overlooked a crucial issue: these kids did NOT want to hold each others' hands. Most of them came around pretty quickly, but a few of the boys held out for ages against touching each other. (We even had a minor "teachable moment" when our wave reached a boy who had refused: the wave stopped, with everybody staring at him. He did link up after that.)
My best guess is that the boys were trying to avoid looking "gay". I'd honestly forgotten how pervasive homophobia is at that age, and I probably underestimate it in our culture in general. Most of the people I spend time with strongly favor gay rights: it's easy to forget about the others until they vote for Proposition 8. But as usual, the silent prejudices embedded in the culture become overt and magnified in kids: they've figured out what they're supposed to dislike but not that they're supposed to be subtle about it.
Along similar lines, it also failed to cross my mind that one of my student assistants for the day might strike the kids as a bit unusual: they probably don't see many guys wearing skirts (much less ex-military guys). I didn't notice their reactions myself, but the student commented that the second group of kids had been less mature about it than the first. Once again, I think that's a sign that I've acclimated to an awfully diverse crowd. I like to think that's a good thing, but it pays to be aware that campus communities are far from typical.
Tags: