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Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

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Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can fix a M2A2 Bradley, you’re qualified to teach calculus? I’m not sure I follow.

A few states have done similar things (IIRC Oklahoma was another, for instance). Insane politics (plus the general, unavoidable unpleasantness of the situation) around Covid, plus a recent return of political demonization of teachers (see: this exact law)—which efforts, incidentally, absolutely do affect the day-to-day work environment for teachers—drove lots of teachers out of the profession, and now there's a secon…

Yeah, the less people serve, the more the military is seen as some sort of high brotherhood of philosopher kings, instead of a vast government bureaucracy filled with young adults of dubious responsibility, with a few responsible adults desperately trying to maintain order.

M*A*S*H would be condemned as anti-veteran today.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can fix a M2A2 Bradley, you’re qualified to teach calculus? I’m not sure I follow.

Veterans are by definition M2A2 Bradley mechanics? I'm not sure I follow.

[flagged]

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#293
post #171

This is part of an ongoing conflict between schools and parents. E.g. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/22/us/gender-identity-studen... While banning books is creepy and unproductive, the schools have exceeded their warrant and it's no surprise that the pendulum is swinging back.

The schools have "exceeded their warrant"... how, exactly? You linked an article about schools with a standard policy of allowing kids to use preferred names and gender expressions. So what? It's a complete nothingburger that's only notable because kids these days tend to be accepting enough for their peers to be comfortable doing that when in the past they weren't.

A teacher from the article is quoted:

"My job, which is a public service, is to protect kids," said Olivia Garrison, a history teacher in Bakersfield, Calif., who is nonbinary, who has helped students socially transition at school without their parents' knowledge. "Sometimes, they need protection from their own parents."

The idea that teachers should be "protecting kids from their own parents" by affirming their chosen identity without their parents' knowledge illustrates what I'm talking about. Even if you agree with the sentiment (which I would say is "exceeding their warrant"), parents aren't going to take that sitting down.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#294
post #124
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I disagree with the assertion that destroying public education is a right-wing goal. While there may be some individuals or groups with that belief, it is not a universally held position among those who identify as right-wing. Additionally, making it a crime to teach is not a tactic that is being used by any mainstream political group or party. Education is an important issue that affects the future of society and sh…

OK, well here's legislation that's supported by the Heritage Foundation that would defund any school where a teacher gets a kids name wrong:

https://www.heritage.org/the-given-name-act

(It claims to be about pronouns, and encouraging anti-lgbtq smears, but, if you read the bill, you'll find the reality is much worse.)

There are thousands of examples like this going back decades. You used the words "right wing", but I suspect you don't know what they mean. For example, you should read up on the blocking of the equal rights amendment, which was arguably the founding moment for the right wing in the US. It would have prevented discriminatory hiring by the US government.

Arguments against it included claiming it was a conspiracy between lesbians and government workers, and "you wouldn't want bathrooms to allow gays like desegregation did for blacks, right?", and lots of claims about how men would sexually assault women and children in bathrooms if it passed (the constitutional amendment had nothing to do with bathrooms).

More impactfully, to this day, Prop 13 is hailed as one of the biggest wins of the right wing in California, and it is largely responsible from taking our schools from top ten in the US to bottom ten.

Anyway, I'm guessing you don't support any of this nonsense based on the rest of your comment.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've even allowed veterans to teach without credentials for up to 5 years (while working on a degree and teaching certificate): https://www.reuters.com/world/us/amid-us-teacher-shortage-fl...

If you can fix a M2A2 Bradley, you’re qualified to teach calculus? I’m not sure I follow.

Well in some states having a Masters in Math would not qualify you to teach math because you do not have a Teaching Degree...

Government regulations rarely make any logical sense

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classroom libraries are a big deal. Every step taken that makes a teacher's job riskier, less pleasant, or less like what they want to be doing (teaching kids, without having to worry about whether some plainly-positive action is legal), drives good teachers out of the profession.

What's the difference between a classroom library and the school library? I'm German, I've never heard of classroom libraries or anything similar in Germany. We have school libraries that provide the standard text books and most of the novels etc, but they're generally not walk-ins where you pick something to read.

To add to the other answers, schools generally have school libraries that are similar to public libraries, in that they have a large selection of material and students may come in (either at a specific assigned time or in their free time at school) to check out books.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#297

In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. Prepare for “route around the damage” moment whe…

Has no one read Fahrenheit 411? Jeez

Is it approved for reading?

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't step in non-constitutional-carry states. The good thing is that, with the exception of basically Florida, there are no states I care to visit that don't already have it. The problem is traveling to those states. I'm temporarily a felon to get there, even though it is my right to keep and bear that handgun nationally. Beats me. I will not contribute my money to a government that does not allow me my rights, an…

> and will also not disarm myself to make myself more of a juicy target Are you the president of the United States? Are you a multi-millionaire? Are you openly a member of a gang or other criminal organization? If not, then, quite plainly, you're not a target. Period.

Lol, one day I was riding my bicycle home, and had to pass through a very poor part of town in which I am a racial minority. My bike got a flat just that moment. Someone took notice of my weakness that I had to stop and fix the flat and that I was obviously not from the neighborhood. They put a gun to my head.

That disabused me of any notion I am never a target.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#299
post #240

This is a backlash to these kind of books: https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1615866743444078593 https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1613623613156098049 https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1612817285676244997 https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1609719090456793089/... Please don't attack me for posting something from this Twitter account, I don't endorse them, I'm just providing an example of what t…

So... one book about a boy who wants to imitate mermaids, a couple of books that acknowledge to children in a non-detailed way that transgender people exist at all, and books like Gender Queer [1] and This Book Is Gay [2], which are targeted at the junior high and up age group and have basically the same level of explicit detail as the sex ed courses those kids have already gone through (but are, I guess, somehow extra evil because they feature gay people).

Looks like the standard brand of 'gender nonconformity is the same thing as making third-graders watch porn' bullshit to me.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_Queer

[2]: https://amazon.com/This-Book-Gay-Juno-Dawson/dp/1492617830

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#300
post #38

When was the last time a kid said, gee, I'll read the books randomly lying around the classroom?

Even better, most of those books laying around are purchased by the teachers themselves out of their own money. So if my wife had a kid who's fascinated by bulldozers, she'll go to a thrift store and look for books on bulldozers so he could read something that interested them. Which if we lived in Manatee County Florida would be a felony because she'd be grooming him to screw a bulldozer, apparently.

I gotta say it would be tempting to do something like this just to watch the fascist bureaucrats’ reactions.
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