Could you imagine somebody getting away with a cartoon like this today?
Posted on 08/05/2019 3:34:50 PM PDT by EdnaMode
A 12-year-old thinks the premise of “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” belies structural racism. What’s a parent to do?
My 12-year-old daughter had a sticker on her water bottle with a quote from Dr. Seuss: “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” A classmate told her the sticker was racist because many people can’t choose what they want to do because of structural racism. My daughter peeled off the sticker and threw it away. When she told me about it, I was at a loss. I believe structural racism is real and pernicious, but I also think we should teach children that they have agency. And my daughter and I like the sticker’s message. Help!
M.P.
Twelve-year-olds are not famous for nuance. (Their greater claim may be making classmates feel bad about their water bottles.) But you are an adult. Start a conversation with your daughter that goes beyond slogans and stickers to a more thoughtful consideration of race.
She has surely learned about slavery in her history classes. But tell her about some of the subtler discrimination that makes up structural racism: our long history of inequality in housing and educational opportunities for people of color, for instance, and the modern-day hangover of those unfair policies.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Could you imagine somebody getting away with a cartoon like this today?
"Once!"
Dr. Seuss did not lie. The people who gave this child the low expectations were the true villains and liars.
After a certain point in the life of every one of us, we either come to the realization we must self-actualize to better our chances in the world, or we accept the judgment of our peers, and settle for mediocrity.
There is a virtue in not listening to negativity. But it is sometimes years before that negativity is shaken off.
It’s conditioning kids to be racist. Passing resentment down from one generation to the next...
“See those wyppl? They’re NEVER going to see as anything but a black boy...”
Did He lie to Our kids? Not mine His Teachings were not allowed in our Home.
The bigger question is: “Does the New York Times constantly lie to our kids (and to us)”.
The answer is yes.
The only institutionalized bigotry in the US today is against white males.
...
Christian white males.
I can imagine a 12 year-old already completely indoctrinated. The kid will have a job with the Thought Police in a few years, if the Socialists win.
Assassinate a teacher?
ML/NJ
ML/NJ
Inner city black culture is a pathway to failure.
I still have the lines “see spot run, run spot run” go through my head when I think of being taught early reading.
Dr. Seuss always gave the the creeps, but gotta admit, the man could come up with good rhymes.
Once! Yeah, once. Although I did ask for it after reading the story. Scrambled.
The Lorax was total propaganda, though.
I remember as a kid how I just didnt like that book (I generally did not like Dr. Seuss being a Richard Scarry, and Chris Van Allsburg fan), and I could never put my finger on it at the time.
Corporations are heading the destruction of our environment by shamelessly overharvesting resources. This has been a problem for decades. For example, this phenomenon is brilliantly portrayed in the decades old classic “The Lorax”.
Yes, you read that right. The El Paso shooter was murdering people in the name of saving the environment from corporations. Inspired to do so by Dr. Seuss.
I always wanted a dog like Spot.
In the later 1950s and early 1960s, Dick and Jane found themselves in troubled waters. In 1955, Rudolf Flesch struck out against look-say readers in his bestseller, Why Johnny Can't Read. Flesch argued that the whole word method did not properly teach children how to read or to appreciate literature, because of its limited vocabulary and overly simplistic stories. Other phonics advocates in the 1960s echoed Flesch's arguments, calling for new primers that focused on phonics and introduced students to real literature.
An act of Congress helped phonics advocates end Dick and Jane's tenure in American school systems. In the mid-1960s, President Lyndon B. Johnson called for better primary education especially for underprivileged students. The resulting Elementary and Secondary Education Act included money to help poor school districts buy supplemental materials for their students but with the restriction that these materials had to have subject matter appropriate for urban Away I go, said Father. schoolchildren. Scott, Foresman's solution was to introduce a minority family into Dick and Jane's formerly all-white world: Mike, his sisters the twins Pam and Penny, and their parents.
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