Remember when being a student also meant pushing back on authoritarian norms? Fighting the system. I never did any of that myself, not really, but I didn’t become political until I was in my forties. Our public schools were also not as politicized. There were always teachers’ unions, but it was never obvious or present (to borrow a modern and annoying term), and with few exceptions, most of the effort went to what we used to call education.
Math, science, reading, language, arts, and some version of history. I have several friends who were openly gay (in the 70s), and they managed just fine. I was a small kid until my sophomore year in high school, so yeah, I got bullied, and I learned from it. These days, the student body is as fragile as finely spun glass and warped by a political agenda that has consumed almost every inch of public and private space.
The desire to push back, however stunted by The Man, remains.
Thirteen-year-old student “M.P.” at Peoples Academy Middle Level school in Morristown, Vermont, recently donned a shirt displaying the woke-verboten statement that “There are only 2 genders,” and she was disciplined for it. In classic civil disobedience, M.P. bravely wore the shirt to school again. And the school disciplined her again.
Aghast that M.P. would be reprimanded for the simple, commonsense message on her shirt, her mother and stepfather contacted and retained the Thomas More Society, a national public interest law firm “defending life, family, and freedom.”
While the school eventually backed down, its culture remains hostile. A teacher is reported to have since twisted their woke panties, so the battle is ongoing. This aligns nicely with the recent surge in public opinion over the issue of boys playing in girls’ sports—a problem whose answer is to become ungovernable in the most benign of ways.
You have to change the culture, not because everyone should agree, but quite the opposite. Allowable expression needs air to breathe. Polite and peaceful opposition is essential to debate, while its antithesis – the basis of reprimand for expressing an alternate opinion – must be challenged.
M.P. started something their peers must embrace, even if it’s not that particular issue. Wear a flag shirt of a Blue Line shirt. Adopt MPs two genders top or something similar in support of girls’ sports. It won’t be easy. While progressive parents willingly recruit kids to see their message, most parents just want their kids to maneuver through the system without attracting negative attention. Bucking the system is not a motivation, though there is an increasing trend toward sending reprogrammed kids out onto the battlefield wearing new team colors.
No one should make their kids peddle their politics but if there is evidence of support fr a position the best thing you could do for M.P. and open discourse in general, would be to copy them in increasing numbers.
Every kid loves a fad, so use one to claw back something that should be immutable: the right to responsible, open, and free expression.
