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While doing some research on Mary Kay Letourneau, I found an excellent Town Hall article about sexual misconduct in public schools. While the focus of the article is picking apart a recent report from the federal Department of Education on "sexual misconduct among educators", academic, Janice Shaw Crouse's discussion on mixed messages is what peaked my interest,

"We can illustrate the mixed messages with an exercise in visualization: a story, if you will, about today's schools.

Visualize two separate classrooms in the same school. In one classroom, "comprehensive sex education" is being taught. The students, (whose hormones, it is understood, dictate that they copulate like rabbits), are being taught how to deploy contraceptive devices. They are also urged to overcome their inhibitions (to what end is not clear) by saying out loud the correct terminology for male and female genitalia -- no giggles, this is serious business.

Meanwhile, in the classroom next door, the school's employees (except the sex Ed teacher, of course) are at a mandatory federally-funded seminar on avoiding sexual harassment. The curriculum carefully covers all of the social niceties these children of the sixties, seventies, and eighties missed under their mothers' tutelage: avoid discussing, touching, making eye contact with, or in any other way taking note of or mentioning genitalia. With traditional moral values having been swept away by the ACLU and Company, we now must erect legal barriers to constrain undesirable behavior. Pity.

These earnest reminders of appropriate behavior and legal boundaries will, no doubt, deter the pedophiles. And the hebephiles, which the new report dutifully identifies as the correct terminology for those who are attracted to seventeen-year-old teenagers, as opposed to those attracted to children.

Whatever.

Down the hallway in the principal's office, a new teacher is being hired. Unbeknownst to the leadership of the new school, this teacher has a history of sexual abuse with students. Unfortunately, this information was expunged from his record. Thanks to the efforts of his teachers' union, of which he is a member in good standing, identification of sexual predators is blocked.

What a kerfloogle.

Now this is good reading. This is a good preface to a discussion on sex education in schools--a subject I'm overdue to talk about but have been ruminating on a proper angle from which to write. Anyway, somewhat unrelated but today I feel like being militant about something other than the fact that the shirt I'm wearing and purse I'm carrying really do match, so I'd just like to say that I'm against condom distribution in schools. Period. No gray areas.

Posted in Culture, Education | Permanent Link

 

Once again, Mary K. Letourneau is making headlines as tomorrow marks her release from Washington Corrections Center for Women,

"Letourneau's friends, lawyers involved in the case and officials at the State Department of Corrections say they've been fielding daily telephone calls from the "Today" show, "Oprah," "Primetime," "Inside Edition" -- even a British magazine and television stations in France and Germany."

Maybe everyone doesn't recall, but this woman took student/teacher crushes to a whole new level when she made national headlines almost eight years ago for "having sexual relations" with her then 12-year old student, Vili Fualaau. At the time, Letourneau was his 34-year-old sixth grade teacher. The relationship even produced two children (now ages 5 and 7) who are currently being raised by Fualaau's mother (who by the way, pressed charges against the school district, suing for millions charging they didn't do enough to protect her son even though she once stood in support of the relationship). The smell of money sure changes opinions. Letourneau was eventually charged with child rape and sent to prison. She must now register as a level two sex offender (yes there are apparently now different levels at which you can violate a child).

The Letourneau case opened up a very interesting can of worms as it relates to the apparent finelines of pedophilia and child rape. To the two of them, it was "love". Is there such a thing as NAWBLA (North American Woman Boy Lovers Association)? If Mary Kay had been a man, and Fualau a girl, this case would have been open and shut. During her trial, Letourneau (now age 42) pleaded not guilty, and even today she still delusionally calls the relationship "beautiful". As it stands, once released from prison, she can't have contact with the now 21-year-old Fualaau due to a court restraining order, which Fualaau wants to have dropped immediately. A few years ago, the couple had talks of re-uniting upon her release and eloping in Paris. They're both consenting adults now so anything's possible.

Continue reading "Mary Kay "I'm a Ho" and the rest of her disgusting cohorts">>>

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Lord have mercy. There are about 87 expository essays in the title alone. This topic is so loaded, it's almost daunting to even venture into. Nevertheless, care of Avery's post "Sippin' on Clorox" (only he would concoct that title), I recently came across a couple of articles on the common occurrence of black intelligence being labeled "white". Understand that by "black intelligence" I don't mean some sort of special forces on a secret operation, I mean black people who are smart, intelligent, productive members of society.

In a Washington Post article titled, "When the Street and the Classroom Collide", an AP English teacher in Alexandria, Virginia shares observations on the effects of the street and other cultural pressures on the success of students in the classroom,

"Obviously, there are many low-income minority kids who strive and manage to do well in school despite their disadvantages. But sadly, they're not the majority. Too many of them -- and especially the boys -- accept the idea that school is a white-oriented institution that doesn't offer anything they need or want. The boys' attitude is to idolize millionaire rappers and basketball stars, to believe that you can't be a real man and a student at the same time and that if you study you're a sellout. This set of ideas is so strong and prevalent that it often affects even middle-class or lower-middle-class students.

