Trans rights are human rights. Circumcision is abuse. If those who are forced to wear it are silenced, hijab isnt a choice. Schools/Prisons need a radical change as they do not (re)habilitate people. Access to safe abortions is basic decency. ACAB. Cities shouldn’t be car-centric. Science-denialism and magical-thinking have probably doomed us already, but we should still do our best to attenuate the effects of climate change. Capitalism is the abuse of the system, not a system which is abused.
Why should the bible be considered to have any authority on who can and can't get married? Marriage was already at minimum a nearly millennia old tradition before any part of the bible was written. The earliest recorded evidence for marraige ceremonies is about 4300 years old, in some of the earliest non-nomadic human civilizations to exist. The oldest parts of the bible were written about 3400 years ago.
Most of them were Deists. They believed in a creator but believed the creator had no influence on our lives. Anyways, the founding fathers owned human beings so fuck those fucking evil white assholes. Reading the bible doesn't make you a good person, it tells me you lack critical thinking skills and are probably a gullible idiot.
"Where has all the genuine self-expression gone? Now what used to be authentic subculture is turned into a performance of Aesthetic!" so many posts exclaim, usually concluding that the problem is Capitalism.
I don't disagree entirely, but. The problem is that y'all are so deathly fucking afraid of things Cringe, Weird, and Uncool that anything unmarketable, subversive, or oddball enough to be "genuine subculture" is gross and unacceptable to you.
People wish to see "genuine self expression" that is not a performance or a commodity.
Very well then. I assume you're appreciating and celebrating the dress, style and behavior of somewhat shabby, weird outcasts who firmly refuse to make themselves palatable to you?
I think some of you are forgetting what "subculture" means. If it makes everybody around you think you are cool and look nice, that's missing the point a little bit. That's just...culture!
When people express themselves in a way that is not a performance to appeal to others...
...it is actually very likely that they will...not appeal to you.
"Why can't people be unapologetically themselves, in a way that is of course never "cringy" or too weird or too ugly or uncool? Why can't we have self-expression without performance, in a way that is not boring to me and that doesn't weird me out?"
I see how people talk about non-binary youths with hair dyed in funny colors. But there is such a young person of indeterminate gender I see sometimes on my college campus with "Trans Liberation Now!" and a bunch of other symbols and slogans hand-painted on their jacket, and they are a million times more "Punk" than anyone with simply piercings and spiky chokers
I was thinking about the incredibly cruel phenomenon of taking photos of strangers without consent and uploading them to websites so others can mock them, in the vein of "People of Walmart" and other such things, and when looking it up, I was disturbed to see how many of them are just 1) a fat person is in public (wow!) or 2) a (perceived) man is being obviously gender non-conforming 
they are just existing. probably at a more advanced level than you.
thinking about how gym class in school (esp high school) could have actually been used to teach kids how to exercise properly and how to improve/grow your strength and stamina but instead it was just a breeding ground for embarassment, shame, and self loathing for anyone who wasn't an athlete/naturally fit.
with class sizes in public schools I know that it's probably infinitely easier to use a "one size fits all" structure because there isn't enough time or enough educators to work more individually with students, but physical fitness is just not a "one size fits all" thing and I wish I was actually told/taught that as a teen.
not everyone can run for four minutes straight and not everyone can do all the push ups/squats/jumping jacks/etc teachers say to do, and *now* I know that that's okay, but back then all I felt was shame and self-hatred because if you walk instead of run for 30 seconds or do 10 push-ups instead of 15 you get called out in front of everyone and told not to be a slacker.
and getting GRADED for it? having a grade assigned to you for your physical ability by someone who barely knows you and docks points because you can't Do The Things and assumes you aren't trying even though you're trying *so hard* when half the class doesn't even have to put in the effort???
i was nearly sick with anxiety before every single gym class, and filled with resentment towards myself & my peers afterwards. I hated gym and everything to do with it because all I walked out of class with was the idea that I was a physical failure and I wasn't as good as my peers.
I've only just recently learned that I actually *like* exercising, that I am capable of physical activity, that I am able to get better and do a little more or go a little longer each time, and that most importantly, I don't have to and shouldn't compare myself to others. the only comparisons I need to make are between myself today and myself yesterday.
