Posted on 01/14/2005 7:31:37 AM PST by EdReform
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No Name Calling Week? 1/12/2005 Yes, name-calling is wrong. But this event’s sponsors reveal the agenda behind banning it.
“There is a special place in hell for people like you!”
These words were directed at me by a teacher during this past summer’s National Education Association (NEA) convention in Washington, D.C. This delegate to the NEA convention made his prediction in response to my presence at the NEA’s Ex-Gay Educators’ Caucus booth in the convention exhibit hall. His cheery salutation caught me off-guard given the message of tolerance and acceptance I had been hearing around the exhibit hall. This teacher disagreed with my views of sexual orientation and made sure I knew it.
I thought of this encounter as I perused the list of organizations that have teamed up to bring us “No Name Calling Week” (NNCW) during the week of January 24-28, 2005. Based on a fiction book called The Misfits by James Howe, the purported purpose of NNCW is to raise awareness among school children of how destructive name calling can be. I noted that the NEA was one of the co-sponsors of the week. I had to chuckle as I wondered if this event would be observed at this delegate’s school. While the NEA delegate did not technically call me a naughty name, I don’t think he meant his prediction of a special place as a random act of kindness.
Another sponsoring group is the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Educators Network (GLSEN). In fact, the president of this group, Kevin Jennings, is also a national spokesperson for the NNCW. Curiously, I have read that Mr. Jennings knows how to call a name or two. In fact, several years ago, he used language in a speech to supporters that might have gotten him expelled from many schools. In the speech, Mr. Jennings was audiotaped discussing his feelings about those he labeled, “the religious right.” Concerning those who disagreed with him, Mr. Jennings told the audience:
"We have to quit being afraid of the religious right. We also have to quit -- ... I'm trying to find a way to say this. I'm trying not to say, '[F---] 'me! which is what I want to say, because I don't care what they think! Drop dead!" (Speech at Marble Collegiate Church, New York City, March 20, 2000).
Mr. Jennings and GLSEN have been called upon by numerous school districts to provide in-service training concerning sexual orientation. Perhaps the NEA delegate who talked about my “special place in hell” attended one of those training meetings.
GLSEN’s news releases are filled with words like “bigot” and “hateful” and “homophobic” describing people who disagree with them. Hence I am surprised at the choice of Mr. Jennings as a national spokesperson for the NNCW.
Mr. Jennings and GLSEN tirelessly inform us that many students are bullied and verbally attacked at school based on perceived homosexuality. Of course, all such name calling is wrong and schools should insist on a safe environment for all students. However, it does not seem an improvement when the response to name calling is more name calling.
The irony of all of this is that the main purpose of NNCW does not seem to be ending name calling. It is about telling the story of Joe, the “gay character” in The Misfits, the book from which NNCW is derived. According to author James Howe, who is gay, he wanted The Misfits to put a more positive slant on being gay in middle school.
Thus, ideology is the real issue here and not name calling.
In an interview with author Howe, published on childrenslit.com, he says concerning Joe: “I wanted him to be a kid who sees himself as cool, who sees nothing wrong with being attracted to the boy who sits next to him in art class as opposed to the girl on the other side of him. He understands, as do the other ‘misfits’ in this story, that the problem isn't with himself, it's with the attitudes and ignorance of others.”
Mr. Howe’s representation of Joe is not simply an incidental device to encourage civility to those who seem different in some way. Rather, it is a clear bid to change beliefs. Mr. Howe wants kids everywhere to come away from this book seeing “nothing wrong” with homosexuality. In actuality, Joe is not a misfit, he is a teacher, making sure those who disapprove of him get the message that they are plagued with incorrect “attitudes and ignorance.”
Now I know why GLSEN is involved with this event.
It appears that NNCW may be another effort on the part of GLSEN and other event organizers to tell those who object to homosexuality on religious or philosophical grounds to “drop dead.”
