Thank You for Your Help - and Resolutions

Filed Under education, lil things, plans | 1 Comment

I realize sometimes I bring up miniature dilemmas here, receive feedback from kind readers, and then never mention how I resolved the issue. Here is how a few things turned out:

On the Dilemma of Real or Fake Christmas Trees
Last you may have heard, I thought I might go with a potted tree that could be replanted later. Alas, procrastination got the better of me, and I waited too long to send the email, mail the check, and fax the form (yes, all three were necessary to procure the tree). The LH ended up driving me a mile down the road and taking me to my first Christmas Tree Lot of locally grown trees (a tradition since 1979! according to the sign). The potted tree was going to run me $65. The tree I got was $25. It’s gorgeous. It is not a big deal to keep it watered. It’s the perfect tree. I cannot believe I ever considered getting a fake one!!! (Tino, you were right.) Yes, it only has seven ornaments on it, but the tree is beautiful enough without the glitz and glamour.

On the Dilemma of Atrociously Wrinkled Cloth Napkins
I have decided that it’s really not that bad. They end up in one’s lap anyhoo. For special occasions, however, I’ve confirmed that removing them from the dryer when they are still damp does work - thank you all!

On the Dilemma of Which Class to Take
Ultimately I chose History of the Middle East over Medieval Women Writers. The former just seems far more relevant right now, and it will help me fill in some blanks. (I know a lot of Islamic history from the Sunni Muslim perspective, but that hardly covers things.) So my three other classes are: Muckraking: the Activist’s Role in Shaping America’s History; Psychoanalysis and Film during which I’ll be learning a lot about Lacan; and Political Criticism in Film.

Thanks to those who pitched in with their thoughts and opinions - they really did have an influence on what I decided.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Jul

21

Blasted Out Of Innocence, Part 2 (Sex Ed in the Early Ages)

Filed Under current affairs, education, gender, health, heteropatriarchy | 1 Comment

At one point during the O’Reilly interview, Rev. Haffner brought up the recent Catholic sex abuse settlement case as an example of why children need to learn about their bodies from a young age. O’Reilly seemed to dismiss this on the basis that the victims involved were in their early teens.

This alarmed me. As Rev. Haffner had pointed out at the beginning, early childhood sex ed is about laying a foundation for future, more comprehensive education. If children aren’t being taught from the get-go that it’s okay to even say certain words, when will they ever develop the comfort level to discuss sexuality? During adolescence - perhaps the most awkward stage of life?

As a child reared in a very religious home, I never, ever used words like sex or penis. I was in my early 20s before I even pronounced the word rape. I When I would see a news story about a woman being raped, and wanted to talk about that with someone else, I’d say the woman was assaulted, attacked, or - if I was really shaken up - violated. I remember being so embarrassed about sexuality that between the ages of 12 and 15, I didn’t get any new underwear. The ones I had were practically reduced to shreds by washing and drying, but I couldn’t bring myself to let my mother know that I needed *gulp* panties.

And I didn’t come from a particularly repressive family; I just never had the opportunity to use words expressing sexual concepts at all - in positive or negative contexts.

Certainly, I didn’t have the vocabulary to tell my parents about the sexual abuse I witnessed happening to some of my friends. When I wanted to avoid going over to one friend’s house in particular because of the things her brother did, I would feign illness or become sullen; my parents, not knowing what was going on, would become irritated with me.

Are children who are taught sex education from a young age better equipped to protect themselves and advocate for themselves during and after dangerous situations? I’d like to know this. If the evidence says yes, perhaps more parents, teachers and other concerned adults can view sex education as being a matter of physical and mental/emotional health.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Jul

21

Blasted Out of Innocence (Sex Ed in the Early Ages)

Filed Under current affairs, education, health, heteropatriarchy, media, people, uuism | 1 Comment

If you haven’t seen it already, the UU Reverend Debra Haffner’s appeared on the O’Reilly Factor several days ago to talk about sex education in the primary grades. O’Reilly stated that he disagreed with Haffner about the appropriateness of teaching kindergarten age children a word like “uterus.” Doing so would be “blasting” them out of their childhoods.

Now I disagree with O’Reilly on this point. I don’t think uterus is somehow more dangerous than a word like “kidney” or “mind.” Even if it goes over a child’s head, they aren’t somehow scarred for having heard it.