I just wish I could have learned that from the real live people who were supposed to teach me those things when I was 14 rather than from a fucking video game at 22. Thanks Nintendo, you're a better gym teacher than my gym teachers!
better late than never, but I know that there are other kids dealing with this now who probably feel just like I did, and I wish they could know otherwise and not have to go through what I went through.
tl;dr:
gym classes in the American public school system fucking suck and they don't help the kids that could really benefit from it. if you struggle(d) with gym class and your self worth bc of it, please know that you aren't a failure or an awful person. the failure is in the system, not in the people it should be helping.
reblogs/replies/general discussion are ok just don't be a dick
seriously if you don't have anything to add at least consider a reblog to spread this around. if I can help anyone, especially kids, who might see this that would be amazing. I don't want anybody to hate themselves the way I did for so long. the way I still do sometimes.
I'll let you in on a secret. I have a doctorate in education, but the field’s basically just a 100 years old. We don’t really know what we’re doing. Our scholarly understanding of how learning happens is like astronomy 2000 years ago.
Most classroom practice is astrology.
Before the late 19th century, no human society had ever attempted to formally educate the entire populace. It was either aristocracy, meritocracy, or a blend. And always male.
We’re still smack-dab in the middle of the largest experiment on children ever done.
Most teachers perpetuate the “banking” model (Freire) used on them by their teachers, who likewise inherited it from theirs, etc.
Thus the elite “Lyceum” style of instruction continues even though it’s ineffectual with most kids.
What’s worse, the key strategies we’ve discovered, driven by cognitive science & child psychology, are quite regularly dismissed by pencil-pushing, test-driven administrators. Much like Trump ignores science, the majority of principals & superintendents I’ve known flout research.
Some definitions:
Banking model --> kids are like piggy banks: empty till you fill them with knowledge that you're the expert in.
Lyceum --> originally Aristotle's school, where the sons of land-owning citizens learned through lectures and research.
Things we (scholars) DO know:
-Homework doesn't really help, especially younger kids.
-Students don't learn a thing from testing. Most teachers don't either (it's supposed to help them tweak instruction, but that rarely happens).
-Spending too much time on weak subjects HURTS.
Do you want kids to learn? Here's something we've discovered: kids learn things that matter to them, either because the knowledge and skills are "cool," or because .... they give the kids tools to liberate themselves and their communities.
Maintaining the status quo? Nope.
Kids are acutely aware of injustice and by nature rebellious against the systems of authority that keep autonomy away from them.
If you're perpetuating those systems, teachers, you've already freaking lost.
They won't be learning much from you. Except what not to become. Sure, you can wear them down. That's what happened to most of you, isn't it? You saw the hideous flaw in the world and wanted to heal it. But year after numbing year, they made you learn their dogma by rote.
And now many of you are breaking the souls of children, too.
For what?
It's all smoke and mirrors. All the carefully crafted objectives, units and exams.
WE. DON'T. KNOW. HOW. PEOPLE. LEARN.
We barely understand the physical mechanisms behind MEMORY. But we DO know kids aren't empty piggy banks. They are BRIMMING with thought.
The last and most disgusting reality? The thing I hear in classroom after freaking classroom?
Education is all about capitalism.
"You need to learn these skills to get a good job." To be a good laborer. To help the wealthy generate more wealth, while you get scraps.
THAT is why modern education is a failure.
Its basic premise is monstrous.
"Why should I learn to read, Dr. Bowles?"
Because reading is magical. It makes life worth living. And being able to read, you can decode the strategies of your oppressors & stop them w/ their own words.
I think weekly or monthly meetings about humanism and knowledge could be fun!
Instead of religious dogma, people could talk about anything. Also, instead of a pastor talking to everyone, members of charities would be invited to talk about their caritative work, followed by a group conversation on the matter, exploring how we individually can help the cause. (mental health, climate change, social issues and homelessness would be nice topics as well as any local issues)
It’d be nice to have secular alternatives to some religion-oriented services too. (the AAs, ‘spiritual’ guidance, charitiy events)
