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Warning: Rant
Occasionally, I go on Facebook.
Occasionally, I am very disappointed in people who exist.
From a girl I went to high school with. I had hoped she was being sarcastic. She wasn’t. :(
There are so many things I hate about this; I am not sure where to begin.
1. Students are not a demographic. They do not exist for schools to sell them viewpoints. They do not exist for schools to preach at them. They attend school to get an unbiased education. I personally don’t think such a thing exists anymore, but that’s only slightly here and not really there.
(I actually have very little faith in the secondary school system, mostly due to my own rather heinous education. Yes, I went to a Catholic school. I hated every minute of it. I passionately declared atheism when I was about fourteen purely so I could growl at the very prospect of religion, because I can’t stand being indoctrinated, preached to, or told how I should feel about a certain thing. Even today, any time an opinion is forced on me, I very maturely dig my heels in and will usually decide to have the exact opposite opinion just out of spite. I’ve loosened up toward religion – mostly because it’s left me alone. My reasons for things are not always awesome or rational, okay. Anyway, blah blah blah high school education is pretty terrible, or at least it was in my purview.
Also, I once had a teacher tell me, no lie, that I was “shitting on her religion” because I smiled when she told a story about how a piece of host was found on the floor after a school mass. I regret nothing, expect the fact that I didn’t report her to a VP – and even if I had, it only would have been for my own satisfaction. I doubt anything could have been done.
Fucking high school, man.)
That was an extremely long tangent. I do not believe that a teacher pushing personal values on students, especially in a high school setting, is right. Give them the tools they need to make up their own minds; teach them to think critically, teach them fact, and teach them the basics. Everywhere, students of that age group have opinions pushed on them – at home, in the media, by their peers. A classroom should not be that place.
2. It is bullying. I haven’t read the anti-bullying bill – although now I think I will, when I get a free moment – but I cannot think of a more succinct way to put it. Telling a woman that she has no right to make a personal call about her own body because it’s “wrong”, is to me, bullying in its most base form.
Dictionary.com’s definition of bullying:
(verb.) to act the bully toward; intimidate; domineer.
That seems pretty correct to me. That “religious freedom” incorporates the ability to declare from on high that this thing a woman may need in her lifetime is unavailable to her because it’s “wrong” by someone else’s archaic definition and that she, by extension, has to commit herself to something she doesn’t want seems pretty fucking gross. How is it any different than shoving a kid’s head into a toilet every day for eight months because he accidentally ran over your bike with his car? (For the record, I’m in no way attacking pregnancy in itself or comparing it to a daily swirly for several months.) It is intimidation and domineering over someone, just dressed up in a different way.
3. I hate hate hate hate hate the terms Pro-Life and Pro-Choice so much. It implies a mutual exclusivity that makes me want to bang my head against a wall. Because, as someone who is “Pro-Choice” by the contemporary definition, even if I will never personally refer to myself in that way? I do not think abortion is amazing. I do not think it would be someone’s idea of a fun Friday night. I think it is a necessary medical procedure – that the quality of life is better served in one way or another, and only the person affected (the woman) has the right to make that call.
(I am not interested in getting into a discussion about whether the father has any equal or proportional say, so if you’re going to comment along those lines, turn the fuck around. It’s not what I’m about right now.)
The terms make the implicit assumption that someone who is Pro-Choice is against life, or vice versa. The terms are simplistic to the point of inappropriate and do not begin to encompass the issue in its entirety. No woman is ever thrilled that she needs an abortion, short of probable sociopaths – and I’m only including that disclaimer in because maybe there is such a woman. I can’t imagine it, and I can’t imagine anyone else with a conscience can imagine it either. Abortion itself? Not that amazing. Nobody wants to need an abortion; much like nobody wants to need bypass surgery. The ability for a woman to decide for herself, unimpeded or without coercion, whether she gets one or not? That is amazing… and it shouldn’t be, because it shouldn’t be so contested. It should be as natural a fact as oxygen is good, being set on fire is bad.
So, as an answer to the question, “What is going to happen to all the Pro-life groups in high schools?” Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.
I was livechatting with some friends when I popped onto Facebook and saw this, and had to get them to keep me from making a bitchy comment to the poster herself. I looked back at it this morning, and the comments were equally disappointing, although I suppose the people who commented deserve some credit for being thoughtful and well-intended in their discussion. My frustration stems from none of them making the points I would have made, and tacitly agreeing with her by the act of not outwardly disagreeing.
But, what do I know? I’m a cranky, liberal ex-atheist.
(Hi, DW. How are you. I am making yet another attempt to exist on you more, and on Plurk less. Let’s see how it goes. )
(…I love that I spent half an hour writing this instead of doing the reading I came home to do. Priorities: I have them.)
Occasionally, I am very disappointed in people who exist.
