A Georgia school board voted along party lines Thursday to fire a teacher after officials said she improperly read a book on gender fluidity to her fifth grade class.
why the fuck is a schoolboard voting “along party lines.” I know it’s been this way for a while, but it doesn’t make it any less stupid that your godamn political party decides your EVERY attitude in life.
“I’m a Republican because I want small government! Government so small it fits in my head and determines literally everything I do! I’m also a free-thinker by the way, or at least that’s what Sean Hannity says I should call myself.”
It’s a republican strategy decades in the making to “fix” the phenomenon of liberal schools. School board members now campaign on national right wing outlets.
You’d also love to know that some hospitals boards are public and therefore elected positions are available to the community.
In Sarasota County in Florida they tried to get enough votes to take over the board to change the hospital policy from following CDC policy and best practices to the sole discretion of the doctor. This would of allowed the hospital to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID.
It ultimately failed so they are now opening a clinic in Venice Florida that follows no guidelines. The other half of the building is a podcast studio.
I’m trying to wrap my head around the intent.
Is this a case where she was fired because the book didn’t have anything to do with the class she’s teaching? Or because a bunch of parents went Karen and it made the school district look bad?
If a history class references passages from the bible, I think that is inappropriate in general but it depends on context. If it’s using the bible to explain say the history of the Holy War, that makes sense. Having the context about the why does help.
If she was teaching Sex Ed and talking about gender fluidity, in that context it makes sense to me.
Like you can’t talk about Hitler’s philosophies without being up Mein kampf even at a shallow level. And to ignore it is disingenuous to education.
The thing is: You need the kids to have this information before puberty really starts to take off so they know what’s going on with them when they start to feel things that are related to gender fluidity/homosexuality/whatever, so they grow up without the self-doubts and such but with the feeling that what they are is just another human being.
Things related to sexual attraction (e.g. homosexuality) might start around puberty, but things related to gender itself can start even earlier than that. This source claims that about ¾ of folks with gender dysphoria first experience it by age 7.
The intent is transphobia, anything else is an excuse.
I mean they have a very logical point, it’s probably unlikely but for example you would have to admit if it was a maths class and there was an important standardized exam coming up, such unrelated material would be a highly unusual waste of time and in contempt of the time sensitive curriculum. We can’t just politicize every headline and grab our pitchforks before we get the full picture - details and nuance are important for categorizing things like this. Perhaps it is though, the headline sounds bad but the actual article provides very little further context. Did she know it was a violation of policy and opt to be fired anyway? Why?
Everyone says this but I remember my teachers wasting our time pretty often. I can still tell you about my 7th grade English teacher’s time he met his future daughter-in-law but not the difference between an adverb and a verb.
The thing I remember the most from 5th grade was the day we learned the names of all the NBA teams
Except it isn’t a fucking logical point, it’s whataboutism and an army of strawmen.
And by playing devils advocate with these empty fallacies (and admitting you haven’t even bothered to read the details, or know anything about this book that has you running scared), you are actively (and to my personal impression, deliberately) contributing to the problem.deleted by creator
there is a nuanced difference between transphobia and not wanting to discuss topics that cause arguments in a school
It’s still transphobia, the only reason it’s viewed as a political topic is because of transphobia. It’s pretty cowardly to say we should avoid talking about gender/trans issues just because it makes people uncomfortable, and might cause arguments. Trans people exist, but you’re arguement kinda says to me “They aren’t worth the trouble, id rather sideline them to avoid disagreements.”.
Abortion is a rough comparison, it’s a heavy topic and I think it would probably be inappropriate for more reasons than just being a “Political” topic.
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Gender identity is more than just being trans you know.
Transphobes don’t know that.
The ‘insubordination’ part is especially confounding. She’s insubordinate by reading a children’s book to children? What?
She’s insubordinate by reading a children’s book to children? What?
If it’s "insubordination’ then it’s safe to assume either (a) she was explicitly told not to do this by a superior, or (b) there must be a rule or regulation against it in the school district.
Or (c) they’re making up bullshit reasons to fire her.
Applying logic to bigotry is a waste of time. It’s just ingroup loyalty. The rest is mouth noises. They won’t be clever noises, and they won’t be consistent noises.
