Impermissible Thoughts
Via Uma Thurman’s Feet, some educational news:
The particulars of which, we’ll get to in a moment. But in the meantime, do feel free to take a guess. Perhaps it could be the basis for a drinking game.
The email to union members, sent by John Vince, the chief negotiator for Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation district 27, is positively heaving with thou-shalt-nots:
As we’ve seen, many times, some teachers and educational bureaucrats do seem rather titillated by the prospect of actively deceiving parents. As, for instance, when middle-school teachers in Missouri were urged to fabricate and publish a false curriculum, purely to hide from parents the details of their activism and what they were actually up to in class. A move pre-emptively described by its proponent, Natalie Fallert, as “not being deceitful.” And regarding which, I wrote:
But I digress. Let’s get back to Mr Vince’s emailed instructions to Ontario educators:
Apparently, tardiness is a human right. Other sins to be avoided include the words blind spot, and the immensely oppressive phrase ladies and gentlemen.
Also forbidden are:
The opinion that women who have male reproductive organs (ex. a penis) may make some women uncomfortable in change rooms or washrooms.
The notion that there are only two genders.
Disagreement that someone could be born in the wrong body or that we all have a ‘gender-soul’.
The idea that keeping secrets from parents/guardians is bad.
These, it turns out, are “right-wing” opinions, and therefore have soul-blackening properties.
Needless to say, this quoted selection is but a small sample, a mere appetiser. Teachers are also warned not to congratulate parents on their child’s performance in a school play. Why this humdrum politeness should be avoided, with the threat of disciplinary consequences, is not entirely obvious and no hints are offered as to the reasoning. It is, however, framed as equal in sinfulness to informing a parent that their child has been “snorting a white powder.”
Because if little Billy is chopping them out in class, it’s now a teacher’s duty to keep parents in the dark, you see.
The full text of the email in question can be found via the link above. Please update your files and lifestyles accordingly.
Oh, and by all means consider this an open thread.
[ Pokes at bowl of peanuts on bar. Moves slightly less grey ones onto top. ]
[ Washes hands thoroughly. ]
Used copies can be found.
I miss her.
And yet many cannot see the consequences of removing consequences.
“Bar snack”.
The ‘auto-delivery’ option.
I can confirm for at least the last forty years, teachers in Ontario have held the general opinion that parents are incompetent and should have no business in the raising of their children; that should be left to the teachers.
True for the Public and Catholic Schools which most Canadians go to. In the private schools, however, the parent is still king. Funny how responsive teachers are to parental input when said parents have the ability to have them fired. I sent both my kids to private school up to and including grade 8. A world of difference.
Britain and Canada both rely on something called “the common law tradition” to restrain the power and abuses of government. We can see how well that’s working out.
Sadly that ended in Canada when Turdeau the Oneth “repatriated” the constitution and created the Canadian Charter of Rights and freedoms. Since that time, the courts seem hell bound to interfere with the rights of individuals while quasi-judicial bodies like the Provincial Human Rights Commissions rule by the authority of the few and the progressive.
Because they’re too “nice” to say anything, to push back.
We’ve never been particularly nice. “Sorry” means fu*koff in Canadian.
You’ve never met a true Karen until you’ve met a Canadian Karen.
The few American schoolteachers I’ve known seem like that, too. Parents should shut up while teachers indoctrinate the kids.
Many decades ago in Atlanta high school, except for pledge of allegiance there was zero indoctrination. In our US history class, the kids would have followed the teacher ideologically because they loved her but she would not tell them how she voted or anything. Now the teachers can’t shut up.
It seems to me that the deconstructionist school, by “proving” that all truth is relative, have thrown people back on their feelings as the only arbiter of truth. But no one knows your feelings and your feelings can be wrong. You can “feel” that people are judging you for being fat, when in fact you are anorexic. You can “feel” that life is unfair when in fact you are just lazy. The guessing game men go through is because they cannot intuit the feelings of their wife/GF. Which as I said can also be absurd (like the meme of the couple in bed and she is thinking that he is thinking about other women, when he is not). Are you anxious about things that will never happen? Invalid feelings can ruin your day. Feeling that the world will end if you don’t personally stop oil (or whatever) leads to some insufferable behaviors like blocking bridges.
6th grade. 1973 or so. In a fundamentalist Presbyterian parochial school. One that believed the Bible was the absolute, literal, Truth that overrode all other (supposed) knowledge, where the Earth was clearly created in 4004 BC and there was a true, world submerging flood in which all the (land) animals that exist today are descended from those saved by Noah, literally were Christian Nationalists in that they believed God wanted them to turn the US into theocracy…in that school, one of the teachers branded her students “Miss N***’s Ecology Nuts”. Got green t-shirts and everything. Teacher are/have enormous potential to be toxic. Always been that way. Subcontracting the education of your children to anyone has consequences.
Real ones aren’t. They’ve usually gone through one or more horrific experiences, or have long carried a heavy burden, so they’ve had to face hard truths about themselves and about reality. They’ve come to their saintliness by slogging through hell, their souls textured and pocked by the heat, and they’ve determined that they’ll be damned before they become sociopaths over it.
Recorded in 2008, long before he was lofted onto the international stage, this bloke explains his moral contours. It’s no wonder he behaved as he did when destiny came calling.
