Gender confusion

[Josh]

Well, here's an example where a teacher was forced to resign because he refused to use preferred pronouns and names.

https://apnews.com/article/indiana-teac ... f0f835ed08

What is your opinion on that? In the same circumstances as this man, I may have resigned as well.

Also, a biology professor was fired for stating that sex is determined by x and y chromosomes. That link was provided above, too.

Personally I think anyone who manages to get themselves fired over something so silly as names is seeking confrontation and making it all about them and not the students. Names are just names. So what? Every year I have dozens upon dozens of students who wish to be called by some name other than what is on their official record. Nicholas's who go by Nick or Niko. Guadalupe who goes by Lupe. Catalina who goes by Cata. Some who use their middle names or other odd nicknames. I have girls who's names are Andy, Michael, and Chas. Boys and girls who both go by names like Chris, Alex, Jules and Jesús.

Seriously, who cares. Kids have very little actual control over their lives. What is the point of being such a control freak about what names they wish to go by? Does this teacher refuse to vary from the official class roster for all kids or just the transgender ones? You have one chance to make a first impression with your class. Calling yourself out as an intolerant bigot on the first day of class is not a good way to do that. Not just to the kids you are refusing to name, but to all their friends and the whole class as well. An hour later you will be known to the whole school as "Mr. Bigot" as soon as the first kid posts about you on Snapchat. Two hours later it will get to your principal. The next day some kid will film you taking roll on his phone and post it to Tik Tok and then we will really be off and running. And for what?

And again, pronouns actually never come up in the classroom if you are addressing kids directly.

And as for that biology teacher? It is hard to know the context without seeing a tape or transcript of what he actually said. But again, silliness and seeking confrontation no doubt. Sex and gender are two different things and there are a lot more genetic permutations than just XX and XY as you well know. As many as 1.7% of the population have intersex traits of some sort from hormonal disorders to chromosomal disorders. So what was the context? I don't know. The story doesn't make it clear. But he clearly wasn't teaching actual biology if he was being so doctrinaire about it.

My dad went to school in an “inner city” school. Back then, students were expected to respect teachers and obey instructions. One of the rules was no nicknames: pupils must address one another by their first names only, not even a middle name, which is what my dad’s family called him at home.

Despite much less per pupil spending and large class size, my dad and many of his cousins and his sister went on to college educations and my dad went to an Ivy League of the south. (No legacy admissions at play here!)

Teachers were not worried about a “first impression” with their class nor being made fun of on Snapchat. Cameras were not being operated in the classroom. Why are smartphones out in the classroom at all? Perhaps what is needed is much more classroom discipline not less.

Run schools again like they did in the 1950s and you’ll have poor kids who grow up in the inner city going to college at top tier universities, on merit, once again.

[Ken]

My dad went to school in an “inner city” school. Back then, students were expected to respect teachers and obey instructions. One of the rules was no nicknames: pupils must address one another by their first names only, not even a middle name, which is what my dad’s family called him at home.

You go for it. And when you get a Mexican boy named Xicoténcatl who goes by Xico, or a girl named Iztaccihuatl who goes by Izta, or a Chinese girl named Xiaoyan who goes by Jen. Or a Guatemalan boy named Xbalanque who goes by Pedro, Have fun.

Run schools again like they did in the 1950s and you’ll have poor kids who grow up in the inner city going to college at top tier universities, on merit, once again.

Yes, the 1950s were the golden age of education, especially for poor and minority students...

National HS graduation rate in 1950: 59%
Black HS graduation rate in 1950: 12%
Current Baltimore HS graduation rate: 72%
Current National HS graduation rate: 88%

White male college graduation rate in 1950: 12%
White female graduation rate in 1950: 5%
Black male college graduation rate in 1950: 3%
Black female college graduation rate in 1950: 3%
Baltimore college attendance rate 2023: 43%
National college attendance rate in 2023: 42%

These statistics can be tricky because some look at the percentage of people with a college degree and some look at the percentage of HS graduates attending college. But nevertheless, college attendance is several times higher today, especially for women and minorities. And Baltimore is on par with national averages in terms of college attendance.

Sources:

120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait: https://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93442.pdf
Baltimore College Fact Book: Data Digest of College Access Outcomes: https://abell.org/publication/baltimore ... fact-book/

[Josh]

Back then, people who migrated to America chose to assimilate and not have difficult names impossible for Americans to pronounce, so my family left Hungarian names behind and changed to equivalent English names like “Julie” and “Margaret”.

And Baltimore is on par with national averages in terms of college attendance.

You’re the one claiming Baltimore’s horrible crime rate is to be excused on poor education despite me documenting they have very high per pupil spending. So if you think Baltimore’s schools are fine - what’s your excuse for their high crime rate?

The context is you claim the high crime rate isn’t the fault of criminals because society failed them so we shouldn’t punish them.

Please correct me if I got any of this wrong.

[Ken]

Back then, people who migrated to America chose to assimilate and not have difficult names impossible for Americans to pronounce, so my family left Hungarian names behind and changed to equivalent English names like “Julie” and “Margaret”.

