Blogpost #11 - RI Laws and Policies; and Queering Our Schools and Woke Read Alouds: They, She, He Easy as ABC

 After doing this week’s readings on RI Laws and Policies, Queering Our Schools, and watching Woke Read Alouds: They, She, He Easy as ABC, I kept thinking about how schools can either affirm students’ identities or erase them. What stood out most is that creating inclusive spaces isn’t just about “being nice”—it’s about safety, belonging, and legal responsibility.

Quote #1 (RI Laws & Policies): Many Rhode Island statewide guidance documents emphasize that “all students have the right to a safe and supportive school environment, free from discrimination based on gender identity or expression.”

This reminded me that inclusion isn’t optional. It’s literally the law. Schools must protect students and treat their identities with respect. Reading this made me reflect on how often students have had to “prove” their right to exist comfortably in school, even though the policy already backs them up. It makes me realize that educators not only have a moral obligation to honor students - they have a legal one too.

Quote #2 (Queering Our Schools – Airton): Airton argues that schools must move beyond celebrating diversity and instead “interrupt the assumption that everyone is straight and cisgender unless stated otherwise.”

This hit me hard because it shows that the problem isn’t just a lack of representation; the problem is the default assumptions schools are built on. I thought about how often people say “boys and girls” without even thinking about it. Those little habits send big messages about who belongs and who doesn’t. This quote pushed me to rethink what it means to create a queer-inclusive classroom - not adding a rainbow poster, but removing the assumptions that make some students invisible.

Quote #3 (Woke Read Alouds – They, She, He Easy as ABC): In the video, the narrator explains that “everybody has a way to express who they are, and pronouns are just one way we share our truth.”

I loved how simple and joyful this explanation was. It takes something adults often turn into controversy and brings it back to what it should be: helping kids understand themselves and others. Watching it, I kept thinking about how representation in children’s books matters so much. Kids deserve to see families, pronouns, identities, and expressions that reflect the world they actually live in - not a reduced version of it.

Overall, these materials made me reconsider how schools define “normal,” and how easily that definition can exclude. Inclusive education isn’t about forcing an agenda on kids; it’s about acknowledging reality and giving every student space to feel fully human. RI policies establish the baseline. Airton’s work challenges the mindset behind the daily interactions. And the read-aloud video shows what it looks like in practice - simple, warm, and affirming.

Taken together, this week’s learning makes me think about the kind of teacher I want to be: someone who doesn’t wait for a student to correct me about their identity, someone who doesn’t reinforce narrow boxes of who kids are supposed to be, and someone who treats inclusion not as an add-on, but as the foundation of a safe classroom.