But that’s just my opinion, and one opinion is as good as another. O’Reilly didn’t oppose the use of the word uterus on principle; his concern was that it was harmful to young children to be exposed to that level of specificity. The good news for all of us is that such an opinion can be put to the test. And while O’Reilly didn’t ask for this, it would have been great if Rev. Haffner had responded to his fears with the results of studies that looked at whether such “sophisticated” language harmed young children.

I don’t know if there are any such studies, but surely some work has been done to determine what is “age appropriate” and why. If evidence suggests that young children are actually helped by having that kind of vocabulary, and O’Reilly was informed of this, perhaps he’d have no problem with it.

Popularity: 41% [?]

Jan

13

Listen to Yourself!

Filed Under education | 10 Comments

Last night I stayed up til four a.m. talking to the DH and our roommate about the inanity of public education. What follows is a rant, hastily written.

It occurred to me only a month ago that the three of us all had unconventional schooling (unschooling/homeschooling). I left school two months into the 7th grade, and later attended one year of high school. The DH dropped out of the 9th grade to write software, and didn’t even bother to get his GED until years later. The roommate went to high school but was homeschooled by conservative Christian parents for most of his life; he later served in the Navy for four or six years, and is about as anti-establishment and anti-religion as one can be without actually being an activist.

I thought I had radical ideas about schooling, but these two put me to shame. The DH believes that the traditional public and private education system is not simply flawed, but actually harms children.

A few months ago, when the school year began, I was hanging out at the house of the DH’s parents. His little sister is in 6th grade (middle school). I was disturbed to discover that the students at her school are not permitted to carry their backpacks in the hallways. This is because the school administrators are fearful of guns being toted around. Lockers have also been eliminated, so that students cannot stash guns or drugs in them. Hats and black nail polish are forbidden to discourage kids from engaging in subversive behavior. What on earth kind of nonsense is this? This is a school in a rural/suburban town where there is no history of school shootings! But is it really any surprise? Look at how the adults in our society are so indifferent about sacrificing their constitutional rights in the name of national security.

One of the things that positively disgusted me was reading some of the arguments during the Planet Pluto debate. I couldn’t believe there were educators and scientists in the media arguing that we couldn’t withdraw Pluto’s planet status because then the children would be confused, and question everything they’d been taught in school. Regardless of my opinion of what Pluto should be classified as, that type of reasoning just makes me say WHAT?!

The other day I actually saw a commercial on television: several couples (strangely enough, all people of color) were depicted in the ads talking about how educational some children’s network or program was. One “mother” actually said, “It’s like having a preschool right in your living room.” WHAT?

I once had a customer interrupt me as I was reviewing her electric consumption with her. Her voice dripped with condescension: “Listen to yourself ! How could I have used 74 kilowatt hours in a DAY, when there are only 24 hours in a day?” It remains the only time I have been rendered speechless in my work. This woman was in her 30s. And she had a job that required a college degree.

I feel as though I’m far too young for this to be having these thoughts. I know a young woman who graduated from high school three years ago and did not know (until last week, when she asked someone) who had won the American Civil War. She is not a stupid person; she is actually quite intelligent. But what on earth was going on for those twelve years of suburban public schooling that she so dutifully completed?

The more I think about it, the more I realize how public schools are like corporations. And I have sympathy for all the disaffected, bored adolescents out there whose parents are forcing them to attend school because they don’t know what else to do with them. Surely, these kids must feel as frustrated as the middle aged, middle-class corporate drones and peons most of them are destined to become.

I’m reminded of that wonderful Soderbergh film, Kafka, when one character says to Kafka, “It’s not too bad working here, though.” And Kafka replies, “You’ve never felt it was a horrible double life, from which there was probably no escape but insanity?”

(cover of Grace Llewellyn’s, The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education. Note: Back when this book came out, I was friends with the girl on the cover - she, her mom, her brother, and her goats were awesome.)

Popularity: 8% [?]

Jul

4

UU Schools for Kids?

Filed Under education, uu culture | 7 Comments

Peacebang recently remarked on the practice of some UU churches closing for the summer, and in responding to her, I mentioned church schools for kids. Now by this I don’t mean Sunday school, but private elementary schools operated by churches or other religious institutions. Catholics have them, Muslims have them, Lutherans, 7th Day Adventists, and so on. When I worked for the local Muslim organization, one of the things we did was start up a school. It was one of the top priorities, and took several years, huge amounts of (volunteered) work, and lots of donations, but it finally happened. It’s been operating now for over five years.

This got me thinking: is there any place in North America where UUs have established and are running an elementary school?

Popularity: 6% [?]