Whooshorama. Of course I knew that you knew, and I knew that it hadn’t been reinstated. Your post made it sound as if it HAD been reinstated and was currently being used to smack around the hate-mongers on right-wing radio. Got a crystal ball? If so it must be awfully dirty.
Apparently, conservatives are firmly convinced they’re all unenlightened chuckleheads. Or something.
Wow…thanks, RS…you know I feel the same way about you. 
Look, I don’t think that anything I wrote in my post was unreasonable, based on what it said in the article. The fact that I was feeling fiesty enough about it to tweak liberals a bit about their claim to tolerance and inclusiveness is, I think, a silly thing to get so worked up about.
I appreciate that. Frankly, my day was fine, but if you were a conservative type who lived in a place where the vote goes 90% the other way, you might be feeling a little fiesty about it, yourself.
Recently, I was YELLED AT at a dinner for my choice of candidate. It’s unbelieveable how people will act when they feel the security of the majority on their side. Do I think it’s a little bit ironic that the party of love, peace, and tolerance has members who think that’s the right way to treat someone they don’t even know just because they have a different political philosophy? Yes, I guess I do. The same way it is ironic that the party of family values has people who cheat on their wives. And all you folks around here would be the first ones to point that one out.
So, anyway, I’m sorry I was not my usual diplomatic and pleasant self yesterday. I will try to go back to respecting other peoples’ points of view immediately.
I’m generally feisty, and I’ve been there. Please believe me that Boston, contrary to popular belief, does not actually lack for conservatives, and they’re not exactly a silent minority. I’ve been subject to bunches of abuse in my life. But when people act like assholes, it’s not because they’re liberal or conservative, it’s because they’re assholes.
You are not an asshole. I like you. 
In closing, I’d just like to mention that there’s no such thing as a tolerant 13 year old. They’re pack animals. There is no more conformist, hierchical creature than a middle-schooler. 
Since when did tolerance mean approval?
The girl and her shirt were tolerated by the school. She was treated rudely by some peers and supported by others. That teacher may well have been surprised that this girl had a T shirt with that on it or that she wore it to school–we don’t know why the teacher said what she did.
I tolerate a great deal, as a liberal, that I heartily disapprove of–gun lovers, addicts, religious evangelicals, Anton Scalia, porn, those nasty animated bear commercials trying to sell toilet paper, Scions and Muzak in the grocery store. Can’t stand any of them, but I don’t attempt to oppress, legislate against or physically hurt any of them.
I am proudly intolerant of my neighbor’s casual racism. Gosh, guess I need to turn in my liberal card.
Call me anachronistic, but when I went to school the environment was such that rudeness, name-calling and aggressive, intimidating behavior on anyone’s part was not tolerated, thus it rarely occurred.
Of course you could discipline kids back then, too…
Hooray for ‘progress’!
Now get off my lawn afore I blast ya!
Awesome. Our kids wouldn’t be so ill-behaved if we were still allowed to punch them in the face. Beat 'em up a little and they’ll turn into little angels.
Christ, you’re a knob.
I’m really beginning to wonder how I’ve managed to be here for so many years and only recently notice what an idiot you are.
I never, ever saw a teacher punch a student, and most certainly not in the face!
The main thing is, people just behaved better then because it was expected. The occasional kid who did get out of line was kept after class, suspended, or perhaps got swats (in the case of boys, that is; it was a sexist era, you know).
But the main thing is, people just simply behaved better in the days prior to the notion taking hold that righteous indignation gives people an excuse to act like assholes.
Holy crap; where did you go to JHS? :dubious:
Not to be too big of a dick, but – got anything to back that up besides your feeling? Because my feeling is that people have been saying, “Back when I was a kid, things were better, boy howdy” for thousands upon thousands of years. But that doesn’t make it true.
No, he doesn’t. And I only step in to say that to save you the pain of finding out slowly.
News flash, middle-school children are judgmental cliquish herd animals. In other shocking developments, the sky is blue and the pope wears a funny hat. I’d be interested to see what happened to a child who wore an Obama T-Shirt in a red-state middle school, but I’m guessing you probably aren’t.
A teacher is “surprised” at the student’s choice. Oh my god, stop the presses, put the brief counselors on standby; that’s the kind of comment that could emotionally cripple someone for life.
