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“Rocking the Cradle: Gay Parenting” to premiere this week Feb 20, 2008

Mary Ann Watson says that textbook teaching is fine, but it's one dimensional. "Rocking the Cradle is her 12th training video. Photo by Dave Neligh.

Psychology faculty Mary Ann Watson and Layton Curl have done it again: written, narrated and produced another educational film on human sexuality that is sure to get people talking.

Their video, “Rocking the Cradle: Gay Parenting,” will premiere on campus this Friday, Feb. 22, at 4 p.m. in Plaza 205. Anyone interested is invited to attend.

Produced for use in college and university classrooms, the 35-minute film features six gay and lesbian families from the Denver area, and their stories of adoption, insemination and co-parenting.

Watson, psychology professor and assistant chair of the department, said she makes videos such as these (“Rocking the Cradle” is her 12th) as a way to assist faculty nationwide in the teaching of “potentially controversial” subjects. Watson believes that the real-world perspective provided by the subjects in her videos makes the subject come alive for students in a way that teaching from a book can’t.

“Text-book teaching is fine, but it’s one dimensional,” Watson says. “These videos are a way of bringing real people into classrooms to talk about these very personal issues…. It would be nice to have guest speakers in classrooms on these real human experiences, but that isn’t always possible or feasible,” says the 34-year Metro State veteran.

Curl, assistant professor of psychology, adds, “What we’ve found is that co-parenting is becoming a big trend among gay and lesbian families…. Our students often have stereotypes about these families. These videos dispel a lot of their misconceptions. Afterward, they’ll say, ‘They look just like us!’”

Curl also says that he and Watson have complementary skills that work well together in producing the films. He’s an experimental social psychologist while Watson is a clinical practitioner. “Mary Ann’s clinical experience influences her interview style. She’s great at drawing out people’s emotions.”

“She’s been a wonderful mentor,” he adds.

Layton Curl: "...co-parenting is becoming a big trend among gay and lesbian families." Photo by Johanna Snow.

The impetus film
The film grew out of a seven-part video series created by Watson and Curl in 2006, “Portraits in Human Sexuality.” That series garnered Watson, together with Curl, her third Telly Award in 10 years. (Telly Awards honor outstanding local, regional and cable TV commercials and programs, and video and film productions.)

“We found that the one segment (from the “Portraits” video series) generating the most interest and discussion in our clinical psychology and social psychology classes was that of a gay co-parenting family, with four adults and their two children,” she said. That inspired the making of “Rocking the Cradle,” and plans for a second related film in three years that will provide a five-year longitudinal look at one of the families. Curl and Watson also plan to do a video on gender dysphoria, or transgendered persons, this summer.

Companion instructor’s manual
Watson and Curl also produced a companion instructor’s manual to assist faculty in using “Rocking the Cradle” as a teaching and learning tool. The manual includes information on the issues involved in the establishment of gay/lesbian families, including United States maps with current state laws impacting gay families, brief biographical information on each of the six families, discussion questions for classroom use, a list of related articles and books, and a listing of support associations.

The film is being distributed to higher education faculty by Films for the Humanities and Sciences, “the largest distributing company for college classroom films,” Watson says.

Read a profile of Watson at http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/artman/publish/dykwatson_twv4082306.shtml.

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