I did some digging to see if she was teaching a particular subject or anything. She was a teacher in the schools gifted program and per her Wikipedia page “According to the Cobb County School Board, Rinderle read the book during a time block that was supposed to be dedicated to mathematics instruction and enrichment, but Rinderle denies this allegation.”.
I’m going to keep looking but it seems like their schooling is structured differently than I have any experience in. When I was in 5th grade we had 3 teachers that we rotated between for different subjects. It seems like she was responsible for several subjects or the entire curriculum for her students. Either way, the school boards intent is clear and malicious.
Thanks for looking into this.
Reading an off topic book during a particular time block isn’t an offense deserving of termination to any same person, either.
The book, My Shadow Is Purple is one I have had the pleasure to read thanks to my wife’s job as a school librarian. The theme of the book is acceptance of differences, centered around a child’s parent who at first seems unaccepting but who surprises the child and the reader at the end for a happy, wholesome outcome.
The board went against the recommendation of a panel and fired her over this book, voting along party lines, for an offense that would not ever warrant termination in an even marginally sane world. To me, this strongly suggests that this is another case of extremist right wing / regressive people trying to silence and further marginalize people different from them. Out of fear and hate, as usual. The effect of which is detrimental to each of the children who are not gender conforming. I personally think this school board needs to hear from people opposed to their decision en masse. They have already gone too far with their harmful ambitions.
This is the dumbest reason to fire a teacher. The education system is already hurting for teachers.
Ain’t that what they want? No education and kids that work factories for pennies.
same people rolling back child labor laws and campaigning against unions so… yeah. Remember when Florida decided it didn’t need educated people as teachers, and instead made it so anyone who was in the military (or had been married to a military person) eligible to be a teacher?
They’re all fucking morons, actively hurting everyone around them
They’re all fucking morons, actively hurting everyone around them
Stop attributing to stupidity that which is better explained by malice.
These people aren’t morons; they know exactly what they’re doing: deliberately trying to create an underclass to exploit.
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In what way could this be remotely worse then pushing a Bible on to a class
In no way, for those who consider everyone of equal value.
The Bible has many disturbing stories and isn’t appropriate for children in my view, having read the whole thing as a kid.
For those (i.e. bigots, fascists, …) that feel humanity is a hierarchy of value where the in group is at the top and the out group are below that, they are opposed to validating the perfectly normal and human experiences of people with a range of gender identities. For the subset of those that consider themselves Christian, they believe (without evidence) that the Bible is somehow better for kids than allowing them to be themselves and be validated and accepted by others.
A friend of my kid is exploring their gender identity. We have known the family since they were a baby. My wife is friends with the mom. They are religious we aren’t. Unfortunately the mom insists on rejecting their identity and new chosen name. I personally cannot comprehend how one can prioritize anything over my own child’s happiness.
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Cobb county has actually turned pretty solidly blue over the past decade.
So what? The school board and other elected officials haven’t.
It will be soon
I hope so, but that’s cold comfort to this already-fired teacher.
Also, even if it flipped today (and “soon” isn’t that soon), it’d still be decades and decades before Cobb gets MARTA rail. Cobb’s influence on metro Atlanta as whole is an unmitigated catastrophe and probably will be for the rest of my lifetime.
Cobb might join MARTA sooner than we think, but sadly you’re mostly right. I have no hope for any rail expansion in my lifetime, and I’m not even old.
Unfortunately, “joining MARTA” and “getting rail” are far from synonymous, as Clayton is learning the hard way. But the United States in general’s comprehensive inability to build infrastructure in a reasonable timeframe these days is a rant for another thread…
Depressing truth
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The baller move here would be to show up and keep teaching anyways.
Got em
Good. What part does the school teacher’s role involve teaching something entirely outside the spectrum of historically agreed upon subjects? If anything, it’s solely a parent’s role. Just like anything else related to sexual interest or identity. No stranger ever sat down a toddler/young kid in general, and asked “are you interested in
explicit activitieswith boys or girls?”She violated district policies on controversial , so she’s wrong. If she was teaching any subject other than human growth and development, she’s doubly wrong.
Elementary school teachers should be teaching their assigned subjects, not their personal politics.
Great news!!
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You know what actually makes aggressive sales pitches and pushes? Religion.
