Yes, I remember this riddle from my childhood. I told it to my kids, years ago when they were little. They just looked at me blankly, because of course, Johnny has two dads. I mean, duh? Like the kids in your story, they figured that the answer couldn’t be Johnny’s mom, because that wouldn’t even be a riddle.
I then told the riddle to my husband. He grew up in another country and had never heard this riddle before. He was totally stumped, could not figure out either answer, even with hints… (even though HIS MOM is a doctor!) The kids had to explain it to him.
Other assumptions my kids made (mostly when they were little):
Somehow, it came up that my husband and I (that is, their parents) were married. My son: “You can’t be married, you don’t MATCH!” At first this was confusing, until we realized that the only wedding he had attended was a gay wedding.
A story mentioned a male rabbi. The kids complained that the story wasn’t realistic because “a male rabbi? That’s silly!” As it happened, they had only known female rabbis. (Much later, my daughter wasn’t allowed to play a rabbi in a school play because she was female, and as you can imagine, she was irate!)
Picking up my son from his first day of kindergarten class. “Mom! I made a new friend!” That’s great, I said, then I asked a dumb question (in retrospect), is your friend a boy or a girl? Blank look from my kid. He had spent the whole day playing with his new best friend, and the question had not occurred to him.
Ok, assume we switch and bow to these parents which generally can mean teaching creation instead of evolution, only teaching about straight sex and sex only after marriage between a man and a woman, teaching that anyone feeling otherwise is not the way God made them, adding prayer and Bible reading back into school, eliminating all artwork students make that might include a rainbow without the flood, etc (one person doesn’t have to believe all, but that’s generally what the loud ones want from earlier days to today), what do we then do with the others who don’t want these things? When it comes to Bio, what do we do about lower test scores on our Bio Keystone test?
Right now with the emails to teachers there’s some on both sides. If we changed I’m sure there would be a LOT more emails from the other side since they’re the majority.
You’re generally saying to eliminate controversial subjects. They’re subjects out there in the real world.
You were amazed that someone didn’t realize certain subjects are in the Liberal Arts - a tangent at best and definitely not something one needs to know on any test. What about all the kids who get to college and suddenly hear about evolution or find out their classmates know about so much more history/science like Harvey Milk or the Holocaust (and other wars with religious components) or Climate Change or vaccines because their “cell phone” education wasn’t up to par?
Creekland lives in a very Red area of the state that often doesn’t even field a contender on the blue side, even for federal office, much less state or local office. Other areas offset our votes for statewide offices.
We all did a happy dance when one of ours moved to KY. Parents were upset that he would have females teaching him and the student didn’t respect females at all. KY can have him. This was quite a few years back - never heard what happened to them. Maybe KY allows parents to choose teachers by gender and is ok with dissing females of all ages. Our school wasn’t. Those things aren’t done in our country.
Parents are allowed to object to a specific teacher, but not all of them of a certain gender for that reason.
I have no problem with the public showing up. I have a problem with them showing up and, at best misrepresenting, and at worst outright lying, about what is happening in schools.
I have problems when we have to conform the whole class or whole school to a handful of students when there are 1400 there (high school), most of whom don’t agree with the handful that such things need to be off limits. In FL’s case, they want it to be the whole state.
Evolution has been taught for at least 50 years. I have a hard time believing the majority of the public object to it, regardless of where you live.
If more object at school board meetings, well then the board should truthfully respond that the public wants it taught. Why is this hard?
If most do not agree, then it wouldn’t be off-limits to discuss to begin with.
That’s what you sign up for when you go to public school. With certain guidelines for minority rights, it is majority rule in a democracy.
You haven’t heard of the case in Dover, PA from not all that long ago (during my teaching days, but not in the past few years)? It’s not my county, but it’s close. Parents convinced a district to change their teaching, including Intelligent Design because it fit their beliefs.
Take your pick on which link you want if you’re unaware of it (or anyone is):
Good question. That is exactly what’s driving much of this type of legislation in many states. LGBTQ are a very vocal minority. And the usually silent majority is starting to find it’s voice.
While LGBTQ identifying individuals may be a minority, those that support LGBTQ rights and don’t want them discriminated against, wiped from history, or marginalized are actually the majority.
I believe that a majority of adults in the US have no issue with LGBTQ people. The majority of the more recent legislation appears to target education, medical care and sports as it relates to minors or young adults (with the exception of the women’s sports issue). Parents will step up to pressure legislatures to address issues that pertain to their kids (on both sides of the issue).
Your comment about a vocal minority was in the context of public education and my response was as well.
Right? What if I suspect my straight students are sexually active? Should I call the parents? Conversely, should I shut down any straight references to boyfriends and girlfriends because that falls under “orientation.”
I am curious to see how this law is actually implemented and enforced. Reading the article posted upthread about the Florida student at Barnard, granted a sample of one, suggests that Florida public schools already operate very differently than schools in more liberal states.
There is plenty of consensus on marriage rights/legal protections. There appears to be no consensus on teaching of trans/nonbinary issues in schools, hence the controversy.
I wish we could stop pretending this is about education. It is about further marginalizing already vulnerable kids. Make kids afraid to be honest about who they are, and make sure educators don’t dare to help or support them if they dare speak up. Isolate them. Send a strong message that they are not welcome or accepted. Pretend they don’t exist in the false hope they will cease to exist. It is cruel.
The glimmer of hope I have is that even as they pass these laws and try to marginalized these kids, it won’t really work. The other kids, for the most part, aren’t going to let it. Another teacher reminded me that the people who launch these culture wars have already lost that culture war.