Why We Will Homeschool--Reason Number 857837820

My wife and I don't live in Oregon, but I'm from there. So this does strike close to home for me, in a sense (my emphases added):

Oregon’s state government released a set of guidelines for schools Thursday informing educators that students must be allowed to use whatever locker rooms they want and play on opposite-sex sports teams as long as they say it reflects their chosen gender identity.

Not only that, but if the student doesn’t want his or her parents to know, teachers don’t have to tell them.

The 15-page document makes Oregon one of just a handful of states to release detailed guidelines for how states should handle the topic of transgender students. In general, the guide tells teachers to adhere to the wishes of students when it comes to affirming their chosen gender identity.

“A student who says she is a girl and wishes to be regarded that way throughout the school day should be respected and treated like any other girl,” it says. “So too with a student who says he is a boy.” Students should be called by whatever name they wish (regardless of their legal name), and they have the right to use bathrooms and locker rooms of either sex in accordance with their wishes...

the LGBT-rights group Basic Rights Oregon declared the new standards were a “wonderful first step” for the state in improving transgender rights in school.

And what happens in the more progressives states soon get exported to saner states, either by the slow slipping of the culture or by judicial (or presidential) fiat.

As an added aside, I noticed this passage in the document:

"Students are often still in transition at the time of graduation and have not necessarily completed legal name changes and other documentation. Recommended best practice for graduating transgender students is to provide two diplomas and two sets of transcripts, one with the legal first name and one with the preferred first name."

Really? At that point in my life, I was going by a different name from my legal name (and I still do, though now I go by either my nickname or my given legal name or my last name preceded by the appropriate appellation depending on circumstance). My diploma was written in my legal name. My wife has changed her name from maiden to married last name since graduating--but alas, her diplomas all still have her last name on them. In other words, this document is encouraging a special privilege to transgendered students "above and beyond" what the other 99.99% of students are provided. It may be a petty thing to be hung up on (this is really one of the least important points in the damned document), but there it is.

Also, there's this, from page 10 (the same page which says that boys can now use the girls' room and vice-versa):

Based on a recent OCR finding against an Illinois school district, it is recommended that alternative accommodations, such as a single “unisex” bathroom or private changing space, should be made available to students who request them, but should not be forced upon students, or presented as the only option.

This paragraph started strong and then fizzled. Frankly, the single-use restroom, shower, or changing area/locker space is the best option available if we concede that people should not simply be made to use the space provided to their anatomy. In other words, the compromise position is out; trying to avoid this battle in the culture wars will not be permitted. It certainly lends credance to the idea that these fights over lockerroom use, the so-called "Bathroom Wars"* really are less about the bathroom and more about the war.

And now, a prediction, with a bit of irony. Years ago, when I was an undergraduate student, this kind of thing was all the rage among the proto-Brownshirts of the "Social Justice" set. I remember there being discussions and arguments, and even resolutions brought before the student body's senate as to whether we should make our campus' bathrooms unisex. This is not many steps away from simply allowing everyone to use whichever bathroom or locker room he or she chooses--indeed, the two proposals have the same effect. And, on a similar note, there were rumblings then (and more so at the university where I did my doctoral work) that dorm rooms should be made optionally coed.

My prediction then is this: whether dorm rooms are made to be co-ed or not, I suspect that this bit of insanity will eventually render the point moot. A young woman will decide one day that she is actually a he, and then be assigned to a dorm room accordingly, or (perhaps more frequently), a young man will decide that he is really a "she" and be assigned to a room accordingly. And while I must confess that I wonder what the response of the university housing would be if said students change their minds once, let alone several times (will every transexual now be given his or her own private room, above and beyond what is allocated to other students), there is another problem here. Namely: what recourse will the normal and sane students who are not undergoing some gender confusion have?


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* I would prefer "Bathroom Battles" both for the alliteration and as a reminder that they are one front in a greater cultural war.

Certifiable Insanity

That's how I would describe every member of the Minnesota State High School League not named Emmett Keenan. Public showers of the sort used by students in high school gym class (and sports' teams) can be awkward enough as it is. This just goes over the top. Oh, and coed hotel rooms? Not a brilliant idea either.

On Ferguson

People keep asking me what I think about the whole Ferguson debacle. Honestly, I try not to, because the situation is too depressing. With that said, I don't have all the information, and am just no interested enough to pour through the evidence and court documents. From what I have read, it seems likely that Michael Brown's death at the hands of office Darren Wilson was in fact a justifiable homicide, that it was in self-defense.

Brown seems like a bully, and while this isn't the end I wish upon bullies in general, it does seem like an almost inevitable end for the thug that he apparently was. Nothing that I have seen suggests that this guy was a "good kid" who just had a bad day. I'm sure his family and friends see things differently, but then again, his own stepfather is doing his best to incite violence, so there's that. On the other hand, there is something to be said about the militarization of our police, and this wouldn't be the first time that a police office caused a wrongful death and then got off scott-free. Still, most the evidence (and accounts) which I have seen suggest that in this case, the office was justified.

I can state that there is a wrong way to handle this. That seems to be the exact thing which his "community" is doing. Let me be blunt: this "community" seems to be largely the black community of St. Louis and beyond which is stupid and or gullible enough to to believe that this incident involves some sort of racism. Anybody idiotic enough to believe liars like Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, or for that matter President Obama, and foolish enough to resort to violence and vandalism and robbery and riots and arson as a response to a non-indictment charge is probably doing more to further racism than any men in white hoods could ever hope to have come pass.

It's absurd to think that this helps anybody. It's insane to believe that this is the right reaction at any level. The fact that very few of the victims of this violence have any connection to the original case--other than living in the same city--makes it all the more random and pointless. This is not to say that targeted violence against Officer Wilson and his family--as might be suggested by, say, the New York Times (who apparently published his wife's name and the street they lived on) is any better. Still, there is some insanity to the fact that, among other thing, the church which Micheal Brown's family attends was burned down during this rioting.

It is nice, however, to see that a few members of the black community have the right basic attitude concerning this, even if they still voice a little of the "us (blacks) vs. them (everybody else)" chip-on-the-shoulder which is so detrimental to real community-building.

As a final thought, I think that Carl Olson is essentially correct: "Men without roots turn into looters; men without purpose turn into predators."