Archive for sass it on home
Subersive reading for all!
With the pressure of having to post off, it seems as though the post ideas are flowing freely.
Anyways, I was poking around over at Time magazine online, and I discovered a nifty little collection of ten books banned by various state and local entities due to various objectional content. Now, we all know it’s Banned Books Month, so I decided to check it out. It all leads me to a fairly obvious conclusion: fear is stronger than anything else.
Okay, so looking at the ten books that Time presented, the reasons for trying to remove the books from shelves are pretty consistent:
• Sexual Explicit language (even when the books were for the 12th grade age group… 17 to 18 years old.)
• Vulgar language. (Someone remind me what this culture’s definition of vulgar is please?)
• Advancement of a non-Christian agenda (Homosexuality, witch craft),
• Violence (Rape, murder, so on and so forth.)
So, charming little organizations like “Livingston Organization for Values in Education” (cutely but egregisously mistitled LOVE) file motions accusing teachers of violating the law by passing on sexually explicit material to children.
Fear, in America, has outweighed all common sense and decency. I actually feel sorry for parents who are so terrified of the world’s influence on their children that they rail against works of literature by Toni Morrison and Margaret Atwood. I feel sorry that they are so unsure of their own ability to infleuence their children that they feel the need to censor the libraries and literature classes.
Because that’s what it really comes down to, isn’t it? My 18 year old child cannot read a book that deals graphically with issues of race, violence, poverty, and rape because I am frightened it will somehow turn them to the dark side. Nevermind that issues of violence and race and poverty are something that we have GOT to face if we’re ever going to improve society. Nevermind that the issues are addressed in bad movies and violent video games and rap songs on the radio. No. It’s unacceptable that our children might confront them under the guidance of a teacher, in a classroom.
After all, we have to protect our kids.
Why aren’t parents saying: okay. This book deals with difficult issues. Let me read the book with you and we’ll discuss it. If you think a book is anti-Christian, why don’t you pull out the parts that are against your beliefs and instead of forbidding your child to read them, gently guide them to the understanding that this isn’t what you believe, and here’s an alternative.
It just makes me so angry that parents would be so fearful they’d be unable to see striaght. Honestly. I’m not saying read aloud to a six year old a work by Toni Morrison. I’m just suggesting that it would be wise to allow, then supervise, as opposed to banning completely. Not to mention, I won’t even get into the issues I have with “christian” values being used to legislate morality for the whole world.
I hope that when I’m a parent, I can hand my children difficult books and say, read it. Then we’ll talk. Then they can grow and learn. And want fight issues of race and poverty and violence. Because otherwise, it’ll still be necessary for authors to write about it.
I DO like Maddox’s hair…
An answer to a question posed by Franz: ” If the reason is non biological, why do you intend to adopt all your children?”* The reason IS non biological, although I do have fertility issues. (Hi, sharing random facts with the internets!)
I want to adopt. I want to adopt six kids.
Yes.
You heard that correctly.
Yes.
I know you think I’m insane.
I don’t want to adopt because it’s trendy. I don’t really care about Bragalina or whatever inane nickname the press have come up with for two really unimportant people. BlahblahblahHollywoodcakes. Who cares?
In North Carolina alone, there are close to 12,000 children in foster care. In 2005, the most updated statistics I could find, there were 32,335 abortions performed in North Carolina.
This is tragedy.
(Please don’t think that I’m anti-choice. I’m not. I believe strongly in a woman’s right to choose for personal, situational, or any other reason. I don’t believe that the government should legislate abortion in any way except to make it safe and accessible. I do, however, believe that the Church should make abortions obsolete except in areas of medical necessity.)
I want to adopt because I feel called as a part of Christ’s church to adopt. I am adopted into His family. I am called, as a follower of Christ, to care for the widows and orphans**. And orphans I will care for.
I want six kids. I can dream, now, about where they’ll come from. I hope at least one from Vietnam. I’d adore a little girl from China. I wouldn’t mind a toddler or two from Guatemala. When a young woman, one day in my church, says, “I am going to have an abortion,” I want to be able to say, “No, I will take your child.”