If you want to make stupid generalizations based on isolated anecdotes, can we please at least make it about adults?
I was in junior high in the mid 60’s (upscale suburb). One of our teachers routinely threw things at students, put tape into their hair then pulled it out, I saw him jerk the chair out from under a kid once etc etc etc.
I know I’m not the only poster to point out to you that the sum of all of your experiences does not constitute the sum of everyones. Just 'cause you didn’t see stuff when you were younger does not mean stuff didn’t happen.
Do you think liberals have a monopoly on that? It isn’t just the security of the majority; it’s just the security of thinking half the country agrees with you. And in the past 2 weeks I have had the misfortune of having sore conservatives tell me:
- That I have foolishly supported a “silver-tongued dragon”
- That the US, for the first time in 232 years, the US is teetering on the brink of socialism (Gee, had much drama lately? Ever heard of the ‘New Deal’ or ‘Great Society’ or the ‘700 billion dollar bailout’?)
- That Obama’s election was “another 9/11” (I have no words).
It’s been a contentious election. There’s been discord all around, it’s not just your tender skin that’s been scratched, you can climb down off that cross anytime you like. I will grant that it probably stings worse not having the balm of victory and vindication to soothe the wounds, but them’s the breaks.
I went to middle school in a Chicago suburban school from 1974-1976. I had a math teacher who raged at us–literally red in the face, screaming. She also threw chalk at our heads. Miss Smith, wherever you are–I hope you’re uncomfortable for all but a small amount of your day. She didn’t do much for my math phobia.
The OP girl wouldn’t have been able to provoke responses or conduct her “experiment” in my day because T shirts with such slogans weren’t allowed.
To mess with your head, SA, mine was the first year that girls were allowed to wear jeans (and boys, too, but girls had been restricted to skirts).
Of course, given this license, we had sex openly in the halls. (this is a joke-somehow I feel I must be clear on this).
Most of us got along as well as [del]all prisoners condemned to suffer through[/del] most kids in large groups do. There are always those who feel the need to tease, mock and denigrate. I wasn’t aware that liberals had cornered that aspect of modern society.
So, if we follow your line of reasoning, if we hadn’t been allowed some scope in fashion that Miss Smith would not have felt compelled to shriek and throw stuff AND nobody would ever have been teased or put down. :dubious:
Kids have ever been kids–and 13-14 year olds are not known for their civilized group behavior. IMO, kids in your heyday were sneakier, but no less hurtful, in their peer pressure.
Well, gee, then, Eleanor…if I was asking you to be tolerant of racism, then I guess we’d have an argument!
Gee, that would be awfully helpful if you weren’t something like the millionth person to point it out to me in this thread.
And you’re guessing wrong, but I’m the one with the broad brush, aren’t I? :dubious:
Count me as another who was bullied in middle school, and yet as an adult haven’t come to the conclusion that those kids were in any way wholy representative of adult behavior.
And the reason I’m not shrieking is this:
Bolding mine.
Bunch o’ middle schoolers act like bullies and dicks – as already established, this is not news and it’s not even unusual. Then said dickish behavior is addressed by the teacher, and the students figure out for themselves that they were acting like dicks.
I’m not sure what else you’d have the school (or anyone else) do. They not only addressed the problem behavior, they turned it into a learning experience.
I think outrage is appropriate for schools that sit idly by and allow kids to be bullied, for any reason, but that’s not what happened here.
Could you maybe start, just a little? I could really use some help on the Scions and the toilet paper commercials. Those have got to go.
Junior high schools were just for 7th and 8th graders. The 9th grade was almost always included in high school. Middle schools originally changed that for a reason. Most students who are in the 9th grade are 14 or 15. Their brains have not completely formed yet. Educational research indicated that grades 7th, 8th and 9th were better suited to be educated together and 10th, 11th, and 12th together. I don’t know how much of this original plan is being followed.
At any rate, this information about brain development does point to a good reason not to use youngsters under the age of 16 as representative of the society in which they live.
I taught in high schools. Even the older kids can still be very intolerant of differences. The wisest thing to do is to teach your child courage, independence and even the pleasures of non-conformity.