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Brooke Hellekson
April 2, 2016
English 1010, 8:30
James Celestino
Argument Essay

Education

Thisuri Wanniarachchi, a young Sri Lankan author once wrote, If anyone makes you feel
less than you are, for the color of your skin, for where you come from, for the gender of the
person you love, for the religion you have faith in, stand up, speak up, roar. No silence till we are
equal. In 1910, women had to obtain special permission to attend lectures, and would not be
allowed to declare a major. Black men were allowed higher education as early as 1695, but the
black community was forced to be in separate schools. It wasnt until 1954 that schooling was
desegregated and minority races were allowed to be educated at the same schools as Caucasians.
In 2016, there are still many anti-transgender and anti-gay state laws preventing equal treatment
in the education system. Although the United States has come along from obvious exclusion of
women as well as sexual and racial minorities, the lack of inclusivity in the education is still
rampant. A large amount of the population believes this exclusivity no longer exists. Educating
the general populace will allow for awareness of ones own internal biases, enabling one to move
towards combating those biases. There will be evidence presented that will prove exclusion in
the education system is still very much present today.
Tyler Clementi was a nineteen year old college freshman, when his roommate conspired
to record and publicize intimate acts with Tyler Clementis same sex partner. Once he learned

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that his roommate had invited multiple friends to view the videos, he jumped to his death off the
George Washington Bridge leaving a Facebook post that said Im sorry. An equally shocking
case was that of a gay man, Jamie Nazbony. After years of bullying and harassment from his
classmates and numerous failed suicide attempts Jamie Nazbony decided to sue his school for
failure to provide a safe environment for them. The school administrators that refused to
intervene in the harassment of Jamie Nazbony were found guilty of discrimination.
Since then some schools have started to reevaluate their anti-bullying policies and have
encouraged students to start gay-straight alliance clubs. But the exclusion of the lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+ ) community is still present in todays education
system. A national survey of close to two thousand sexual minority students seventy-five percent
reported hearing gay slurs often or frequently at school. In the same survey most of those
students reported being harassed or threatened and one in three children reported being
physically attacked. (Patterson) Current policies in numerous Christian schools even bar lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender students from admission. (Wolff and Himes) Not only do Christian
schools discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community, public schools do as well. The lack of
inclusivity involving the LGBTQ+ community in education is widespread, and is especially
evident in sexual and health education. Sex education standards vary widely across the country.
In states that require children take a sex or health education they usually assume the students are
heterosexual and nontransgender. The curriculum rarely or doesnt mention gender or sexual
identity at all. Other classes only mention them in a negative light. This not only prevents
LBGTQ+ students from learning the information they need to stay healthy, it contributes to the
environment of exclusivity that is already present in a large amount of schools. It has been
proven that comprehensive sex education greatly lowers the risk of unintentional pregnancy or

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STDs. The LGBTQ+ community faces the greatest danger when not presented with
comprehensive sex education. LGBTQ+ people are most at risk for STDs, HIV, rape, and
abusive relationships. Photographer and gay rights activist, Herb Ritts once said, Being an
American is about having the right to be who you are. Sometimes that doesnt happen. Logos,
ethos, and pathos rhetoric has proved Herb Ritts right. The American society must work to
include the LGBTQ+ community, for the benefit of all. Every American should have the basic
right to be who they are. Unfortunately, the basic rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender community are being compromised in exchange for the comforts of the majority.
Herb Ritts words easily translate from LGBTQ+ rights to racial minorities rights.
With student diversity is increasing school curricula is, and always had had a hard time
keeping up. Instead of cultural appreciation, one would find hierarchy and discrimination. Racial
discrimination always has been, and still is a controversial topic in education. Teachers have
been encouraged to skip over potentially controversial topic of offending their conservative
white students and their families. A perfect illustration of the racial discrimination rhetoric in
education was Horace Manns admonition to a training school principal for taking his students to
an abolitionist meeting. Horace Mann was an abolitionist himself, and justified his rebuke by
stating his fear that he would lose support from his white patrons. By giving into the local
populations prejudices at the expense of equality it became painfully obvious the exclusion that
was present in the education system. In the modern education system that racial bias is still
alarmingly evident. A psychological commonality of human beings is the tendency to want to be
near other similar human beings, birds of a feather flock together Within this psychological
phenomenon African Americans tend to live near other African Americans and Latinos tend to

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live near other Latinos. School districts where the majority of the population is people of color
there is a large disparity in the quality of schools and the funding they receive.
Gender discrimination in education is often treated as an imagined concept. But in a
randomized double-blind study science faculty from research-intensive universities rated the
application materials of a student who was randomly assigned either a male or female name.
Faculty rated the male applicant more comparable and hireable than the identical female
applicant. The male applicant was also offered a higher starting salary and career mentoring than
the female applicant. This bias was found in both male and female current faculty members.
Common results were found in many subjects. (Moss-Racusin) The gender bias does not only
effect students, it can and does effect female faculty members. When students were asked to rate
a professors persona, the papers were given randomized names and qualities, female professors
were consistently rated lower than their male peers. (MacNell and Driscoll)
The use of logos, ethos, and pathos has been used as evidence to undeniably prove that
exclusivity is still prevalent in the twenty-first century educational system. The era of blatant
discrimination is over, and a new era of subtle, and arguably more harmful discrimination has
taken over. . Discrimination due to race, gender, and sexual orientation is still running rampant in
the education system. There is purposeful exclusion of comprehensive education for nonheterosexual students, as well as exclusion of LGBTQ+ youth especially in Christian schools.
Schools where the majority of the students are minority races are severely and unfairly lacking
funds, as well as a lack of action taken when potentially racially motivated action and rhetoric
are reported. There is a severe underestimation of female students by their male peers as well as
teachers consciously and unconsciously favoring male students. (Grunspan) This gender

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discrimination is also present among the faculty in education. Students often rate masculine
and/or male professors higher than feminine and/or female professors.
It has been proven that subtle discrimination is more harmful to those effected than
blatant discrimination. This discrimination is not only an infringement on the education of those
being discriminated against, but it creates tension between all groups involved. If nothing is done
the discrimination and tension could potentially escalate. An egalitarian society is beneficial to
all and must be created to enforce equality and fairness among all types of people

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WORKS CITED

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