Reason #4,286,162 why I keep my kids out of the public schools...

...here in the Eugene/Springfield, Oregon, area:

Children between the ages of 4 and 10 are being "educated" about "diversity" and "tolerance" in the form of an exhibit that includes a photo and description of a "trans-gendered" person. Some parents are confused and upset, and wonder why their first-grader isn't being taught how to spell and why their third-grader still cannot read but knows being "queer" is a beautiful and natural thing. School officials insist it has nothing to do with sex, but is about "respect," and lecture the confused parents through media interviews about the need for children to learn "acceptance." The thinly veiled suggestion is that if parents don't go along with said approach, they are likely homophobic and intolerant. Surprise!

Meanwhile, the "community" group sponsoring the exhibit is an ultra-left-wing organization that promotes "queer art", works to "expose and challenge overt bigotry and institutionalized oppression through education, cultural work, and activism," "works against racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism," seeks "to advance safety and respect for LGBTQ students, staff and families in the Springfield public schools," and is supported by groups such as the ASTRAEA Lesbian Foundation, which describes itself as "a dynamic global foundation providing critically needed financial support to lesbian-led, trans, LGBTI and progressive organizations." The school administrators claim they are completely "neutral" about the exhibit, while making it known how non-neutrally wonderful and necessary it is.

And yet, oddly enough, despite high levels of "tolerance" and "respect"—and spending around $9,000 per student per year—Oregon "ranked 38 out of 50 in the 2005-06 school year in the 'Smartest State' rankings, based on Morgan Quinto's 'Education State Rankings 2005-06.' Quinto rated states based on 21 factors including class size, student achievement, and personal attention from teachers." (Oregon drops two spots, to #40, in the 2006-07 rankings.) On the plus side, in "the 2006-07 school year, Oregon had and average of 20 students per classroom, which is well above the national average."

Hmmm...perhaps the Oregon public school system should adopt this slogan: "Smal klasses equill smallar Eye Q's!"

Comments

[LJ]

Let's see.

LGBTQ
ASTRAEA
LGBTI

Throw in the ACLU and I suppose you might say they are learning the alphabet in school at least. Of course they could probably learn as much with a bowl of soup.

[Jean]

Carl, the 20 students per classroom is doubtful. I think "teacher" for the purposes of this statistic might include not just classroom teachers but other professionals, like reading specialists, etc. So there are a certain number of adults (with a certain type of training) on site, but classrooms can still be bulging with kids. At any rate, measuring inputs (number of teachers with master's degrees, hours/days in class, attendance) - but not outputs (how well do they read, write, understand math, etc.) allows the system to grade itself for how hard they try, not whay they actually produce. Oh yes, there are certainly State standards, written by the State, to grade itself. Nationalizing it all is not a solution as it would simply repeat the same problem on a national level. The wisdom of subsidiarity, which is foundational to Catholic social teaching, is one of those principles that many nonCatholics also find desirable - hence the popularity of private/homeschooling. BTW, whatever happened to keeping the government out of the bedroom?

[fr richard]

Loved the principal's proposed explanation to first-graders:

"At assemblies for both schools, she said she plans to briefly explain the term “trans” this way: “Trans is a word someone uses to describe being born with their inside feelings not matching their outside looks. Some folks get told that they are a boy or a girl because of their looks when they know that’s not true for them. Being a boy or a girl is about how you feel on the inside more than it is about what other people say about you or your outside looks.”

That ought to give the little kiddies something to contemplate before they go to bed. Hmmm...what if you're a normal looking kid, but "on the inside" you think that you're ugly or strange looking, "no matter what other people say about you or your outside looks"?

Don't listen to them!! You are the only one, little child, who knows the real truth!!

One of the commentors to this article in the Eugene paper wrote:

"Kindergarten is not to young to discuss trans issues for a Kindergarten child who has a transgender parent, and therefore not too young for classmates of that child, or by extension, children of the the entire community."

All children must suffer for the sins of some children's parents. Is that honoring diversity, or what?

[aebrain]

Some snippets which are germane:

From a world-renowned physician and professor of Urology:
Yes, we gave our presentation to 60 plus psychiatrists from the US, AU, FR, IT, EU, UK, Holland etc.

We spoke for 2 1/2 hours on why cross gender identity was a normal inherited variation of humans. We showed how Transgender Brains think, smell, and hear like the opposite sex.

This is often obvious at age 2. Transgendered kids are born that way. It's an Intersex condition - see 1st line of Matthew 19:12 and Isaiah 56:3-5.

From a Catholic J.D (Canon Lawyer) on this issue:
Since I have worked for an institutional Church, might I please apologize to you (and to Zoe, et al.) on behalf of your brothers and sisters in leadership positions in churches who over the years have caused so much hurt? I know it doesn't take the pain away, and it probably isn't worth much, but SOMEONE should be trying to heal rather than inflict additional pain.
...
I, too am a lawyer, and have tried to pursue truth and justice whenever and wherever it could be found. I don't know what if any help my "legal" thoughts were, but at least within Catholic tradition, there are some issues that legal systems (even Church ones) are ill-equipped to answer. At least I think the RCC has some grasp of its limitations and I believe are deliberately remaining silent - at least from a legal perspective. I think I'd rather have the legal lacuna than an attempt to overreach - even though for some that silence is deafening.

Scottish Office Survey:
50% of Transgendered children self-harm before age 20. Prime reasons are rejection by parents, and harassment at school. Questionaires show that in contrast to Gay children whose victimisation usually starts at puberty, Transgendered children's victimisation usually starts from the earliest years of school, and often Kindergarten."

[matt]

Yes, it's age inappropriate and a complete waste of everybody's time. And yes, this exhibit probably isn't long for this world. Parents will call the district and tell administration about how mad they are and the exhibit won't be invited back next year. This kind of crap doesn't happen all that often, not even in Oregon, and color me unsurprised that this happened in Eugene.

That said, nonsensical social experiments are probably the least of our worries in the Oregon public school system. I don't know how they're calculating that teacher/student ratio, counting classified staff possibly? Either way, I am seeing closer to 30 kids per class at the high school level, and it's only going to get much, much worse with the budget cuts starting next year. There's a lot of good to say about public schools (even Oregon public schools) but I am beginning to seriously consider home school for my own kids some day.