Books like the one the teacher read do NOT force or influence children to become trans. They teach them about being open minded and to love everyone around us, no matter how they choose to express themselves.
Religion, on the other hand, DOES force children to pick a life of close-mindedness by threatening the fear of eternal damnation if they don’t follow the rules in a book.
Kids need to be protected from this stuff. Sorry.
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Usually, people who speak out against teaching kids about gender typically have a religious agenda. I apologize for making that assumption about you.
However, I do think it’s important to teach kids about what it means to be human and that nothing is ever exactly one way or the other. Most things in this universe operate on a spectrum. Nobody is “chest-thumping about trans stuff”. As I mentioned in my previous message, most people are just trying to teach kids about loving and caring for everyone and that it’s okay to be different.
It shouldnt be “normalized” since it really isnt.
And why should trans people not be normalized? If we only operated based on “this is wrong because it’s different”, then we would still believe that the Earth is flat, the Sun revolves around us, women shouldn’t vote, and white people have a god-given right to own slaves. The point is “It isn’t normal” is not a good excuse. Anything can be normalized.
I think having that kind of mindset is based purely on fear of the unknown. A good education where we learn about other people and other cultures would vastly improve how we think about those around us.
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In fifth grade I knew my gender for sure. Did you not? Maybe you could’ve used the book so you understood yourself.
The concept of gender is a social construct. Humans are a complex matrix of innate and learned behaviour. Our prefrontal cortex hasn’t fully matured until age 25, meaning you continue to change and develop your sense of identity until then. I don’t believe for a second you had a strong, stable and unchanging realisation of self and ego at age 10. Part of human maturation is exploring these changes, testing psychological boundaries, and filtering and accepting external influence. We should definitely not be placing kids into any kind of boxes, either explicitly or implicitly.
Kids spend their entire lives learning our social constructs and self selecting into them. It’s going to happen. Some people have no interest in exploring, some do, and both are ok.
I knew at the age of 13 that I never wanted children and have held fast to that decision. I would say it’s not unreasonable for someone at a young age to know early on what gender they identify with even if they don’t know the specific term for it.
I’ve known since birth.
You haven’t, you at best knew at age 2, typically 2.5. If you were a parent you could see the process. Why is it that the anti-LGBT crowd knows the least about childhood development? Is it because you think a book written for and by goat herders in the bronze age contains any value?
It’s because people who are anti-free thought tend to be lacking critical thinking capabilities. That’s why they need to be told who to hate and why they are able to move on to the next set of “others” to hate just as quickly as their media bubble steers them. They don’t have to waste time in forethought or hindsight.
Part of it may be because that crowd has limited curiosity, mental flexibility, empathy, and humility.
Whereas the rest of us are fascinated watching our kids develop into whoever they become and learn new things and modify our beliefs and understanding based on reflecting on what we observe.
I suspect that the right leaning crowd wants to force everything around them to fit what they already believe, rather than updating their beliefs based on what they experience. And so the daughter who says “actually, I feel like a boy and also my name is John” is rejected and/or forced to conform with the outdated, incorrect beliefs of the parents.
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Patting themselves on the back for knowing their gender.
Although I’m sure it was tough to reach right as they were coming out of the birth canal…
My eldest is going into 4th grade and it took me about 30 seconds to explain that her aunt was born male. It really isn’t that baffling of a concept.
Adults who have trouble understanding basic concepts (or those who need to be told how to feel about them) often assume everyone also has trouble understanding them.
So I can see how someone - someone who doesn’t understand other people’s capabilities - would have a hard time understanding that most grade school-aged people do not also have a hard time understanding those concepts.
In short, some people are too dumb to realize other people aren’t dumb, too.
I will go with that, basic projection.
Have you met a 10 year old recently?
I have and they usually have a phone in their hand and have been ruined by the Internet. I would know because I was one.
Might be best to opt out of parenting.
Fifth graders have genders. What’s your problem?
By that age kids know if they are a boy or girl or other. And much younger, actually.
The book^1 is about being accepted for who you are and what you like Instead of being rejected and hated.
How can anyone defend rejecting and hating a 5th grader for any reason much less merely because of how they dress or what they like to do??
1 I’ve read the book, have you?
