Yep, a friend of mine brought this site to my attention today:Tardblog
It’s been a long time since I’ve felt so guilty about laughing so much. So, dopers, whadda ya think? Monstrous or comical?
Novus
It’s possible that some stories involving developmentally disabled people might be funny. But the title “Tard” spoiles it all for me. I didn’t even want to read any of the stories, assuming they would be offensive just because of use of the word “tard”. That’s cruel in itself.
I have to agree with masonite. I read about two or three of the stories, but I just can’t get past the word “tard”.
The author of the site does say something about the use of the word “tard” in her FAQ
To me, even though she claims to have no ill will towards her students, it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Does that mean that you are evil incarnate if you laugh? Not really. I can’t dictate what one person finds humorous, but for myself, it really isn’t up my alley. YMMV.
This is of course purest bullshit. Of course it’s a word, a word most people find offensive. She can’t strip it of its associations just for the asking.
Neither funny nor cruel.
Yes,“tard” is not an enlightened moniker, but the kids are anonymous and would be hard pressed to understand what connotations the label would have and why it’s any worse than “developmentally disabled”
I didn’t laugh either.
She’s a special education teacher and she doesn’t know that ‘tard’ is offensive?
I find that appalling.
I wouldn’t be proud to be associated with it, on many levels. Whether it’s funny or not is irrelevant to me after that.
Ehhhhh… I can understand the use of dark humor to alleviate the stress of a job, absolutely. It’s gotta be a very difficult career. I also believe that yes, she cares about the kids’ well-being.
On the other hand, I couldn’t get past the fact that she seems to be burning out on her job (I extrapolate that from her repeated comments about getting sloppy drunk, though that could certainly be hyperbole.). The comment that she makes abAlso, I didn’t think it professional of her to bring her friend A.J. into the class (unless he was there specifically in a teaching capacity, which doesn’t appear to me to be the case).
And yeah, I, too, think that the whole ‘Well, I call them “tards” not "retards, thereby making a distinction between the two’ argument is complete B.S. If I were a special ed teacher who had students with varying mental problems & needed a way to group them together when discussing the class as a whole, I’d simply call them “my class” or “my special ed kids”.
All in all, I didn’t find the site to be particularly amusing, and I think that she may or may not be in the wrong line of work, but I can also understand her need for release.
I think it’s funny. I also think it’s at least halfway fictional.
This site is associated with tuckermax – another site that’s funny and at least halfway fictional. Both sites are not at all politically correct. That doesn’t mean they are without value. Many of the characters and events described in these stories are true enough, and while intellectually it’s sad to see such debasement of the human condition, the misfortunes of others is a classic source of comedy.
I tohught it was hilarious.
*tohught meaning thought. Wonder if Riti has any openings in her class?
This is of course purest bullshit. Of course it’s a word, a word most people find offensive. She can’t strip it of its associations just for the asking. **
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I agree. It is a word, and it is a word with some definite negative connotations. What makes me wonder about this blog though, if it is actually based in reality, is that this is the sort of thing which could land the author in hot water. In my opinion it really reflects poorly on her, and her attitude towards her students.
Well, that was some bizzare coding. I have no clue how that second close quote tag got in there…
Here’s a small paragraph from the disclaimer:
My sister has also worked with the <PC Term>Developmentally Impaired</PC Term>. I think she would agree with the entire disclaimer statement and would likely see the humour in the site.
I don’t find the site all that monstrous or all that comical. It’s one person’s experiences with a group of people most of us never get anywhere near.
The entries I read were hardly offensive…far from it. Personally, I wouldn’t let the fact that she uses a non-PC Term to describe these people, (no matter how “offensive”) stop me from learning about a subject which I heretofore knew nothing about.
She’s trying to whitewash the use of “tard” and I ain’t buying it. Shortening the word (even though she denies it) doesn’t make it OK. Other than that, I’m sure she experiences lots of funny stuff amongst the kids every day. I thought the entries were great.
The thing is, though, she doesn’t really sound like a teacher. Like when she described finding one of her students facedown on the bathroom floor, she rushed over “to see if he was alive”. That sounds like the kind of panicky conclusion to which a non-professional would jump. A real special-ed teacher would be more likely to say “to see if he was hurt, or asleep, or possibly messing with me”.
I’d prefer to believe that it’s fiction, because I don’t like to think of someone with her attitude working with special-ed kids. OTOH, it’s not clever enough to be good satire. :dubious:
I go for “dark humour”. It’s a good site.
Well, I’ve read some more, and now I say that this had better not be real. Her attitude is for sh!t. I’ve seen a couple of instances where she deliberately set kids up so they would have tantrums. And admitting that she shares confidential info with other faculty members? Again I say, if this is satire, it’s not good satire.
I’m going to have to cleanse my palate with this.
I also found it to be a good read. Once you get over the “tard” label, some of it is quite touching. “#19: Joe’s Pencil”, for example.
Rilchiam, YMMV but I thought that was humour, not a description of the writer’s actual thoughts.
I am reminded somewhat of a friend who works in a children’s hospital. He would come home and cheerily announce, “well, I didn’t kill anyone today!” He didn’t say it to be callous – although it looks that way in print – more as darkly humourous expression of the tensions of his job. Like this blog.
Rilchiam, I’m with you on the Onion link. Sadly, I’ve seen Burger Kings where this story was pretty close to the truth. Ah, the Onion… King of Internet Humor.
Novus