|
Michael McLeod
Thanks again, MM.
And no, we're certainly not solving/understanding these issues in paragraphs or even scholarly volumes. That was pretty much my point, however irreverant it may have appeared. It remains, as I did say above in all sincerity and humility, a mystery -- one that science, and to my way of thinking religion, has yet to solve.
And I, too, like you and John, have a little story of a particular child. I didn't want to be too heavy handed so I did not share it before, but I will now. Yes it's just a few paragraphs, but you gotta start somewhere.
I was speaking to the mother of a grade school child, a girl who was exhibiting male tendencies. The girl found a way to visually express her interior life. She painted the palm of one hand red, the other blue. Then she approached her mother, holding out both hands.
"This is what I look like on the outside," she said, holding out one palm. "And this is how I feel on the inside," she said, holding out another.
As the mother told me that story, I knew she was the kind of mother who would listen to her child with compassion and understanding. And I remember thinking just how desperate a child would be for both of those things.
Really nice to delve into a substantial issue here. Have enjoyed it. What I like most of all that we have brought up individual stories. Individual children, each one different from the other, each one deserving of understanding and support.
And John, happy to see you weigh in, too.
My signficant other, who teaches in a public, Montessori-themed grade school, has a little library of her own in her classroom, as many teachers do. Desantis, as I guess you know, has pushed through legislation severely restricting how race issues and anything having to do with sexual identity can be approached in public schools. As part of that effort the state of florida is now cataloguing to a central data base listing every single book under the roof of every single public school so it can be checked out - and any teacher who provides a book that is deemed objectionable is subject to a third degree felony. My significant other simply brought home all the books she had in her classroom to avoid the red tape. Among them was a book called "My Shadow is Pink" about a little boy who isn't interested in the things most other boys are interested in. Scandalous! Lock her ass up!
|