The idea of "selling-out" (whether it be leaving behind an ineffective political party, or striving for something higher than your situation) is rooted in the crab-pot mentality. It's an invisible form of slavery that keeps people bound to a lower quality of life than they deserve or are capable of. It's really ingeniously self-perpetuating. Keep people thinking that they "must" act a certain way and they'll maintain the facade (which is what it is by the way) forever. Notice the teacher said that many boys' idolize millionaire rappers and basketball stars (if one more little kid tells me his dream is to go to the NBA). I put this fault on the parents. In this reality, Bill Cosby's words several months ago couldn't ring more true.

Continue reading "Acting White">>>

Posted in Education, Race | Permanent Link

 

This kid, Ben Shapiro, puts me to wretched shame. Oh, and check out his bio too. Harvard Law at age 16? I ain't mad atcha.

Posted in Education | Permanent Link

 

Yesterday, I received an email from my mother that was rather poignant yet disturbingly offensive, all at the same time. She discussed the return on investment of children and her disappointment with its current dividends. "ROI" is a concept we use a lot in the business world, but perhaps I'd never considered it quite the way she expressed. I am not now nor have I ever been a parent, so I don't presume to know the type of emotions involved in watching your offspring head a different direction than you'd originally planned, but I can only imagine, it's no walk in the park.

By now, many of you know my story of educational rebellion. All my life, I was "set-up" to become a [insert cliche lucrative profession] of sorts. I never really had the heart for anything traditional or pre-formulated, but being in college only reinforced the fact that I was indeed on academic, analytical, and high-expectations overload. The thing I usually fail to mention in "my story" is the absolute fear I felt when I had to make that frightful decision to leave my "prestigious" college for a world of uncertainty. As I sat in my obsessively organized dorm room, I was unable to appreciate the beautiful Connecticut Springtime because I knew the mountain before me. When I picked up the phone to dial the dreaded number of my parents back in Seattle, I felt like Sean Penn in Dead Man Walking. I knew I wasn't coming out of the conversation alive, so I said my last prayers and was read my last rights. Around that time, I could have desperately used a Susan Sarandon in my life. The burden to make one's parents proud can be incredibly motivating. The burden to make one's parents proud can be incredibly oppressive.

Continue reading "Human Capital: The ROI of a Kid">>>

Posted in Education, Life | Permanent Link

 

I'm not a violent person really, but when it comes to certain things, I would probably be a good defense for gun control. I've long had issues with sex education and this is why, Teacher Has Kids Tasting Flavored Condoms. WorldNetDaily reports

"The New Mexico Health Department is standing behind a sex-education teacher in Santa Fe who encouraged ninth-graders to taste flavored condoms."

Quick, somebody get me my pistol because if a teacher had my child's tongue anywhere near a condom, it might get ugly. And here we conservatives are with "abstinence education" as the only thing to offer. I think some lessons in critical thinking would help as well. This type of behavior, this is what I mean when I say conservatives lack a certain assertiveness. These educators these days are downright bold.

When my brother was in eighth grade, he took some form of "sex education" (in a private school mind you) and came home one day with a goodie bag care of the evil spawn of Satan at Planned Parenthood. Included among the condoms and other paraphernalia no 13-year-old boy should have, were a few bumper stickers with condoms on them that read "Just Wear It". Yeah, safe to say, those suckers went in the trash. It hasn't been that long since I was in seventh grade and even I don't recall classes being this graphic. When my younger sister took health class, her text book had two whole chapters on "what to do when you're a boy but you feel like a girl" or vice versa. Keep in mind, nowhere in the text did it say "seek help" or "be concerned". I confiscated that book from her and kept it for future ammunition.

Schools shouldn't even be attempting to teach kids about a topic that belongs in the family. Unfortunately, in a culture where the family is in disarray, someone must, and our educational system (public and private) has failed miserably with relativism and humanistic philosophies because even they don't know what they believe. And where is the church? Where they normally are when the subject really counts: sleeping, or waiting for Jesus to take us to heaven.

Although the Santa Fe school is standing behind the teacher, in the past, condom demonstrations have accounted for a few teachers being suspended or even fired. You may recall last year, a Florida teacher was fired for doing a condom demonstration that included mood lighting, music, and a banana. But that's only when parents speak up. And how active are most parents in their kids schools? Not.

Continue reading "Sex Educators Who Should be Shot. On the Next Riki Lake">>>

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One of the subjects dearest to my heart is education. Funny to hear that coming from the mouth of a college drop-out, but it's true. If you want to engage me in a heated debate, start theorizing about our educational system.

