Are we as educators required to be advocates?

I was in a seminar the other day going over a paper I read on gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender issues in the classroom, written by an out lesbian professor who indicated that it was not enough to be non-homosexist but one must also be an advocate as well. I found a problem with this because as much as my personal life often has me advocating quite a few things that the general conservative might not find too appealing (or a few liberals for that matter), when it comes to classroom behavior, I prefer to take up a stance of neutrality on issues, ONLY stepping forward when I feel someone has gone over the line by either curtailing someone else's rights or insulting someone else for the lifestyle, perspective, beliefs, attitudes or state of being one lives within.

Yet, the argument of how I had to be proactive and an advocate kept coming up, being explained to me in that ever popular "no win" situation of "well, what about this type of situation?". I so wanted to answer: "I don't care, really." If someone is being attacked for his or her lifestyle or disposition of any nature, I will respond, but that doesn't make me an advocate. It makes me a defender of the rights of others.

What I was getting from this article is that it's not enough to be tolerant of those who are different than me. I have to take up their cause as well. Yet, no one takes up my causes. And for the most part, they probably won't. The whole argument of "support the minorities of today, because they will support you when you need it" is such a bunch of baloney. When the women's movement stalled itself to support the African-American suffrage movement, they found themselves standing alone in the rain when it came time for turn about and return support. People are generally only interested in their own gains; once they get them, they become part of the majority and really don't see a need to support the next up and coming issue-based people. Look at the melting pot history of our own country. Foreigners coming to America were looked poorly upon, and it was generations before the Irish were considered acceptable in America. But ask that acceptable demographic about some of the demographics who are going through the same struggles they did those years back, and you might be shocked at the responses you'll receive.

I did a lot of advocacy work for the gay rights movement a decade or so ago because it was something I believed in. Things WERE bad back then, and AIDS was really out of control. I didn't have to be gay to do a lot of the background work I did back then; it just seemed right. However, when the issues I advocated for after that movement were addressed, I found the same people who I worked with didn't want to upset City Hall by speaking out against other issues that weren't gay-themed. That was about the time I received my education on how advocacy works in the real world.

So, what is an educator to do? Advocate for everything that's got a huge politically correct army behind it? Advocate for nothing and be accused of all sorts of hatreds you don't actually have? Or leave education completely and let the advocates fight it out amongst themselves as more and more educators get tired of shoveling dirt up an endless hill that has forgotten the original reason educators were hired was to actually teach something. I guess the fight these days is what should be taught, as more and more industries and countries look at the United States, wondering why we don't produce technologically educated students anymore in our schools.

Stumble It!