'No Name-Calling Week' Begins in Schools

Yahoo News ^ | Jan 24th, 2005 | David Crary

[missyme]

NEW YORK - Using a young readers' novel called "The Misfits" as its centerpiece, middle schools nationwide will participate in a "No Name-Calling Week" initiative starting Monday. The program, now in its second year, has the backing of groups from the Girl Scouts to Amnesty International but has also drawn complaints that it overemphasizes harassment of gay youths.

The initiative was developed by the New York-based Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, which seeks to ensure that schools safely accommodate students of all sexual orientations. GLSEN worked with James Howe, the openly gay author of "The Misfits" and many other popular children's books.

"Gay students aren't the only kids targeted — this isn't about special rights for them," Howe said. "But the fact is that 'faggot' is probably the most common insult at schools."

"The Misfits" deals with four much-taunted middle schoolers — one of them gay — who run for the student council on a platform advocating an end to nasty name-calling.

GLSEN is unsure how many schools will participate in this week's event, but says 5,100 educators from 36 states have registered, up from 4,000 last year. Participation in a related writing-music-art contest rose from 100 students last year to 1,600 this year; the winning poem was written by Sue Anna Yeh, a 13-year-old from Sugar Land, Texas.

"No Name-calling Week" takes aim at insults of all kinds — whether based on a child's appearance, background or behavior. But a handful of conservative critics have zeroed in on the references to harassment based on sexual orientation.

"I hope schools will realize it's less an exercise in tolerance than a platform for liberal groups to promote their pan-sexual agenda," said Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute.

"Schools should be steering kids away from identifying as gay," Knight said. "You can teach civility to kids and tell them every child is valued without conveying the message that failure to accept homosexuality as normal is a sign of bigotry."

In Iowa, complaints by scores of parents about the gay themes in "The Misfits" prompted the Pleasant Valley School Board to rule that teachers could no longer read it aloud to elementary school classes, although it could remain in school libraries.

In Colorado, lawmakers last year rejected a proposal to declare a statewide "No-Name Calling Week" in conjunction with the inaugural GLSEN-backed event. House Majority Leader Keith King said he was concerned about fostering a "victim's mentality" and argued that children should be taught to ignore taunts.

In contrast, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm issued a proclamation recognizing the event, and more than 40 national organizations have enlisted as partners, including the Girl Scouts, the national associations of elementary and secondary school principals, and the National Education Association.

"People who would criticize this, regardless of who came out with it, are people with bad hearts," said Jerald Newberry, who directs the NEA's health information network.

"This is as vanilla as you get in terms of creating safe environments in schools," Newberry said. "To criticize this program would, almost without exception, be a political attack, not an attack on its content."

James Garbarino, a Cornell University professor who has studied school bullying, said harassment based on sexual orientation "ought to be No. 1 on the list" as educators combat name-calling. Such taunting has led to violence and suicides, he said.

Whether programs like "No Name-Calling Week" work depends on whether staff and students heed the lessons yearlong, not just during special events, Garbarino said. "When it's done in a mechanical, mindless way, when it's just for show, kids see the hypocrisy of it," he said.

GLSEN executive director Kevin Jennings agreed that schools should do more than hold a one-week event; he hopes to evaluate systematically whether the initiative indeed reduces name-calling. "Every week should be 'No Name-Calling Week', but having one week at least raises the visibility of the issue," he said.

One of GLSEN's most persistent critics is Warren Throckmorton, director of counseling at Grove City College, a Christian school outside Pittsburgh. His skeptical comments about "No Name-Calling Week" have been widely circulated this month on conservative Web sites.

"There's no question middle school can be a difficult place — I'm not advocating that any group gets mistreated," Throckmorton said in a telephone interview.

"But it will definitely make traditionally oriented teachers and parents and kids feel very uncomfortable, if they happen to object to homosexuality on moral grounds," he said of GLSEN's program. "If you disagree, you're hateful, you're bigoted, you're a homophobe. They're using name-calling to combat name-calling."

Another critic is Brenda High of Pasco, Wash., an anti-bullying activist since her 13-year-old son committed suicide in 1998 following harassment at school.

"The use of 'The Misfits' as a basis for this teaching puts the emphasis on the subgroup of the harassment victim instead of on the perpetrator of harassment — the bully," she said.

But Howe said critics of "No Name-Calling Week" seem reluctant to acknowledge the scope of anti-gay harassment in schools.