Personally, there are times I feel I was missing out by never attending public school. As with most life-long privatized school beings, I started feeling the "itch" at the end of eighth grade when faced with the reality that after the summer, most of my friends would be entering the lovely socially diverse and wonderful sphere of public high school, while I'd be left with the whities, practicing the PSAT at a school with no wrestling team or cheerleaders, and only eight black people in my class. I am grateful for my education, however flawed it may have been, but there are times I wish I could go back and do things differently.

Over the last three or so years, I've come to the conclusion that I would have been a good candidate for homeschool. Both my parents worked so there was no way this could happen, but in a perfect world, I think this would have been my preferred method of learning. I have never been an enthusiastic classroom student. When it came to formalized education, I was a devout dualist. I treated school like a job. Teachers were the boss, my classmates, they were my associates and co-workers with whom I cracked jokes during the day but rarely spoke to or saw in the night, and who by the weekend, were merely figments of my imagination. I excelled in the arts and all the humanities (history, philosophy, social studies, religion) except English (go figure). Perhaps that could be the cause of my distaste for the classics. Since I've never been too fond of the three-part essay, most of my English teachers hated my writing, and I mean HATED. As for the mathematics and sciences, well, let's just say medical school has never once been even a faint consideration. It wasn't grades, but my love of knowledge and learning that was the driving motivation for me to think independently. High school was pretty boring for me and college was too. A more independent approach to learning would have probably worked well for me.

Homeschool advocates can be pretty diehard. Opposition to institutionalized education seems pretty futile to me. At this point, we've got to make something of our current schooling process. These days people have lots of philosophies about the classroom. Some good, others downright sac-religious. It's commonly known that studies show in secondary education, girls learn better in a less-competitive, all-female environment. I mostly agree, although being a black woman in a predominately white environment tends to be a bit different so this didn't really apply to me as I was rarely intimidated by the guys in my classes. Translate the same philosophy of female-dominated learning to higher education, and nowadays you get extreme feminism and lesbianism (I kid you not). The 2003 film Mona Lisa, Smile touched on this, although they barely treaded water in their plot. Your modern day, all-female institution of higher learning is no longer the place of "grooming" and "intellectualism" Radcliffe used to be. The halls of prestigious schools like Bryn Mawr, Mills, Scripps, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesley (which produced none other than Senator Clinton herself), are steeped with man-hating, self-sufficient, feminist philosophies and liberal ideologies. I'd be kidding myself if I didn't admit that everyone in the "Seven Sisters" schools as we called them knows that they're churning out more lesbians than the film industry. There's a reason for that, but I digress.

Continue reading "Classroom Dynamics">>>

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The subject of books abounds! Do you have a homogenized bookshelf? My mind got thinking again this weekend when I caught some more dialogue on reading necessities. In a recent article, care of college student (and kindred spirit) Rachel Durado at the Banana Republican, writer Kelly Jane Torrance compares the readings lists of British and American celebrities,

"How do American celebrities compare? Oprah magazine gives us some of their picks. All too often, they lack the idiosyncratic touch and therefore resemble course requirements for Diversity 101. Hillary Clinton's list includes The Joy Luck Club, The Poisonwood Bible, The Color Purple, The Clan of the Cave Bear, Wild Swans, and West With the Night by pioneer female aviator Beryl Markham. What a virtuous reader our former First Lady is!

The selection made by America's other First Lady, Katie Couric, is just as solemn, but strangely dated: Black Like Me, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Huckleberry Finn, The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Of Mice and Men, A Patch of Blue. It turns out Couric gave Oprah the names of her childhood favorites. What an earnest young woman she must have been!

On the other hand, Nigella Lawson, the English celebrity chef, is not ashamed to admit her love of the now savagely derided children's author Enid Blyton. Lawson says of Blyton's The Naughtiest Girl in the School, 'This book taught me how deeply enjoyable reading is, and that's what counts.' Reading--it's not just a grim duty!"

Oprah's picks resemble a booklist from a Diversity 101 course? I couldn't agree more. Just this past weekend, the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative organization recently received a letter written on behalf of a young black man. The subject? Recommended reading by black authors.

Hello,

I mentor a young black man who is going to go to college next year. I was wondering if you had a list of literature or suggestions for some reading material. He is interested in economics and business. I was hoping for some ethics, philosophy, and history titles as well. I would prefer if the authors were black. He attends a majority white private Catholic school where he is one of the brightest students; I want him to have some black intellectual experience too.

Thank you for your time.

In a response, fellow Conservative Brotherhood member Michael Cobb Bowen has given his own recommendations in true "to be continued" format. Interestingly enough, he's divided the authors into the categories of "Philosophicals" and of course my ultimate favorite, "Existentialists". Among the authors, he mentioned the works of Cornel West, Malcolm X, and Skip Gates. I used to be in love with Cornel West, almost to the point of obsession. I read all of his books including his lengthy "reader". In retrospect, I can't figure out if it was his ideas I was in love with or just the fact that I was so thirsty to read something half-way intelligent by a black author that I was hanging on every word he wrote.