It’s all a Jesus thing, I guess you could say. I know that adoption is expensive. I know that I might change my mind about not wanting biological children when I get married. I know that I have a lot of years ahead of me before I start building my family. I know that there are bountiful challenges in a multi-ethnic family.
I just want to adopt my babies, love them, and raise them up well.
*Franz & Lara also raised the issue of funding for said adoptive babies. I have thoughts on that, to come later!
**Orphans is a derogatory term that is not well-received by adoptive parents or their children, however… I didn’t say it. James did. Direct quote and all that. Forgive me for the lack of sensitivity. It’s an obnoxious term, right up there with the question: “Wait, you don’t want to have any kids of your own?”
Why I want to Homeschool…
Wow. This is just an amazing way to look at homeschooling. What are your thoughts?
Redbud’s Lane: The Socialization Question–Again, With a Twist
Why? Why? Why, for the love of God, why?
That’s what someone asked me recently, when I told them of my desire to one day homeschool my children. “But that’s the best part of kids!” The insisted. “Sending them off to school!”
Bah. I disagree.
I have a lot of friends who are teachers, so I’m not one of these people who hates the public school system. In fact, I am a proud product of a public school and I value the experiences I gained through that. However, I want something different for my kids.
I want to infuse their lives with joy. Individuality. A framework that allows them room to be their own person but establishes the foundation for their little lives to be built upon.
If they are not morning people, then I say they shall sleep until 9:30. If they are morning people, then they can play quietly until Mommy gets up at 9:30. Okay? Great. (I know, I know. Keep dreaming.)
I was in love with history when I was a kid. But there were no “social studies” until 4th grade. So, in third grade, I took it upon myself to do a “unit” on the Civil War. That included reading books about it under my desk during “penmanship”, coloring a giant map of which states were Southern and which were Northern, and who knows what else.
I want to give my kids that. I want to take them places, show them things, watch them explore. I want to know them. Teachers are wonderful people, but I don’t think it’s fair that someone else witness some of the most important moments in my child’s life.
There’s also my faith. I don’t like to think of myself as a crazy Christian fundamentalist, and I’m not. However, I don’t want to spend hours a day unteaching things kids learn in elementary school. It’s a fine line, you know? Yes, Islam exists and we should respect other cultures, but Christ is the one true way.
The key to my philosophy, I think, is the idea of building a foundation and allowing my child to build any kind of house he or she wishes. I have a specific foundational design in mind but I don’t care what the house looks like. A science nerd? Sure. A music lover? Great. A history geek? Fantastic. But I want all my children to have sound values, solid principles, and most of all – joy.
Idealistic? Unrealistic?
I hope not.
My Father
So, that’s my dad. My real dad. My birth dad. His name was Bryan McKay. I don’t know what his middle name was.
I don’t know very much about him. He killed himself in a shoot out with the police when I was two or so. I think. He worked in Las Vegas for a while. He had another daughter, my half-sister, Alex. I’m not very close to her either.
He was beautiful, wasn’t he? Like a 70s rock star. Tortured and damaged.
So, that’s half of where I came from, at least biologically.
The curious state of children’s clothing
March 29, 2007 · Filed under babies, sass it on home, social commentary
Does anyone remember being completely eager to be grown up enough to shop in the juniors department? I think that I was 12 or so before my mother let me shop in the Juniors section. Before that, it was the kid’s section at Wal*Mart, Lands End, and Thrift Stores. Rightly so. What 11 year old should be wearing what a 15 year old does?
None, in my opinion.
Today, I stopped by the mall to return a fancy dress, and I stopped in the kid’s department. Much to my dismay, I saw clothes that look like miniature versions of the clothes that I, a 22 year old college student, wear.
Seriously?
When did we stop dressing little girls like little girls and start dressing them like tramps? When did it become acceptable to put a 5 year old in a mini skirt and a halter top and HIGH HEELS?
What messages are we teaching our little kids when girls are sex symbols of the elementary school playground? What’s wrong with a pair of jeans and a sweater? Your child can be stylish and fun without dresing like a college freshman tramp who’s gotten drunk on freedom.
Good grief. Cover up, little one.
Comments (1) »