Ding ding ding.

In my experience yes, there are definitely adults who think the USA is unquestionably the BEST we have the BEST everything, we do thing the BEST and anyone who disagrees is a damn commie. Recent conversations, with family. If you mention our abysmal educational outcomes, worse health outcome for more money, high infant mortality they just sputter something about Elon Musk or Zuckerburg.

Hm. I remember being upset about that myself, with a white kid in a mostly white school district. I wasn’t really ready to explain why Abe Lincoln was killed, or Martin Luther King or why “the Jews killed Jesus”(that one came from the after school program) He was 7 and had no context, especially because of the way things were taught with history topics that jumped around and no coherent structure that I could figure out. A lesson on a great African kingdom or a biography of a POC who contributed to science or math would have been better Black History month fodder for that age. Or just plain interwoven. I’d love for school to teach more than just slavery, Booker T. and MLK, like those are the only 2 black individuals worth noting and slavery the only event worth noting. Which is why I think that CRT or diversity or inclusiveness or whatever is best use as a frame *for teachers* in the early years, not explicitly and poorly taught. I actually think if the schools got rid of the whole “America’s the best country ever” schtick things would be better and easier. It’s too jarring to teach that we’re the best and that we need to improve. It’s possible to teach that we’re a darn good country that has made mistakes, just like England or France, or any other country. Trying to pretend that we’re the “Best! Ever!” Isn’t helping any of this. Maybe someone should tell them about 4 year history cycles? Get some world history in there for context.

I homeschool and feel like I did a decent job at history, but I’m pretty sure the part where I sent the little brother to “discover” and lay claim to the bedroom of my kid that was studying Columbus wouldn’t be allowed. Trying to imperfectly demonstrate the injustice of laying claim to land that already had people on it would not be allowed under the FL law described up thread.

Thank you!

That might work *if* one particular news network didn’t pick it up as an issue and run with it to juice ratings. You might leave a meeting such as you described feeling ok about the whole thing, but how many hours of “news” do you think it would take to turn that? It also ignore the fact that there are out and proud racist still around who would NEVER be ok with this, no matter how well thought out. I grew up in the south, these people are real, they aren’t shy and they aren’t as rare as some might think.

I thought he was only accused of looking at child abuse materials purchased anonymously on the internet, presumably made using children that he never had contact with. If that’s right then this seems like an escalation in charges, is that correct?

The states that do mail only voting also keep better updated voter rolls so there are fewer issues to start with. There’s no real reason to need to do big voter purges if it’s kept up all the time. When you file a death certificate or a change of address form the county should be able to update voter information at the same time.

That is one man’s opinion. There are people that want homeschooling to be banned too, and yet here we are.

See…I agree with that completely.

I guess it depends on what is meant by “these initiatives” because all kinds of things are being lumped together. In some places it’s simply an effort not to completely whitewash history or recognize the achievements of POC in math or science. I think those are good things. The oppressor wheels and naming your privilege out loud in class, not so good.

Sorry! I was not trying to put words in your mouth. I’m thinking of all of these lessons I’ve seen that ask elementary age kids to use those words which I think is wrong. It’s one thing to talk about it within your family. It’s another thing to have people outside your family talk to your kid about it. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone agree that children should learn they are oppressors. I firmly believe in the idea of privilege and would still be uncomfortable with kids being told they are oppressors. I’m sure there’s a better way to do it. I dont think saying it’s 100% up to parents is good either. I’d like the kids who are getting misogynistic or racist messages at home to see a different view presented somehow. I also think that CRT as a lense could be applied without this language or the crazy programs.

I wonder if benefits would feel better than privilege, since privilege has been weaponized. I benefit in our society from my white skin and middle class income. I benefited from my parents and grandparents choosing to stay married. I’m bestowing that benefit on my children. I benefited from a good education, which was a benefit of my parents education and income. Not everyone has the same benefits. Some have more, some have less.

So for you the idea of privilege can only come from things no one has control over? So gender, race, ethnicity can bestow some amount of privilege or not, but not things like generational wealth or lack, an intact home, abusive parents vs. loving parents, parents who value education or don’t. That interesting idea, I’ll have to think about it. For me it’s all about the same, because they are all choices made by someone who was not me. A small child has no more control over whether or not mom and dad are hard working, stable people who value education or unstable lay abouts who let the TV raise the kids. The parents are making choices, but the small child can’t exactly opt out. The child has no more control over his/her parents than over the color of his skin.

They made a choice that benefited you. You had no say in their marriage, or if they divorced or not. You got the privilege of an intact home because they made decisions you had no control over. No child has control over the home they grow up in. You and I aren’t weren’t more deserving of an intact home than other kids. We were fortunate to have that. All of the other kids deserved it too, and some of them didn’t get it, through no fault of their own. That’s what people mean by privilege. Benefiting from something you had no control over.

Under the Home is a nice, free, online option for K-5. It’s all put together for you with links and a schedule. It’s CM based, or at least inspired by CM.

My 2020 flu shot was done by EMTs. I think they were all hands on deck for awhile with the COVID vax. There was talk in my state of recruiting vets to help administer, but I don’t know if that ever happened.

I think bodies just handle things differently. A few years ago (2018?) one of my kids gave my sisters’ kid pneumonia. My kid was pretty sick but not terrible. My sisters kid was almost hospitalized, lost some crazy percentage of his body weight and took 6 weeks to get over it. It was truly scary. Why? 🤷‍♀️ They are the same age, both healthy kids. It was the last major illness for either of them. Different diet? Different micro biome? No idea.

I agree. I do think voting access and gerrymandering and such have a bigger impact on the outcome in the states than on the federal level. Is it WI where Dens got 54% of the vote for state legislature but got 48% of the seats? Here’s a good article about it. https://www.google.com/amp/s/madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/2020-election-again-shows-lopsided-republican-legislative-maps/article_d0c11425-df16-5d0b-a3e8-4954e7897652.amp.html But even if Dems lose, voting access is important because it’s right.

You’ve picked apart every link I provided. You’ve definitely proven that there are no systems in this country that are even inadvertently racist. Boy am I relieved.

Oh I’m sure it has nothing to do with which who lives in those locations, or how they are likely to vote. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. There’s bound to be a perfectly logical explanation for why they could have polling places in certain locations during one voting cycle but not the next. Nothing to see here folks. Just toss it up there on the stack of perfectly reasonable coincidences. Yep…waaay up there. Golly, it’s a big stack. But I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation for that too… If only 1 party hadn’t admitted that when more people vote they lose, admitting they were trying to make it harder for people to vote.

That Twitter thread is really good.

I’m 99% sure that absolutely nothing will happen. This is one of a half dozen or more stories exactly like that appraisal story that I’ve heard in the last 3 months or so. Excuses will be made, “but we aren’t racist” magic words will be said and the story will fade.

According to this…https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx#Details. In Texas a handgun Permit is explicitly spelled out as an acceptable document while a tribal ID is not. Make of that what you will. That CO wanted so badly to keep tribal IDs from being accepted that it had to go to the Supreme Court and then took 2 additional years to settle that is absurd. ETA: there are many places that take both. But the fact that it’s an issue at all is telling. If this was the ONLY issue that would be one thing, but it’s a tiny bit on a huge stack of issues.

Yes, it’s a gun permit, not NRA card. I’ll correct it. It doesn’t make it much better though.