After the Google Gemini debacle, Googlers were eager too tell Pirate Wires about the insanity inside the company, especially the DEI lunacy:
The dishonesty on that point has been widespread, mainstream, and quite extraordinary. Apparently, we’re supposed to believe that other people’s children – eleven-year-olds – should be exposed to dysmorphic cartoon pornography, with “vagina slime,” fellatio, “strap-on hotness,” and the joys of masturbating while driving.
And let’s not forget this eye-widening example of morally demented middle-school librarians. Adults who insist that children – again, eleven-year-olds – can be considered “sex workers” and therefore need to know about the awesomeness of whoring as a lifestyle choice.
All done, naturally, without parents’ knowledge or consent.
Regarding which, I’ll just leave this here.
Again, the term civilisational shit test comes to mind.
On a lighter note, David returning the blamed crutches. [sound off]
Heh. You’d need a much longer video.
For those who missed the reference.
Thing is, farce aside, what I recall most vividly is the unilateral civility, the unreciprocated politeness. The experience definitely tested my efforts to be civil. After the third surly encounter and offhand redirection, I did briefly consider throwing the damn things on the floor and shouting, “Get your fucking shit together.”
So it turns out that the Blacks were the real Nazis all along.
Thanks Google!
[ Empties robot vacuum cleaner, is astonished by amount of fluff. ]
[ It occurs to me that perhaps I should apologise for contributing to the notion that the only reason Google’s virulent racism is a problem, is because it inadvertently impacts The Blacks. To be clear I don’t approve of Google’s racism full stop. The fact that they are only racist against The Whites (and the Jews) doesn’t make it any more acceptable.
THERE IS NO GOOD RACISM THERE IS ONLY RACISM!
As you were. ]
Yes, but HOW DID SO MUCH FLUFF MATERIALISE IN 24 HOURS?
“Ensuring women’s and girls’ rights.“
Yes, but points off for the photographer for failing to adjust the necklace before taking the picture. Rookie.
{sniffs derisively}
[ Wanders into kitchen, muttering about fluff. ]
Would it help to think of them as Dust Bunnies?
The robot trundles around every day, and gets emptied every day, and yet there was a lavishly furnished bird’s nest worth of fluff in the thing.
We definitely don’t want any usage of the term, “sanity check” that could possibly result in self-reflection, do we?
Dr Karl (no relation) provides your answer. From the FUTURE!
For me a stand-out quote:
“Few people would have imagined that mutilating children to ensure they better conform to gendered stereotypes would one day be considered progressive. But here we are.“
Is the hamster missing again?
Haven’t had a hamster in a while now. Hence the mystery.
At which point, I’m going to dig out this item from an early Ephemera round-up: 26 years of navel fluff, baby.
The jars are a nice touch.
That
mentalistlibrarian’s eyes are pointing in opposite directions 🤔For some reason, I’d misremembered that as libertarian.
[ Checks watch. ]
Muldoon should be along shortly to complain about my choice of commenting software.
Reminiscent of Heinlein’s account of traveling in the Soviet Union.
Ironically, it seems that more than a few now are.
Was there an unheralded Instalanch? (It couldn’t be our fault, naturally. Right?)
Haven’t read, so can’t say. But it was a strange experience. Comical as it may be to read, the account was not exaggerated for effect. The pointed indifference, bordering on disdain, seemed to be a default. I am by nature, at least in person, scrupulously polite, so the mismatch was quite striking.
I should add that the visit was on a sunny and quite pleasant Sunday morning and the place was the very opposite of busy. In 45 minutes or so, I think I saw only one person, maybe two, who wasn’t a member of staff.
Only because his circle of friends has narrowed over the years as everyone else slowly edged away. 😉 But I’ve read of stranger collections: Some years ago a single woman wrote about saving all her used condoms in a lacquer box. Strange to do it, even stranger to tell the world about it.
Comical only at a distance, as this behavior is a sign of serious cultural decay.
As Heinlein has repeatedly written, “politeness is a sine qua non of civilization.”
Well, yes. I remember I was in a particularly amiable mood that morning and within 30 seconds of entering the building I could feel it evaporating, quite rapidly, and entirely against my preferences. Several minutes in, it was practically a game to see exactly how many failures of competence and basic courtesy one visit – and one simple task – might entail.
Time for a hymn in praise of the software. I suggest as a model the Holy Shoes in Creatures of Light and Darkness. To wit:
Original quote:
Meanwhile, over at the BBC, where our betters admire themselves.
Possibly related.
Linked (kind of):
Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at the women’s rights group Sex Matters, said: “… By making clear that ‘trans women’ are male, Webb was simply doing his job, since a third of the population are uncertain what the term ‘trans woman’ means.”
I too get confused about which sex these terms are actually referencing. Until I remember that the purpose of phrases like “trans woman” is to propagate a lie. So the truth is just the opposite.
Hope that helps.
It is lint from the blogging thongs and chaise and what shorts out the Link-O-Matic 9000™ rather than anyone’s imaginary polyester pants. Lint plays hell with the 8088 chips.
[ Taps watch. ]
Band name.
Yes, but HOW DID SO MUCH FLUFF MATERIALISE IN 24 HOURS?
You have been invaded by a Fluff Dragon