Class removes blinders from the heterosexist eye.

School-age lesbians and gays have it rough, from deep dark closets to harassment and worse. Teachers and staff with unsorted baggage may unwittingly contribute. How can the programs that train educators help?

Part of the answer may be emerging from a new doctoral program in Educational Leadership for Teaching and Learning at Lewis University IL. The program's social justice emphasis reflects the Catholic university's mission: to affirm "the equal dignity of every person and the promotion of personal and social responsibility."

Students Heather Hickman, Dan Johnson and others in the first doctoral cohort took the class Educational Leadership for a Pluralistic Society: Examining Diversity for Teaching and Learning led by guest faculty Dr. Gerardo Lopez of Indiana University. For six hours each Saturday they explored one ism a week, looking inward as well as out. "It …