”Laurel Broten, Liberal MPP and Minister of Education, has declared that Catholic school can no longer teach abortion is wrong, according to their faith. What happened to religious freedom? It's not legally taking away anyone's rights by informing Catholic members what their faith believes. What is going to happen to all the ProLife groups in highschools? This anti-bullying bill is being hijacked for specific interests it seems.”
From a girl I went to high school with. I had hoped she was being sarcastic. She wasn’t. :(
There are so many things I hate about this; I am not sure where to begin.
1. Students are not a demographic. They do not exist for schools to sell them viewpoints. They do not exist for schools to preach at them. They attend school to get an unbiased education. I personally don’t think such a thing exists anymore, but that’s only slightly here and not really there.
(I actually have very little faith in the secondary school system, mostly due to my own rather heinous education. Yes, I went to a Catholic school. I hated every minute of it. I passionately declared atheism when I was about fourteen purely so I could growl at the very prospect of religion, because I can’t stand being indoctrinated, preached to, or told how I should feel about a certain thing. Even today, any time an opinion is forced on me, I very maturely dig my heels in and will usually decide to have the exact opposite opinion just out of spite. I’ve loosened up toward religion – mostly because it’s left me alone. My reasons for things are not always awesome or rational, okay. Anyway, blah blah blah high school education is pretty terrible, or at least it was in my purview.
Also, I once had a teacher tell me, no lie, that I was “shitting on her religion” because I smiled when she told a story about how a piece of host was found on the floor after a school mass. I regret nothing, expect the fact that I didn’t report her to a VP – and even if I had, it only would have been for my own satisfaction. I doubt anything could have been done.
Fucking high school, man.)
That was an extremely long tangent. I do not believe that a teacher pushing personal values on students, especially in a high school setting, is right. Give them the tools they need to make up their own minds; teach them to think critically, teach them fact, and teach them the basics. Everywhere, students of that age group have opinions pushed on them – at home, in the media, by their peers. A classroom should not be that place.
2. It is bullying. I haven’t read the anti-bullying bill – although now I think I will, when I get a free moment – but I cannot think of a more succinct way to put it. Telling a woman that she has no right to make a personal call about her own body because it’s “wrong”, is to me, bullying in its most base form.
Dictionary.com’s definition of bullying:
(verb.) to act the bully toward; intimidate; domineer.
That seems pretty correct to me. That “religious freedom” incorporates the ability to declare from on high that this thing a woman may need in her lifetime is unavailable to her because it’s “wrong” by someone else’s archaic definition and that she, by extension, has to commit herself to something she doesn’t want seems pretty fucking gross. How is it any different than shoving a kid’s head into a toilet every day for eight months because he accidentally ran over your bike with his car? (For the record, I’m in no way attacking pregnancy in itself or comparing it to a daily swirly for several months.) It is intimidation and domineering over someone, just dressed up in a different way.
3. I hate hate hate hate hate the terms Pro-Life and Pro-Choice so much. It implies a mutual exclusivity that makes me want to bang my head against a wall. Because, as someone who is “Pro-Choice” by the contemporary definition, even if I will never personally refer to myself in that way? I do not think abortion is amazing. I do not think it would be someone’s idea of a fun Friday night. I think it is a necessary medical procedure – that the quality of life is better served in one way or another, and only the person affected (the woman) has the right to make that call.
(I am not interested in getting into a discussion about whether the father has any equal or proportional say, so if you’re going to comment along those lines, turn the fuck around. It’s not what I’m about right now.)
The terms make the implicit assumption that someone who is Pro-Choice is against life, or vice versa. The terms are simplistic to the point of inappropriate and do not begin to encompass the issue in its entirety. No woman is ever thrilled that she needs an abortion, short of probable sociopaths – and I’m only including that disclaimer in because maybe there is such a woman. I can’t imagine it, and I can’t imagine anyone else with a conscience can imagine it either. Abortion itself? Not that amazing. Nobody wants to need an abortion; much like nobody wants to need bypass surgery. The ability for a woman to decide for herself, unimpeded or without coercion, whether she gets one or not? That is amazing… and it shouldn’t be, because it shouldn’t be so contested. It should be as natural a fact as oxygen is good, being set on fire is bad.
So, as an answer to the question, “What is going to happen to all the Pro-life groups in high schools?” Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.
I was livechatting with some friends when I popped onto Facebook and saw this, and had to get them to keep me from making a bitchy comment to the poster herself. I looked back at it this morning, and the comments were equally disappointing, although I suppose the people who commented deserve some credit for being thoughtful and well-intended in their discussion. My frustration stems from none of them making the points I would have made, and tacitly agreeing with her by the act of not outwardly disagreeing.
But, what do I know? I’m a cranky, liberal ex-atheist.
(Hi, DW. How are you. I am making yet another attempt to exist on you more, and on Plurk less. Let’s see how it goes. )
(…I love that I spent half an hour writing this instead of doing the reading I came home to do. Priorities: I have them.)