Interview with Alisah McPhee

Question: How do you discuss sexual orientation and gender identity in your classroom?

00:00:05

In my classroom, I'm completely honest. I don't shy away from questions that students have, but it's not something that I'm telling students that they are. I want students to be aware of people who identify, maybe differently than them, but also students knowing that students in the classroom may not identify with the binary and so kind of giving them a middle ground for this is where I identify. Oh, like I am normal and that's okay. That's kind of the approach I take is to be completely honest and open, and I often allow students to write questions on paper to privately ask, and then I can share it with the class. So, my health class is very generated by the students and the questions that they have. Not an agenda that I have to push.

Question: What do parents need to know about how SOGI is addressed in schools?

00:01:01

I think the most important thing that I would want parents to know is that as teachers, we’re there to support every child, we're not there to change a child or tell them that they aren't the gender that they are. We're there to support. In terms of SOGI education, I would want them to know that SOGI is not a curriculum. If they want to know what the curriculum is, they can go on the BC government website and find out exactly the content that we're teaching. That teachers are more than welcome or welcoming for parents to come in and ask those questions like what is the content? How are you going to go about teaching that? Because lots of people are thinking that in elementary school, we're teaching explicit sexual content but we're not. We're teaching acceptance of different families, different people. We're not saying you are this, but how are you going to create your own identity? How are you going to be who you are? We give them different job opportunities. We give them different exposure to different careers that they could have through different curricular content that they learn through science, math, language arts. Students need to know how they can identify as an adult later on and be comfortable with who they are. I think teens and youth struggle a lot with who they are, and they always have. Us talking about now reduces suicide rates. It allows kids to feel like they fit in somewhere. That's what I would want parents to know is that we don't want to cause any harm to your children. We want to help your child become the best adult that they can be.

Question: What is the purpose of teaching about SOGI, as you see it?

00:03:00

Being a student in the school system and only having 2SLGBTQAI+ people seen as a negative. I think that the most important thing for me, the way I see it is giving kids just an understanding whether they identify that way or not. We want kids to not be racist. So, we teach about different cultures. We relate similarities like oh, I can identify with that. We want kids to be good people. We want them to be good citizens. And so, for me, that's what teaching SOGI content is about, creating good citizens that will stand up for somebody who is being treated unjustly. We want social justice for people. So, for me, that's where it's at.

Question: How have your personal experiences informed your view of SOGI?

00:03:59

I've had some difficult situations in my own life surrounding my identity and for me, if I can help one kid then I think I've done my job. And so, for me, helping kids find out who they are or just letting them see an adult who is successful, who is not the stereotype of what parents are scared of. I think you know creating that boundary or that bridge for people to go, oh, this isn't what I expected. And creating that bridge and helping kids be comfortable with who they are or seeing somebody positive. Whereas when I was in school, that definitely wasn't, we had some guesses about some teachers, but it was always shut down. Nobody was open because of fear of repercussion for their job or growing up in a small community, that would be very isolating. So, I'll be the target for the kids. I'll take it. If I can take any weight off their shoulders, that's what I'll do.

Question: Is there anything else you would like to share?

00:05:23

There are a lot of ideas circulating around that we are, through SOGI education, we're telling the girls in our class that they need to cut their breasts off because that will solve all of their problems. As a mid-teen or teenage girl that that's going to solve their problems. There's nothing that we're teaching. We aren't saying that kids need to be a different gender. I've never once said that. We just want kids to feel comfortable with who they are, and we're not lying to parents. If a kid feels like it's not safe at home to identify a specific way, but they divulge that to us, we're accepting your kids as they are, as they come to us and we're going to help them be able to maybe have that conversation with you, but maybe they don't know how. Maybe they live in a religious home and what they've heard their whole life is that that's not okay. So, think about a difficult conversation you've had with your parents. And who helped you with that? Maybe it was a teacher. Maybe it was a counselor. Maybe it was a relative, but right now, for some students, it's their teacher. And we're going to help them navigate those difficult conversations. Conversations take practice, and sometimes they have to have those practice conversations with teachers. And so, we never want to change a kid, but we want to support them in whatever they need.