Talk about punishing children for the mistakes of their parents:
The Virginia Senate Education Committee has narrowly rejected a bill that would allow home-schooled students to play sports at public schools.
Yes, let’s remove the last chance at normal socialization these poor creatures will get. We totally need more Adam Lanzas to explode on us.
I keep getting the impression I am seeing USA implode with all these self-indulgent ideas, followed by self-indulgent legislation.
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Really, the British type of system — actually, I am told, based on the Scottish educational system of the mid-20th Century –was much colder, much more oriented to what is feasible, to what is equitable. You’ve really got to place yourself a few steps away from your “beliefs” and just act rationally.
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Rationally, what a beautiful, long -lost concept.
Somebody I know, a scholar with hundreds of publications, a multi-lingual intellectual, just told me that if a 3-year-old kid is being rambunctious and unruly, this must mean she is possessed by demons and must have holy water sprinkled on her. And got upset when I suggested it is normal behavior that is totally unrelated to any demon activity. BECAUSE THERE ARE NO FUCKING DEMONS.
Now I’m traumatized.
The world is going nuts.
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It’s nice to remember that the world was not always nuts and therefore that it need not always be nuts.
Academia was the place I was most at home, because it generally possesses the highest amount of rationality in society, but I am also a refugee from academia, as it doesn’t quite possess enough.
Nowadays, everybody has “beliefs” and they are stark, raving mad. Even in academia if you separate from the late postmodernist orthodoxy and notions of Western burdens (used to be “the whiteman’s burden, but now is just liberal guilt), and narrow concepts of intersectionality, it seems you come under suspicion.
People can’t hear anything new and are defensive apes.
Religion is stronger, even in Australia, than it was in the 1980s.
I also get a lot of garbage from Americans, who post comments to me on YouTube so as to indicate to me how far gone they are: “Here’s the proof that I’m an idiot and undereducated to boot!”
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I do agree with you that homeschooled children should be allowed to participate in afterschool sports. But I do sympathize with the legislation. Homeschool parents are so hostile. They are probably horrible to have at games and probably really terrible presences on campus more generally. In a selfish sense, I wouldn’t want to expose my child to that strange subculture. So I understand the impulse to want limit their presence at school functions.
Still, I ultimately agree with you. Schools should try to encourage homeschoolers to come to campus in whatever capacity…. for the good of the homeschooled child and for the larger social good.
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You see, I never visited any school sporting events, so I didn’t even consider how disruptive it might be to let such parents onto campus. Yes, that’s a problem. Gosh, those poor kids, they are really punished in so many ways for their parents ‘ issues.
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Perhaps it should also be done for certain special subjects that most parents simply cannot do (even if we grnt for the sake of argument that they’re able to teach math, social studies, English, etc). Music and foreign languages come to mind as further examples.
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“Perhaps it should also be done for certain special subjects that most parents simply cannot do.”
I agree with you. But the problem is that most of these parents are so deluded that they think that they CAN teach every subject.
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I have 5 scholarly degrees but I wouldn’t undertake to teach anything but English lit, Spanish, and maybe European history.
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This is a great idea.
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“But the problem is that most of these parents are so deluded that they think that they CAN teach every subject.”
Like religious fanatics.
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A common notion is that knowledge is genetic. So a parent with good genetics (i.e. knowledge) should be able to impart their character to an already inborn genius.
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You don’t believe that, I hope?
There is nothing more American (in a bad sense) than this conviction that intelligence is an inborn trait that there is no need to develop in any way.
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It’s weird how when I say, “a common notion”, people automatically assume I am common. I hope I haven’t given any impression in that direction. But, in fact, what you have said about Americans is precisely what I was stating about Americans.
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I’m sorry, I’m a little off today. I don’t think you are in the least common! I’m just thrown off balance by this discussion of demons with my father. So now I suspect everybody of being capable of something like this.
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Also, to clarify still further, I’m not American in other ways, either. Indeed, I was not even born in America, nor have I ever been there.
So, when I make a general statement (as in other instances, say about lining up for vaccines), this in no way is a statement about my views concerning consumer rights, or my beliefs about certain kinds of medical care, or indeed an assertion about what is, or isn’t “necessary” in this world. It is just a story.
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I feel I should note that in many regions of the country, there are opportunities to participate in regular athletic events outside of school organizations. I and many of my friends played recreational league soccer, softball, and swimming throughout elementary and middle school since there were no school teams at the elementary level, and a very limited number at the middle school level (I lived in enough of a jock neighborhood that for high school you had to specialize and just do one sport, or two if they’re closely related). My mom manages the parks and recreation in my old neighborhood, and club-level basketball and football are hugely popular. So I would guess that with the exception of the most poor neighborhoods, there are many opportunities for these kids to play sports and socialize outside of school organizations. So at least on that account I don’t feel sorry for the home-schooled kids.
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Interesting video discussing parental effects. Fact or fiction, who knows for certain. Nonetheless, interesting info.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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