The most horrific part of the debate last night

[heidi]

And it was a pretty big challenge to choose the most horrific part - but frankly, while there are problems in having teachers who've had no certification process and no training in teaching, especially on an elementary school classroom-teacher level* and there are catastrophic issues with McCain's health care proposals and his complaints about John Lewis just feel weird, none of that demonstrably minimizes the health of girls and women across the country. What's next? Air quotes for "incest" or "rape"?

[Poll #1279744]


* I think there is merit in having middle- and high-school teachers, and in specialty classes, where someone who doesn't have a specific certification but does have a specialty in that area, but given that I've just been through a situation where someone with a teaching degree but no early childhood education was my son's kindergarten teacher (until the principal removed her because she wasn't a good K-level teacher) and was rapidly screwing up his learning experience, I'm not very into it for the K-5 level.

Comments

[blackink.livejournal.com]

No anger behind it, promise. I'm a woman myself and have no issues with sex between responsible parties. It's when it's done irresponsibly and an innocent child has to pay the price with its life that makes me angry, not the topic of sex itself.

It's very easy to dismiss another person's point of view when it disagrees with your own and to interpret phrasing to mean what you'd like it to mean instead of what the writer intended for it to mean. "...keep her legs shut", for me, has no negative connotations. It's just another way of saying "have sex".

[flourish.livejournal.com]

Okay. I'm glad that you clarified.

Since neither I nor a lot of people who will presumably read your comment know you, it's hard to know the context in which you said it. I think that there's an equal burden on people who write things and people who read them to make their meaning clear. So that's why I responded to you - because I wanted to let you know how I understood your words - and I'm glad that you replied, because I think it might help other people know how you meant that.

(Phew, that was convoluted; does that make sense?)

[blackink.livejournal.com]

It makes sense, no worries! And thank you for your response as well. :) I can certainly see how it could be taken in a way I didn't intend it, though like I said, I certainly didn't mean it negatively. It's a phrase that's used rather heavily among my group of friends, mostly in a joking manner. I'll admit I'm pretty sure it stemmed from a line in a certain embarrassing 1997 band film.

But yes, I'm 22 and a strange conservative in the sense that I'm not religious at all, and like I said, zero problems with responsible sex. :)

[flourish.livejournal.com]

Well, and I'm a strange liberal because I'm quite religious, so there you go - what a pair we make!

[blackink.livejournal.com]

Indeed! :) It seems we have all the bases covered.