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.
Gender identity is more than just being trans you know.
Transphobes don’t know that.
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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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.
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.
Sigh… of course it’s fucking kkkobb county.
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. It’s 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…
The baller move here would be to show up and keep teaching anyways.
Got em
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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!!
Good - 5th graders have NO business hearing about such nonsense. This is ridiculous. This aggressive trans sales pitch and push is well out of control. Kids need to be protected from this stuff. Sorry.
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.
I never said religion had any place in schools - it does NOT and thats why it has been removed. Where did you pull that from? Im not into organized religion at all. I just dont think or believe that 5th grade is where we start chest-thumping about trans stuff. Way too early. It shouldnt be “normalized” since it really isnt.
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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?
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.
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.
What is your earliest memory…?
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.
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?
I don’t care what you feel, if the parents tell you “don’t read that to my kid” and you do it anyway, you get what you get.
No genuinely, 100%, actually, fuck that. Forget gender, lgbt, and all that for a moment. In a very general sense, a teacher has a duty to society to challenge children and teach them to be better people. Sometimes that will clash with the bigotry and racism held by their parents, and that’s a good thing. The moment we prevent teachers from trying to make a better world is the day our society ends.
Until the pendulum swings, like it always does, and the right wing grabs hold of all of these tools that the left has created. And then you’ll be told that you have no choice regarding the changes they will make. It’s best to leave that authority with parents.
What in the country fried fuck are you talking about? Do you honestly believe that conservative teachers aren’t already doing this? There is no pendulum. Conservatives attempt every trick they can come up with to sneak their ideology into classrooms.
So don’t play their games. Get the people on your side, instead of trying to get around them.
Tell that to the right.
in 2020 51.31% of the popular vote went to “the left” and 46.85% to “the right”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election#Results
That 81 million and 74 million. Sometimes it feels like both halves are pretending the the other half is all crazy people. So you’re saying that we should do something because the other side does it too… But if the other side is crazy, why do we emulate them?
Oh no, God forbid the right gets a hold of checks notes gender fluidity.
Everything is a tool to authoritarians, it doesn’t mean we should stop making tools.
…yes it does?
so what you’re saying is that everything’s fucked, lets give up?
No, let’s move ahead carefully to not fall over and slide further back down the hill.
Don’t teach my kids reading!
Don’t learn my childrens ‘bout no demonic algebra.
Don’t read that evil evolution book to my offspring.
I mean, have you seen the symbols they use in math? It’s obviously a demon summoning. No kid of mine will learn about librul irrational numbers. /s
But naw, that’s what they sound like. They want to pick and choose facts to teach their kids. They might not be going after math symbols this time, but they’re still anti-reality. Parents can have some leeway in how to raise their kids, but they don’t get to choose to keep their kids ignorant of reality. Well, unless they live in Georgia apparently. Or Florida. Or one of several other states that have done similar and just coincidentally happen to be red states.
Full of nuance. Love it!
It doesn’t matter how backwards you think it is, the parents have the authority. If you want the kids to start learning a topic, get the parents to agree.
Oh, my bad. I didn’t realize the parents were all experts in education and also made the rules and could even change reality to fit their whims.
I hate it when people try to change reality to fit their whims.
Says the person doing exactly that.
Like it or not, parents don’t own children, nor do they have an absolute authority over them.
If parents abuse or neglect their child (and yes, depriving them of an education is both) then the other responsible adults in that’s child’s life have not only every right, but the absolute responsibility, to override the abusive parents’ instructions or demands, and intervene in the child’s best interest.
Hey now! You stop it with that reasonable speak! That isn’t allowed on the internet.
Then take the next step and vote to get those kids taken away, if you think it’s that much harm.
jesus tapdancing christ, just say you think parents should control every aspect of their child’s lives including everything they THINK and HEAR.
Child disagrees with parents? Fuck em, parents are always right. Always. Right?
one of the man benefits of public education are having the kids taught by people who actually know what they are teaching, rather than random parents who think they know. yeah, its not perfect, but parents generally make worse teachers than, ya know, trained teachers.
its classic micromanagement of the kid. let go
Conservatives believe that their children are their property. Or a close analog thereof.
So you teaching their kid something they don’t want the kid to know is treated like you’re damaging “their stuff”.
Conservatives are all about protecting property, even when said property is actually a person who might not want their “protection”.
I’m very pro public schools. I’m only saying that parents must have authority over schools when it comes to their kids.
You contradict yourself.
No I mean what I say.
You mean what you say, but don’t understand it. So you contradict yourself.
Two things can be true. Reading sure is tough!
It takes a village to raise a child, for good reason.
That’s some absolute nonsense. I shouldn’t have to rely on other parents for my kid to be able to learn certain things in school. They don’t like it, they can pull their kid from the class during that instruction. This whole thing of “I don’t want it, so no one gets it” is absolute bullshit.
If that teacher tried to teach creationism against school rules it would be the same exact thing, but you’d feel different about it.
Parents have the option of homeschooling their kids. That’s them exercising their authority. But public school curriculum should be decided by an apolitical body that follows evidence based practices. Don’t like it as a parent? Then homeschool.
I don’t disagree.
Try getting a majority of parents to agree to your opinion first.
I don’t have one. I’m just saying that if it’s not the curriculum then it shouldn’t be taught. But if you want it to be taught then you need to change the curriculum, and if you want to do that, then you need the parents to be on board. So, my assumption is that the parents in that community are against this topic being taught to their kids. It doesn’t matter what the topic is. A teacher just choosing to do read books on topics that the parents may believe their kids are not ready for is wrong.
