Huh, I ended that with, ohhh, I know, I put in some brackets and got it eaten up -- I ended it by saying that any day now I'll register and come out of the closet!

-- KtmGuest - 02 Jun 2006

I'm not sure that I'd have specifically gone after the political nature of any comments. I'd have just stuck with the idea that any school that's hellbent on character instruction shouldn't be allowing bad words on the petition.

Of course, how the administrators were supposed to know what the kids were writing with their names on a petition, hmmm. I guess that really you were hoping that the High School students would point this out, right? I don't imagine there was a teacher or an administrator watching the actual signing happen.

If I were one of the HS students, I'd probably have scribbled out any comments, but that would have been because I personally wouldn't have wanted to get into trouble.

It seems a stretch to connect the school or the HS students to your state controller -- or to violent, hateful speech from any end of the political spectrum.

Oh and regarding the HS students: http://www.standnow.org/

Both of the closest HS to my home have student organized chapters of this group. They've put on benefits, sold bracelets, etc.

-- KtmGuest - 02 Jun 2006

Given the pre-existing relationship, it'll probably come across as you wanted it to. It's a lot easier to communicate when your audience can imagine your voice and body language based on experience.

Humor with a sharpened edge is the easiest type of communication to misread without such experience. The same words can be reasonably taken as anywhere from a joke to a vicious attack.

This is, of course, a pervasive problem in internet communication, and a basic cause of at least a large part of the deterioration in public dialogue.

-- DougSundseth - 01 Jun 2006

So where did the high school kids get the idea of petitioning U.N. about Darfur?

Did it come from a teacher or administrator?

-- BenCalvin - 01 Jun 2006

He must have told me about 10 times yesterday, "A girl wrote 'Bush is a dick.'"

Welcome to middle school.

-- BenCalvin - 01 Jun 2006

Christopher was freaked out that a girl wrote the "dick" line.

He must have told me about 10 times yesterday, "A girl wrote 'Bush is a dick.'"

He's losing his innocence fast in that school.

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 Jun 2006

This should burnish our reputation for having Bizarre Family Values.

No email about the black kid who said he had a pocket knife.

Instant feedback on the U.N. petition with the bad language.

I like to keep throwing curves.

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 Jun 2006

How unbelievable is it that we have the state comptroller talking about putting bullets between the president's eyes?????

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 Jun 2006

I hadn't mentioned this online, but there was a problem a couple of weeks ago.....some kids videotaped a girl who apparently is unsure of herself & vulnerable. One kid interviewed her while another kid held a sign up behind her head saying, "Would you eff this girl?"

These are middle-schoolers we're talking about.

Raina handled that, so I'm sure she's not in the frame of mind to countenance a lot of Bush-is-a-dick language on U.N. petitions.

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 Jun 2006

sigh

too late now

Actually, I wasn't striving for cheerful & professional, but more for exasperated-with-big-words.

Raina and I have spoken several times, and exasperation is a frame of mind she's good with. She's a hoot (she's the one I always call a "hoot"....) - blunt style, funny, direct.

You should hear her go on about middle school girls in short skirts - hilarious.

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 Jun 2006

I think you were trying for "cheerful, professional, and a bit annoyed", but it looks to me like the velvet glove is coming apart at the seams. I completely understand why that would be, but I think it might diminish the force of your message here. (A message with which I completely agree, BTW.)

Maybe my reaction is just because my preferred style of barely veiled threat is different. I guess I prefer my sarcasm either more or quite a bit less subtle, depending on whether I care about the state of the bridges behind me.

I hope the feedback is useful, and I hope you don't take it amiss. As I alluded to above, I'm vicariously offended on your and Chris's behalf.

(At least the year is almost over.)

-- DougSundseth - 01 Jun 2006

email to the assistant principal

Hi Raina—

Just a quick note.

Christopher came home yesterday saying that the high school kids were asking Middle School students to sign a petition asking the U.N. to help the citizens of Darfur.

When Christopher signed, he saw that many of the middle schoolers had written epithets about President Bush beside their names.

One student wrote, “George Bush is a douche bag.”

A girl wrote, “Bush is a Dick.”

These remarks are inappropriate, to say the least. They have nothing to do with Darfur, but even if they did, they don’t constitute reasoned political speech (!)

Then today I read in the news that state comptroller Alan Hevesi is apologizing for having made a remark about “putting a bullet between the president’s eyes.” (story: Official Apologizes for Saying Bush Should be Shot Between the Eyes)

I don’t know how you feel about it, but I’m incredibly tired of vicious partisan attacks. “Bush is a dick” is the kind of language that should stay on the internet. It’s also the kind of language that escalates. I’m sure “put a bullet between his eyes” wasn’t the first ugly thing Alan Hevesi ever had to say about George Bush.

If we’re going to have character education integrated into every class our children take, it ought to mean something. Yesterday, instead of learning how to study, Christopher’s study skills class watched a video on “respect.”

Then they signed a petition filled with disrespectful comments about the president of the United States.

If character concepts such as “respect” and “tolerance” don’t mean respecting people who are different from us—and that would include, in this town, Republican presidents and conservative Christians—then I’d prefer Christopher spend his time learning how to read, write, and do mathematics.

Of course, I’d prefer that anyway!

In any case, it sounds to me like petition drives could probably use a little more supervision.

Thanks, Raina—

Catherine J.
(Chris Berenson’s mom)


-- CatherineJohnson - 01 Jun 2006

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