The University held its third annual “Teach OUT” Wednesday in tandem with the Education Studies program, featuring discussion between area teachers and administrators about gender and sexuality issues in today’s education system. With the phrase “because no one should be ashamed to love their family” prominent, the mission and purpose was never in question. @@http://education.uoregon.edu/feature.htm?id=2836hout@@

“This event is to do outreach about the Education Studies program, and it’s also an educational event about gender and sexuality in schools,” Teach OUT coordinator Julie Heffernan said of the two-day event. “It’s also an educational event about gender and sexuality in schools.” @@http://education.uoregon.edu/faculty.htm?id=388@@

The keynote speaker for the event was Academy Award winner Debra Chasnoff, who created the controversial documentaries “It’s Elementary: Talking about Gay Issues in Schools” and the follow up, “It’s Still Elementary” where she and others went into elementary schools and talked to the children about gender and sexuality issues. @@http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0153899/@@

“There are lots of age-appropriate ways to educate young people about (gender and sexuality) issues,” Chasnoff said of her film, which sparked intense political outrage during the 1990s. “One reason we did it is that each new generation begins to grapple with LGBT issues. We realized that our (movie’s) history could be valuable.”

The morning session of the Teach OUT took place at the Knight Library, with the evening spent at the Ford Alumni Center. Dr. Rosemary Gray, a supervisor for masters students in the special education department, spoke of the importance of events like the Teach OUT and the issues still in schools today.

“When kids are little, they call each other names like ‘fag’ or ‘queer’, and it starts in first or second grade,” Gray said. “I do think we’ve made progress. The Springfield school district has a building representative in all K-12 schools as a safe person to go to, and there was just a ‘pink prom’ for gay and lesbian students … those kinds of things didn’t use to occur.”

With students and educators speaking out about their own predominantly negative experiences in the classroom — one high school student spoke of classes “where people use the words ‘fag’ and ‘faggot’” in passing — there were positives associated with the content of the Teach OUT.

“The fact that we’re having this, that all of these students are here and are more willing to say ‘that’s not right’ and to do something about it is really a positive thing,” Gray said of the significance of this year’s Teach OUT. “This is a way for educators to become aware, to hear students’ stories and become involved in making it better.”