I'm fairly certain that the question at hand in this letter is not one I could answer very quickly. Although I've read the works of a significant among of black authors, narrowing down the must-reads takes a bit of examination. Much of my education afforded me a somewhat lop-sided presentation of intellectual thought. The writer of the letter remarked that the boy about which she was writing was a student of a private, predominately, white Catholic school. It is obvious she felt he was lacking something in his own education or else she wouldn't have written.

When I was in school, a good portion of the books we read and analyzed were written by the same types of people. Those people were usually dead, white, or male. While some were classics, others were just all around good pieces of writing. If someone asked me to list off recommended reading based on white authors alone, I could produce a big fat list. It would be rather ignorant of me to think that the reason for this is some sort of lack in ability amongst authors of color. Nevertheless, teachers never failed to throw in that one (and sometimes two) token book(s) of the semester written by an author of color. This was a strategy that proved itself to be a set-up. The lopsided percentage of "old, white, male" authors compared to most others was dreadfully apparent. This being the case, that one "colorful" book we read each semester had to be pretty gosh darn good or else we'd all start forming our negative opinions about authors of color and their inability to write coherent thoughts. At the time I read it, Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior pretty much decimated my desire to read future works of Asian-American authors.

The question of what a person should (or should have) read is really quite complex. I don't believe it is the same answer for every person. As a black, woman, intellectual living in America, it would behoove me to have certain pieces of writing under my belt. This knowledge doesn't necessarily serve as bragging rights or give me some exclusive edge in conversation at the dinner table. No. This knowledge serves a purpose beyond shallow table references. It gives me the foundation and knowledge to understand the history of thought as it relates to my own race of people. If I intend to be at all relevant in my daily affairs as it relates to my own cultural heritage (both claimed and unclaimed), there are certain things I can't afford not to know. The same is true of anyone based on their sphere of influence and activity on the Earth. While no actor should go without studying Shakespeare, the average person could care less about Macbeth.

I'm odd in that I don't really have any favorite books. Instead, I have a list of books that drastically impacted my life and my way of thinking. Life-changing books are not always those I agree with, as they are often either insightful or inciteful. At times, I can grasp more insight from Hitler's Mein Kampf or Sanger's Motherhood in Bondage than I can reading the exalted works of many of our glorified thinkers. I am an avid used-bookstore shopper. This could be the nerd in me fighting to get out, but I think it's more the fact that I'm more likely to stumble across a rare jewel in small-time bookstores than I am less-likely to find in the commercialized Barnes & Noble. Although, I'll admit Barnes & Noble gets a fair amount of my money.

That letter got me thinking. How many of us have ever even bothered to ask the question, "what should I be reading"? It's something that beckons more discussion and I fear that all too often, we let the New York Times or Oprah make the decision on our behalf.

Posted in Culture, Education | Permanent Link

 

Funny. I've lamented every holiday about my distaste for the sappy and disingenuous nature of greeting card companies. I went against my card-nonethusiast nature the other day when in the store, I couldn't help but drop $2.49 on the absolute worst card I've ever seen. At first glance you may think this is intended to be joke-card of sorts. I wish I could say that was the case but trust me, it's not. Thank Carlton Cards for this one:

[ Card Front & Inside Respectively ]

Can I just shout an emphatic "No!"? No this dismal cubicle does not make the hours of tedius labor, cramming, thesis-writing and exams of the average college or grad school graduate seem anywhere NEAR worthwhile, thank you very much. This is on top of the crappy starting salary and the college loans. Judging from the testimonies of my friends, folks aren't too happy with what they signed up for. If anyone in my family even brought this card anywhere near me on my (would-be) graduation day, I'd return it to get the $2.49 back so I could apply it towards my college loan interest. End of story. Hands down, worst card I've ever seen. In my life. Seriously.

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For the record, I'm not a booksnob, I'm a bookslut. I read 'em and leave 'em. Books are an interesting topic of discussion. You'd have to understand my kooky personality to see how much humor I find in ripping on our "great works of literature" to shreds. My previous list was based on books I'd actually read or attempted to read. That leaves a lot out. Please understand that my tongue and cheek disdain for Dickens and Homer is tinted with a bit of respect and honor. After all, they are "great" authors. So all you Dickens lovers don't have to get your panties (or boxers) in a wad. I'll give them their due for long-windedness. There was a moment when I enjoyed Great Expectations. The end. I imagine if I would ever meet Dickens the conversation might go as such:

Continue reading "Hi, I'm Charles Dickens, and I'm Overrated">>>

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