Via Uma Thurman’s Feet, some educational news:
An eastern Ontario teachers’ union is warning its members they could face discipline under the human rights code [for] regulating student misbehaviour and expressing a series of opinions,
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:
Vince encouraged teachers that keeping secrets from parents is not a bad thing, telling teachers that they shouldn’t tell parents if they catch their child vaping and implied that if a teacher caught a student snorting cocaine or other illicit substance, parents shouldn’t be notified.
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:
It occurs to me that when your solution to such complaints [from parents regarding classroom indoctrination] includes the words “so parents cannot see it,” it may be time to revisit your assumptions.
But I digress. Let’s get back to Mr Vince’s emailed instructions to Ontario educators:
Teachers were told to not tell students to get off their phone, to pull their hoodies down, and should not ask a student why they had arrived to class excessively late.
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 gone through male puberty should not participate in women’s sport.
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.
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