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Boston Suburban High School Principal Commits Outrage
School officials at a Boston suburb public high school informed faculty that political items such as Black Lives Matter and gay pride flags are banned from classrooms.
“We need to avoid placing items in the classroom that can cause disruption or distraction; we are an inclusive environment and want to maintain that inclusivity.”
Fairly innocuous statement [link], that everyone should agree upon, right? Ah, wait just one second there Bubba. What is ‘political’? Clearly, the worldview that everyone should accept ‘my’ politics of gay pride flags and BLM affirmation is required by the current leadership of America and anyone who sanctimoniously pretends that only they have true and authentic beliefs and goodness.
Oh my, hoisted upon their own petards! The sanctimonious and hypocritical liberals will have their knickers in a bunch over this! I do pray for your strength and health dear Principal Juliette Miller. You have touched the third rail in America that is verboten.
Published in General
So…if a teacher wants to put up a Gadsden flag, or perhaps the Gonzales Flag (those are historical items after all), those would be as OK as a rainbow flag or a BLM flag…right?
It takes a particular type of useful idiot to think that one’s political beliefs aren’t actually political while inveighing against other’s expressing anything that opposed your views. Then again, that is what the schools appear to be turning out now almost exclusively.
Dear Leftists: Are there more Nazis or gays in school? Think carefully before answering.
(Please count gay nazis once in both columns)
Of course all of this stuff, anything politically, socially, emotionally, or spiritually controversial should be kept out of display in a classroom. It should be neutral territory for all these things. That’s a safe space.
If any of these things come up in discussion while teaching and learning is going on, fine. We are trying to teach them about the world. But to display banners and posters about controversial subjects implies acceptance of one side.
But of course the PTB do accept one side. That’s the problem.
And the software problem spreads as malware.
It is heresy to say that BLM and LGBTQXYZ flags are political when we know they are pure truth. The American flag is about slavery. Pictures of past presidents other than Obama are triggering. Political? How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?
.Vanderbilt has gotten itself in a pickle
The class rooms I grew up in had no flag but the American flag. I did not go to a school where uniforms were required, but these days, maybe that would be a good thing too.
My high school math teacher, a very proud and outspoken Polish American (I believe his grandparents were born in Poland), had a red and white Solidarnosc flag hanging in his classroom. As a clueless and self-absorbed 15-year-old girl, I didn’t know or care much about it. This would have been in the late ’80s.
What do the Ricochetti think about this? I am genuinely curious.
Boy, the days of home economics for girls and shop class for boys seems a century away………………
Columbo – we lived in Boston for twenty years. I clicked on the link you provided – I’m shocked at the other headlines that I read in just a couple minutes as to what is going on in that city! My gosh! Boston has gone to the dogs! So glad I’m not there anymore (even though still a beautiful area)……wow!
Better than the reverse, say, a Communist flag.
I can think of a couple of reasons that Boston/Massachusetts are leading indicators of a culture that has “gone to the dogs”.
Unlike a Gadsen flag or a religious icon, a symbol of a Polish political movement does not present the risk of inciting the domestic rightwing hordes uniting to install their Furher. (A poster for the (white) National party in South Africa (during apartheid) would not be similarly acceptable.) A Polish-American teacher would also get an ethnic pass unless and until he makes broader criticisms of communism or Cuba.
Signaling approval of various foreign sides or issues is OK as long as that side cannot be linked to the domestic villains (the
MAGAsUltra-MAGAs now occupy the center of that niche). But there are hidden risks. I recall my immense enjoyment of an event back when there was lots of campus virtue-signalling underway about the Nigerian war against the Biafran separatists. A foreign exchange student was invited to speak, an authentic African! He then proceeded to trash the Igbo tribespeople–his father had owned several from that tribe and they were lazy and useless and it would be better if the Nigerian Army continued to crush the whole bunch of them violently. He bizarrely assumed that his audience was going to be sympathetic to his view of things. The shocked slack-jawed silence of about 200 white college liberals was delicious. The only sound was the barely suppressed laughter from me and two irreverent friends in the back.What do I think about this? This was a policy instituted by a Principal, who knew full well that this policy was likely to blow up in her face, but yet still felt compelled to issue it. It was a policy for her teachers, in their classrooms. It was likely issued after Ms. Miller had received thousands of parent complaints about several of the teachers in the classroom whom imposed their own political beliefs upon impressionable children. I am quite sure that it is not just about the flags or other icons that are displayed. It is about the imposing of the message upon the children by a partisan teacher who wouldn’t give a fig about the parent’s concerns. Whatever the teacher’s political passion is, it would be foisted upon the children as if it were a living representation of social studies and that it was the only acceptable perspective allowed to be held, or you would receive poor grades and social scolding.
