Last month, when a Colorado school issued an edict banning tag because someone might get emotionally hurt, I did a long post about how I thought the long-term consequences of that decision were infinitely worse than the short term issue of kids having a playground conflict. In the last couple of paragraphs of that same post, I wrote about a decision in my daughter’s classroom to ban a favorite type of boy play: imaginary weapons. I would have been okay had the rules denied any wild play in the classroom, reserving it instead for the school yard. What bugged me was how targeted it was to boys’ activities.
I’m not the only one who has noticed this trend. At American Thinker, Selwyn Duke has written a wonderful piece about these same education trends, with special emphasis on the attacks against the nature of boys. I urge you to read it and then, if you still have boys in public school, think about ways politely to change the dynamic.
Incidentally, it’s worth noting that elementary school education in the latter half of the 20th Century became pretty much the preserve of women, so one has to accept that there inevitably was going to be feminization in the classroom. This early feminine touch, though was aimed at soothing rough edges, teaching manners, and generally civilizing wild behavior. Nowadays, there’s a misanthropic, feminist edge to what’s going on, that is very much aimed, not at teaching manners, but at “de-boying” boys (witness the fact that, in my daughter’s class, a specific type of boy play got banned).
UPDATE: At Jeremayakova, there’s a video, a bit graphic, that illustrates Michael Savage’s theory that, for both men and women, homosexual culture has become the dominant norm — moving from fringe behavior most of us don’t espouse to cultural beliefs central to young men and women. It’s interesting, and certainly worth thinking about, even if you don’t agree with any part of or even the entire premise. (Hat tip: RD — you know who you are, and thank you.)
They have been trying to ban imaginary weapons in school since my son, who is now 23, was 5. His friend made a gun out of legos. He was told by the teacher that ‘We don’t have guns at school. Make it into something else.” So, he did. Without changing even one lego, he said instantly ‘then it’s a fire breathing dragon!’ And so it was.
My three sons would make guns out of grilled cheese sandwiches and swords out of my camera tripod and yardsticks. As long as they didn’t hurt each other with them and just used them for imaginary play, it was fine. And none of them is a serial killer today! In fact, they have become very peace-loving, responsible young men who have taken riflery, show little interest in weapons of any kind.
I look forward to the perverse consequences of this policy. As Eli pointed out, these policies will have no effect on boys’ play. It will simply encourage more boys to feel more camaraderie among boys, as they are forced to play ‘outlaw’.
” it’s worth noting that elementary school education in the latter half of the 20th Century became pretty much the preserve of women, so one has to accept that there inevitably was going to be feminization in the classroom. ”
Maybe in Marin (but I doubt it). My daughter’s elementary school easily included 20-30% male teachers, in addition to the PE and art teachers. Actually, her daycare also always had one male teacher on staff.
So, yet again, right-wingers foist an imaginary issue upon us (although one that Book has flogged several times, in one form or another) …
Do you remember back in 2005 when Laura Bush was anointed to head up a three-year initiative on boys? “I feel like, in the United States, that we’ve sort of shifted our gaze away from boys for the last several decades, and that we’ve neglected boys,” she said. The initiative, never defined, disappeared.
That’s Ellen Goodman writing earlier this month about this latest winger nonsense-fest:
http://www.sj-r.com/Opinion/stories/15601.asp
Also, Ellen Goodman from July:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060705_ellen_goodman_boy_crisis/
Raising milksops for men and making mean spirited smart ass women out of our girls ! Parents more than schools of course !! Just reversing the roles for awhile.
Greg, please read what I write. I did not write that classrooms are solely the preserve of women. I said pretty much — and you proved my point boasting that 20%, maybe even 30% of the teachers at your local schools are males. I don’t know how to break this to you, but that means that 70-80% of the teachers are female, which is a damn fine majority no matter how you slice it.
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I don’t know how to break this to you, Bookworm (Lord, how I wish you would read/recall your own posts! which would spare me the bother of having to repeat for you your own words), but having both genders represented in the elementary school does not constitute a “feminization” of the school, with an attending deleterious impact on male students, who lack gender role models/male influence, etc. — Which is the winger argument that *you* make in *your* post and which *you* endorse.
Put 30 men into a room with 70 women, and you certainly have a female majority but not a female group.
Historically, of course, elementary school teachers were mostly female, but today, the demographics on teacher-gender help to refute the winger nonsense about “feminization” in the schools, and for further refutation, please see the study Goodman cites in her July editorial, which I linked above.
From 1992 – 2000, Hillary’s Anthropology Crowd successfully hijacked the American public school textbook. Given that Mary Wollstonecraft was Hillary’s hero while at Wellsley, you betcha she wants to crush the boys. Get ’em while their young. Like a true predator and a mob hit-man, Hillary never let the boys hear her coming.
Good reading:
http://www.amazon.com/War-Against-Boys-Misguided-Feminism/dp/0684849569
Why bless your heart, greg, you still have way too much “attitude” in your posts, but you are engaging on the merits and even citing sources. Thank you.
The problem is not the feminization of the schools. Women have been teaching our kids since the days of school marms in one room schoolhouses. The problem is the nearly complete take-over of our schools by radical leftist and, in this context, feminist ideology. It hardly mattes if 20-30% of your teachers are male if they share the leftist/feminist viewpoint and goals.
BW made a simple point, that the efforts to ban pretend gun play in her school is directed at an activity that boys, far more than girls, wish to engage in. We can debate whether trying to rein in boys’ more aggressive impulses is a good thing (indeed, why don’t we?), but BW is unquestionably correct that the ban on pretend gun play targets a largely male activity.
Put 30 men into a room with 70 women, and you certainly have a female majority but not a female group.
Any President of a University that was discharged because of feminine hysterics might disagree. Course to g, his entire world is disagreeable. not much change there.
Greg, please read what I write.
Semi-literate people cannot do that, Book. IT is rather cruel to bring such a thing up ; )
As people can see, g comes back acting like he is doing our lady a favor. Of course, the truth is that g has finished his time in the coffin and wishes to come back to easier haunts. Nutrition is defined as attention and superiority to narcissists. The more they are seen as superior and elevated in status, the more positive attention they derive from their flock.
As an example to what I am refering to, please read this.
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=18702053&postID=189620240884066936