The day when cartoons could be used as an educational tool in California public schools just got closer with the passage of the FAIR Education Act earlier this month. As reported in my last post, Governor Brown signed the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act (SB 48) into law on July 14, 2011. The law amends the California Education Code to require the “instruction of social studies to include the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans . . . with particular emphasis on portraying the role of these groups in contemporary society.” Sponsors of the legislation cite to studies that have linked the inclusion of LGBT people in instructional materials to greater safety and lower rates of bullying. While California is the first state to pass a law that requires public schools to include LGBT topics in the classroom, the issue of LGBT youth being bullied at school is a national issue. Here’s a link to a recent message from President Obama discussing violence against LGBTQ youth:
Although I thought there would be great support for the new law, there is already a campaign underway to repeal SB 48 as seen in this week’s article on LA Weekly’s blog:
After reading the law, I noticed it didn’t provide any direction to the state or local boards of education about how to incorporate the new LGBT issues into the social studies curriculum. This is where the findings in my paper will suggest lesson plans incorporating these issues could benefit from including cartoons!!
So, maybe someday kids will come home from school saying that they watched cartoons in social studies class . . . hey, it was required!!!
Leave me your thoughts!
~Ryan
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