The only way to deal with this is a ban on politics in the classroom, which seems to a reasonable approach. Otherwise, who is going to ‘judge’ what is acceptable or what isn’t? A Solidarnosc flag? A Ukrainian flag? How about a Gadsen flag? Not all 15-yr olds are like the profile that you describe. And a parent does have the right to provide input to what their children are taught in elementary and high schools. That is why a school board exists.
Well duh. But the intent would be the same.
Not sure what you’re so het up about. I think the Boston principal did a good and (unfortunately) necessary thing. Your post reminded me of my teacher (who I hadn’t thought about in decades) and it seemed pertinent to the topic. I don’t know exactly how I feel about it, looking back, so I thought I’d ask y’all.
What the heck? From far down in the linked article:
So much for her policy then, I guess.
My youngest brother has told me – I’m not sure if it’s true or not – that the High School we both went to has been remodeled and expanded, and now has NO shop classrooms at all.
One of the most memorable points made by Jonah Goldberg in his 2009 book “Liberal Fascism” is that leftists have this idiotic idea that their ideology isn’t an ideology.
I was in high school a full half century ago (1970-74) with home economics (mostly for girls, but boys could enroll if they wanted) and shop class (mostly boys, but girls could enroll if they wanted, and some did as the shop facilities were right next to the art facilities, and art students sometimes used the shop facilities to make some of their art projects).
At least part of the problem is that the left has become full-on intolerant. Contrary to the statement of the teacher quoted from the article by David Broussard, a rainbow flag means bullying is encouraged – if you don’t celebrate the LGBalphabet soup radical agenda YOU are not welcome, YOU are not safe. YOU will be punished and abused. It is pushing [his] beliefs on someone. A BLM flag means you support violence to enforce a single political view. It means support for traditional families and western cultural values, including the avoidance of violence is not welcome, and if you support traditional families and western cultural values, YOU are not safe, YOU are not welcome.
When I was in high school (note this was the tail end of the “Vietnam War Era”), several teachers in my high school had well known leftist views, including my civics teacher. But (except for one) they all accepted that students and others could rationally and reasonably disagree with their views. My civics teacher actually supported and encouraged disagreement with his views. (His later discovered homosexuality and pattern of taking some male students to male prostitutes was a bigger problem for which he was justifiably fired and arrested, but in the context of civics class he was very encouraging.)
Again, intolerance and abuse by so many leftist teachers is what why society needs to clamp down so hard on what teachers say in the classroom.
It’s probably true. My kids went to a high school here, newly built. There is no shop class, heck, not even a “shop.” I was stunned.
When I went through junior high and high school, shop was required. Home Economics was required for the girls. Every boy was exposed to woodworking, welding, bending sheet metal, etc. Thing have changed a helluva lot in 45 years.
Not sure what you’re so het up (sic) about.
Are you a parent? Have you ever had a disagreement with a government school administrator over political policy? Have you ever been thrown out of a school board meeting and charged and threatened as if you were a terrorist?
You asked for reactions. I gave you one. Sorry that it so upset you.
Nope, not a
parentbirthing person. I understand being het up (it’s a thing!) about woke indoctrination in schools. I think it’s outrageous and will eventually cause the downfall of this nation. I meant that your reaction to my comment seemed a bit overwrought; I just wanted to know how my little 35-year-old anecdote fit into the current debate. I think we probably mostly agree on the big picture here.some “pigs” are more equal than others, and all. They also know that there will be no ‘straight’ kids or parents who claim that they don’t feel welcomed by such political stickers.
Rather, some animals are more equal than others. Of course the “more equal” ones turn out to be the pigs.
Solidarnosc was a de facto American ally, while Communists were enemies. It would seem to make sense for an American public school to distinguish between the two.
Yup. I seem to have answered the wrong question.