Here is an interesting story about a 14-year-old girl, and the reaction she got when she wore a t-shirt that said “McCain Girl” to school one day.
She wore it as an experiment, as she knew that most of her fellow students were Obama supporters.
Let’s just say that the response was not pretty. She was told that she was stupid and should die for supporting McCain. One person even said she should be burned with her shirt on. The one positive reaction she got was whispered in a corner, away from the other students.
A teacher told her that she “wasn’t going to judge” but that she was “surprised” that the girl was supporting McCain. Oh, sure, Teach…that doesn’t sound judgemental, not at all! That teacher later admitted she was embarrassed by what she said, when she found out the girl was writing everything down, and was planning on handing it is as an extra-credit report in one of her classes. Hmmm…pretty interesting that a teacher apparently feels free to say things to students that she would be embarrassed by if the rest of the world heard it. Kind of scary if you ask me.
I’m not even feeling like ranting, because I think the article speaks for itself.
Good for this student, though…she seems like a pretty smart and tough cookie!
It’s got nothing to do with “liberal tolerance”, that’s all. If you’re Pitting schoolkids for acting like dipshits, fine, but see if you can find a smaller brush.
What’s so shocking to me about this article is that the vast majority of junior high school students normally accept differences among their peers with the utmost compassion.
Do you want people to get outraged at every story of middle schoolers acting like dicks and bullying someone for being different? Because it happens a lot, and I’m not sure I have that much outrage in me.
It’s all self-reported by a child, so I’m dubious off the bat. Also, it’s all about reactions of children, not “liberals.” Also, she was trolling. Also, we don’t know how many kids (if any) gave her any negative reactions. I suspect the vast majority were probably indifferent. Also, let a kid wear an Obama shirt to school in rural Alabama and see what happens. It’s not a liberal/conservative thing, it’s a junior high school thing.
Also, there’s nothing wrong with what the teacher said. I see nothing judgemental about being “surprised” that a normally good kid would try to troll her classmates. It’s not a political judgement, it’s a response to unexpected behavior.
The teacher didn’t know what she was doing at the time. The teacher wasn’t surprised she was “trolling” (which is not what she was doing, BTW), she was surprised the girl supported McCain.
Sure, I’d love it if all middle school teachers were models of objectivity and reason. While we’re wishing for stuff, I’d also love it if they could teach science and math at a halfway comprehensible level, too. I’m not holding my breath for either one.