Adults: want to end bullying and harassment in the schools? Don’t call names, don’t pit groups against each other, enact anti-harassment policies covering all students and then enforce them. Oh, and do this year round, not just during NNCW.
Dr. Warren Throckmorton is associate professor of psychology and director of the college counseling service at Grove City College (Pennsylvania). His columns have been published by over 60 newspapers and his scholarly work published in journals of the American Psychological Association. He is the producer of the documentary I Do Exist, which is about sexual orientation. He can be reached at ewthrockmorton@gcc.edu.
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| Concerned Women for America 1015 Fifteenth St. N.W., Suite 1100 Washington, D.C. 20005 Phone: (202) 488-7000 Fax: (202) 488-0806 E-mail: mail@cwfa.org |
I saw one of those "Advertising My Perversity" bumper stickers on a van the other day - the yellow "=" sign on a blue back ground. As traffic moved, I got a look at the driver - it was a nasty looking old sow lezzie. (It took me a while to figure out what the "=" sign is about - "two of the same, one on top of the other.")
No Name Calling Week is a ruse by GLSEN to gain greater access to the public schools, primarily in the elementary grades.
The are using every means possible to promote their agenda, especially programs aimed at children.
Excerpts from Chapter Four:
"The radicals in control of the gay establishment want children in their world of moral decay, lack of self-restraint, and moral relativism. Why? How better to truly belong to the majority (when you're really on the fringe) than by taking possession of the next generation? By targeting children, you can start indoctrinating the next generation with the false construct that gay people deserve special treatment and special laws." (Pg.88)
"I believe this grab for children by the sexually confused adults of the Gay Elite repesents the most serious problem facing our culture today." (Pg.94)
"Between GLSEN, the Happy Penis, Phil, and now Kami, I'd say the Gay Elite have your children as a captive audience. Whether you like it or not, they have appointed themselves your children's moral tutor." (pg.119) (emphasis added)
See also:
Targeting Children - How the gay movement intends to capture the next generation
Targeting Children - Part three: Activists encouraging experimentation
Targeting Children - Part four: Access to children: homosexuality and molestation
Ping
I hope some federal legislation is soon enacted to remove funding from these homosexual activist causes.You mean like the U.S. Department of Education?
It ain't gonna happen.
Brings new meaning to "No Child Left Behind," eh?
BTTT
Ping
Coming to a school near you, January 24 - 28.
All they need do is look up the word "Pervert" in the dictionary, that is where they will find their most unrelenting adversary!
Marriage is under attack in the courts and by legislation. Your help is desperately needed to save it. Please go to www.abolishgaymarriage.org and sign the petition that is being used to fight at the federal, state, and local levels of government.
If you want on/off the list let me know.
BTTT
BTTT
No Name Calling Week begins on Monday
What a bunch of fags. ;-)
“There is a special place in hell for people like you!”
These words were directed at me by a teacher during this past summer’s National Education Association (NEA) convention in Washington, D.C. This delegate to the NEA convention made his prediction in response to my presence at the NEA’s Ex-Gay Educators’ Caucus booth in the convention exhibit hall.
More here:
I see you have not be properly indoctrinated!
;o)
Ping
Well, when I was younger I used to be subject to some "picking on" in school right up until I learned how to fight for myself. Then it abruptly ended for the better. I have to wonder at what the long term result of such policy would be?
I mean, in the future, when the Red Chinese are poised to roll over our country will negotiations for peace break down when their ambassedor calls our rep a "Yellow Imperialist Dog". Will he be so stunned after years of "feminization" that he'll run bawling from the room? Will the soldiers of the future tear-up at the sound of enemy propaganda from future anti-American media outlets or current ones like "Air America"?
Of course I'm exagerating here, but there are two types of results that can occur here, one is character building for those who can rise above it. The other isn't positive, but this sort of behavior among children is magnified a million-fold when they reach adulthood.
Are we so cruel a people as to send our children out in the world completely unprepared to deal with this reality?
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