Here's a fascinating story that I hope readers won't miss. It deserves attention for all kinds of reasons.
First, it raises disquieting questions about the use of taxpayer funds in places like Florida to support church-based schools that teach homophobia. Second, it raises questions about why any school, especially a "Christian" one, would feel the need to begin indoctrinating children in homophobia at the age of four. That ravenous need to teach prejudice even to such tiny children surely says a lot more about those doing the indoctrinating than about the children they're indoctrinating.
And, finally, the story causes me to ask about the manifold ways in which schools have the ability to teach homophobia not merely unconsciously, by presenting children only and repeatedly with symbols of heterosexual people and heterosexual relationships, but overtly, as in the case discussed in this posting. Have things gotten so bad out there that schools are actually teaching children directly and intentionally now to be homophobes?
It would appear that this is the case in Florida. I applaud Jodi Kasten for telling this story and challenging the indoctrination of her four-year old girl. The voices that usually clamor for attention when these issues are raised are predictably from the other direction.
First, it raises disquieting questions about the use of taxpayer funds in places like Florida to support church-based schools that teach homophobia. Second, it raises questions about why any school, especially a "Christian" one, would feel the need to begin indoctrinating children in homophobia at the age of four. That ravenous need to teach prejudice even to such tiny children surely says a lot more about those doing the indoctrinating than about the children they're indoctrinating.
And, finally, the story causes me to ask about the manifold ways in which schools have the ability to teach homophobia not merely unconsciously, by presenting children only and repeatedly with symbols of heterosexual people and heterosexual relationships, but overtly, as in the case discussed in this posting. Have things gotten so bad out there that schools are actually teaching children directly and intentionally now to be homophobes?
It would appear that this is the case in Florida. I applaud Jodi Kasten for telling this story and challenging the indoctrination of her four-year old girl. The voices that usually clamor for attention when these issues are raised are predictably from the other direction.