Did you read any required books in school? Did you parents have to fill out a form agreeing to those books? If not, then maybe “you need the parents to be on board” is a bullshit excuse.
You misunderstand me. I’m not saying that parents should be on the board. Although maybe some should? I don’t really care.
What I’m saying is that in the real world, I hope, the people have influence on what their government does. So, when the government does something, like add something to school curriculum, the people can be involved. That’s why we vote for things. That’s the parental influence on schools that I’m referring to.
It’s not parents’ job to dictate school curricula. All these “PaReNtS’ rIgHtS” bills are bullshit pandering to people afraid of their own shadows. They can all take a long walk off a short pier.
Ok, but was it in the curriculum? Because if not then the teacher wants doing her job.
Personal responsibility for all, if you don’t like the public system teaching publically accepted science of psychology and biology pay for your own schooling then.
Doesn’t sound like that book was part of the psychology or biology curriculum.
if you cant handle your child being taught reality, then maybe teach them your self? you can home school.
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Hopefully we can get anti-science ideas like germ theory, atomic theory, etc out of schools soon too.
Germ theory hasn’t been a theory for a century now. Germs are proven to exist.
Atomic theory hasn’t been a theory for decades. It’s proven. We can literally view atoms in electron microscopes now.
I don’t think you understand how science works.
You don’t understand the scientific definition of theory.
Science: a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena
Lay usage: an unproved assumption : conjecture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germ_theory_of_disease
The germ theory of disease is the currently accepted scientific theory for many diseases. It states that microorganisms known as pathogens or “germs” can cause disease.
Germ theory is not a theory that germs exist.
“It’s litterally right in the name…”
I don’t think you understand how science works.
ok lol’d, that was good troll
If it was part of the curriculum then it’s one thing. But if it was a choice made by this one teacher against the wishes of the people who wrote the curriculum then it’s right that they got fired.
Independent thought IS overrated after all. Many things in society are tamped down to some lowest common denominator level to placate the masses and be palatable to the broadest cross segment. Emerging ideas though need discussion and facts being what they are the adults in the room are much more likely to be fixed in their ways and unwilling to acknowledge anything that goes against their ‘good old days’ perceptions of right and wrong.
I happen to be one of those adults and understand that some of the lenses I view things through are tinged by the experiences and perspectives around me while growing up. Those things though are not the current reality that we have to work within. I may not agree with every notion that my kids bring forth, but they’re welcome to challenge me on it to explain their point. If you don’t allow kids the information to make a detemination of their own however then the future world suffers for it.
I don’t disagree with you. But, there’s a reason I don’t show my toddler violent movies. I don’t think that the kid is old enough to see that. Also, a 4 year old doesn’t need to know what World War 2 was. I’m not saying that it directly compares to this topic but I’m saying that a parent has to make choices of what I fo their child can consume based on what they think their child is ready for. So, if there’s a topic that I don’t think my kid is ready for now, and the school tells me that they’re not going to cover it now, then if a random teacher goes against that, I’ll have a problem with it. As you should.
The way around that around here is a parental permission slip if there is any question on a topic being age appropriate. Affirmative rejection of education by the parent is recordable and should be actionable by society if at egregious enough levels where it’s seen as restricting a proper education.
I have a problem with your logic. Because in that world the status quo would never change and people would still be taught that homosexuality is a mental disorder. And I feel as though you would not agree with that.
First, parental permission slip. I’m actually against a system that constantly checks with parents regarding every little thing. I’m just saying that parents already have an influence as the public on what the curriculum is. So, if there’s a topic you want, but is missing from it, or if the topic is present and you don’t like it, then go to the school board. Don’t insert, or remove content on a whim. And if the curriculum is not changed and you’re not willing to deal with that, then private or home schooling is an option. So I don’t think permission slips are necessary.
“Affirmative rejection of education by the parent is recordable…” How do you define “rejection” and “education”? And how is that being recorded? People had to reject a lot of education in order for the civil rights movement to get any traction. I wonder what kind of things we were being taught about women before they were allowed in schools. The problem I have with the lack of definition here is that you follow it up with “…and should be actionable by society…” because that means there’s legal action that can be taken based on those loose definitions. And the rest of “…if at egregious enough levels where it’s seen as restricting a proper education.” doesn’t clarify it at all.
The “good guys” aren’t going to be in charge forever. And we need to make sure that we don’t make it easy for the “bad guys”.
The notion of the slips as I’ve seen them implemented is as such:
In X grade we will have education on Y topic which has some measure of content that parents may find questionable for their children. If you object to this then please advise us in writing (through whatever means the school prefers) and we will have them placed in an alternative class dring that time.
If the parent rejects the class then it will be presumed they will attend the class the next year/semester, if it is rejected again at that time then there needs to be some intervention to have a discussion to identify a specific cause. That could include school counselers, social services or whomever else is required to ensure the kids get a comprehensive education in accordance with the established modern standards.
Parental interests should be noted, but not the exclusive dictation of what information is available to a kid. Those who look to restrict access to information are almost universally going to be doing so because they’re afraid that their own version of things is going to be seen as wrong, usually for good reason. Ignorance is bred in isolation through unopposed repetition of opinions stated as facts.
Helping shape curriculum is distinct from the choice to engage with it at any given point and not mutually exclusive. Arguing for the exclusion of information is almost always bad, arguing for the inclusion of it is less often bad but needs to be backed by sound logic and science.
If things went your way, we’d still be teaching kids that the universe revolves around the Earth and that sound travels infinitely into space to other orbs where giant eagles live.
Boo
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