And Baltimore is on par with national averages in terms of college attendance.

You’re the one claiming Baltimore’s horrible crime rate is to be excused on poor education despite me documenting they have very high per pupil spending. So if you think Baltimore’s schools are fine - what’s your excuse for their high crime rate?

The context is you claim the high crime rate isn’t the fault of criminals because society failed them so we shouldn’t punish them.

Please correct me if I got any of this wrong.

Yes, you got it wrong.

News flash. The kids going to college are not generally the ones committing crimes. Not in Baltimore or anywhere else for that matter. Neither are the kids graduating from HS.

The kids committing crimes are generally the ones who are not in school.

But yes, if you want to draw the link to crime then look at things like early childhood education which for poor children is linked to improved primary and secondary education outcomes as well as reduced likelihood of turning to crime. For affluent children it doesn't seem to be so important: https://www.aeaweb.org/research/charts/ ... riminality and https://www.strongnation.org/articles/1 ... prevention

And as it turns out, the US is one of the worst countries in the western world when it comes to funding early childhood education. We mostly leave it on the backs of parents who can ill afford it.

[Josh]

Okay. So what are any of us supposed to do about that?

We’d like to not deal with being assaulted by violent criminals and have our homes and businesses robbed. The best way to prevent this is law enforcing and criminal justice, in my opinion. None of us can go and “undo” a bad set of parents. And criminals are still responsible for their behaviour. They can choose to change.

Nobody is forced to rob, steal, kill, or rape.

[Ken]

Okay. So what are any of us supposed to do about that?

We’d like to not deal with being assaulted by violent criminals and have our homes and businesses robbed. The best way to prevent this is law enforcing and criminal justice, in my opinion. None of us can go and “undo” a bad set of parents. And criminals are still responsible for their behaviour. They can choose to change.

Nobody is forced to rob, steal, kill, or rape.

We have deliberately disinvested in poor and minority communities for over half a century. And turned them into dumping grounds. Really since the end of WW2 which was nearly 80 years ago. It is not a surprise that many urban areas (and rural ones too) look the way that they do today. We did that on purpose through a complex web of public policy and subsidized private investment.

A good place to start would be to simply stop doing the things that make things worse. But complicated problems have complicated solutions.

[Ken]

Back then, people who migrated to America chose to assimilate and not have difficult names impossible for Americans to pronounce, so my family left Hungarian names behind and changed to equivalent English names like “Julie” and “Margaret”.

So immigrants should Anglicize their names because some teachers might be narrow-minded bigots?

You do realize that is exactly what immigrant kids are doing when they take on nick names? But apparently nick names are now out because some trans kid might slip through the cracks? Is that about the short of it?

[Josh]

Back then, people who migrated to America chose to assimilate and not have difficult names impossible for Americans to pronounce, so my family left Hungarian names behind and changed to equivalent English names like “Julie” and “Margaret”.

So immigrants should Anglicize their names because some teachers might be narrow-minded bigots?

You do realize that is exactly what immigrant kids are doing when they take on nick names? But apparently nick names are now out because some trans kid might slip through the cracks? Is that about the short of it?

I’m simply stating how things used to be, and yes, immigrants can anglicise their names at the border. Every single Chinese person does this, for example.

[Josh]

We have deliberately disinvested in poor and minority communities for over half a century.

As I documented earlier, education is far higher (over twice as high) in Baltimore as opposed to the school district I live in.

So how is this “deliberately disinvesting”? My school district doesn’t have a long roster of 6 figure jobs. Baltimore’s does.

And turned them into dumping grounds. Really since the end of WW2 which was nearly 80 years ago. It is not a surprise that many urban areas (and rural ones too) look the way that they do today. We did that on purpose through a complex web of public policy and subsidized private investment.

A good place to start would be to simply stop doing the things that make things worse. But complicated problems have complicated solutions.

How is any of this an excuse to allow violent criminals to rob, steal, kill, rape, and deal addictive drugs?

[Ken]

We have deliberately disinvested in poor and minority communities for over half a century.

As I documented earlier, education is far higher (over twice as high) in Baltimore as opposed to the school district I live in.

So how is this “deliberately disinvesting”? My school district doesn’t have a long roster of 6 figure jobs. Baltimore’s does.

And turned them into dumping grounds. Really since the end of WW2 which was nearly 80 years ago. It is not a surprise that many urban areas (and rural ones too) look the way that they do today. We did that on purpose through a complex web of public policy and subsidized private investment.

A good place to start would be to simply stop doing the things that make things worse. But complicated problems have complicated solutions.

How is any of this an excuse to allow violent criminals to rob, steal, kill, rape, and deal addictive drugs?

I'm not talking about schools, or even Baltimore specifically. The fact is that over the past 50-70 years we have spent trillions of dollars subsidizing endless suburban expansion while starving inner cities of economic development and resources. Much of it deliberate and overt through things like redlining, freeway expansions through poor neighborhoods, and both public and private disinvestment in cities. Baltimore is the end-result of that many decades-long process. All of it deliberate and predictable.