"Homosexuality is not a moral issue — it's a fact, and kids who are gay, or maybe just different, need to be allowed to grow up in a safe environment just like everybody else," he said.

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[finnman69]

Stupid poopy head

[missyme]

I don't know if speaking proper english is mandatory in public schools any longer...

The only thing that seems to be mandatory is Gay and liberal rights when it comes to the public school system.

[Xenalyte]

Yeah. He'll be called Leonardo DiCaprio.

[T.Smith]

Wow. I hope my daughter turns out just like yours!

On a note related to the article, does this mean that when my son cries because he didn't get what he wanted I shouldn't tell him to "quit acting like a girl"? Or, does telling your son to stop acting like a girl qualify as name calling?

This week is going to be very confusing to me.

[Oberon]

This is just some ridiculous ivory tower BS scheme created by some knuckleheads (oops! a name call) so they can feel good about themselves, make a lot of noise, and say that they did something.

Actually, someone may have got a federal grant for this. =]

[Antonello]

"People who would criticize this, regardless of who came out with it, are people with bad hearts," said Jerald Newberry, who directs the NEA's health information network.

"This is as vanilla as you get in terms of creating safe environments in schools," Newberry said. "To criticize this program would, almost without exception, be a political attack, not an attack on its content."

Without even highlighting the name calling in this statement and making the obvious 'hypocrite' observation, there is an even more serious connotation involved.

By painting anyone who disagrees with any part of this program as having 'bad hearts', i.e. intolerant, insensitive, evil people who couldn't possibly have any other motive than 'a political attack', Jerald Newberry is revealing himself to be the epitome of intolerant and closed-minded. In his mind, any variance at all from what he thinks is proper way for everyone to think and behave must be hunted down and eradicated. That, I believe, is the mindset of a fascist.

[Republicus2001]

Instead of names they could try using their SS No. or their wrist barcode

[Oberon]

What about "pillow biters?" Can we call them "pillow biters?"

I've always been partial to "turd burglars," myself, although "trouser pilot" is pretty good too.

[missyme]

It seems to me the Gay Agenda not only wants to inflict there BS on the mainstream but they also want to turn Straight Kids into a bunch of Whiney Sissy's!

Bad enough most Kids (Boys) cannot build a model airplane, climb a tree, fix there bike, know the difference between a Motor and Transmission, they want boys to learn how to manicure there fingernails, apply make-up, acquaint themselves with the latest trends in cosmetic surgery....

Do Boys Just want to be Girls?

[LaBradford22]

Whoever came up with "no-name calling week" is a pussy.

[America's Resolve]

I don't want my school tax dollars going for this kind of crapola!!

[Dan from Michigan]

Some people call them the ass cowboys...(to the tune of Steve Miller's "The Joker")

[Allosaurs_r_us]

Much has been said about "tough love" for misbehaving children.  Most of America's populace thinks it very improper to spank children, so a friend of mine has tried other methods to control her kids when they have one of "those moments".

 

One that she found very effective is to just take the child for a car ride and talk.

 

They usually calm down and stop misbehaving after the little car ride together.

 

I've included the photo below of one of the sessions, with her son, in case you would like to use the technique.  Its very effective.

  

                                            

[Political Junkie Too]

"I'm rubber, you're glue..."

-PJ

[stbdside]

How about brown trout fishermen.

[Clara Lou]

I now know one topic of tonight's conversation with our 6th- and 8th-graders.
Not if your children go to my school. We don't participate in this program. We discourage name-calling on a year-round basis-- kind of like my mama did. [It's just rude and unkind.] Name-calling in regard to sexuality is not addressed unless a student brings it up.

[Allosaurs_r_us]

"How about brown trout fishermen."

I prefer a$$h@le bandit...

[Aquinasfan]

"But the fact is that 'faggot' is probably the most common insult at schools."

The fact that kids use these terms as a form of derision indicates that they have more sense than the adults.

[Aquinasfan]

THIS fits right in with a friend's recent email to me telling me two of her "core values"....."tolerance and unity."

How did this come up in an e-mail? Was she being PCer than thou?

[Begferdeth]

A week like this would have been nice when I was in school. It was pretty frikkin annoying to be called a faggot just because I washed my red sweaters with my whites, and got pink.
Heck, that should make me less gay... I dont know how to do laundry "properly".