Mona Charen: Lesson in why not to trust liberal teachers

Mnpls Star Tribune ^ | 7/11/06 | Mona Charen

[pissant]

A parent from Plymouth, N.Y., has sent along another example of liberals gone wild. Fishing through her son's backpack (he's a ninth-grader), she found a crumpled up handout from the health teacher. The title caught her attention: "Dysfunctional 'Family Rules.' " The handout is excerpted here with original punctuation, grammar and capitalization: "Here is a list of some of the unworkable rules found in dysfunctional families:

"Boys shouldn't cry. (they should be like diminutive adult males, independent, self contained, and tough. they should bear pain and hurt with a kind of stoicism and emotional flatness exemplified by rugged males in cigarette commercials and by romantic depictions of fighters and the wild, wild west.)

"Girls should always be nice. (Talk nice talk. Never say anything negative. Do nice things. Never do anything that would make someone look askance at you. Nice girls DON'T.)

"Elders always deserve respect and come first. (No matter how the elder behaves, the elder must be treated gingerly, for and elder has power -- even if it used capriciously and irrationally.)

"There is only one way to do things. (That is, there's only one RIGHT way to do things. There's only one right way to handle a spouse, to deal with the kids, to have a birthday party, to dance . . .)

[pissant]

Yikes

[EagleUSA]

Liberalism continues to move beyond the stage of being just a mental disorder...

[Bigg Red]

Nothing shocking here. Keep your kids out of government schools.

[colorado tanker]

Teachers whine that they don't have enough time to give achievement tests or teach science, but they seem to have plenty of time to propagandize the kids.

[dead]

emotional flatness exemplified by rugged males in cigarette commercials

Move out of the sixties, dingbat hippy.

There hasn't been a "cigarette commercial" on television since 1971. The kid's father probably doesn't even remember them.

[avg_freeper]

I know it had to be excerpted but the next two "lessons" are the worst. One trying to sex-up kids and the next trying to make them disobey their parents.

[dirtboy]

Move out of the sixties, dingbat hippy.

She wishes the Marlboro Man to be replaced with the Marlboro Metrosexual.

[Mazda3Fan]

Does anyone here think these stereotypes actually exist? Men should never cry. Women should always be nice. I don't think anyone believes this anymore, sounds like a bunch of hyperbole.

[Frank_Discussion]

I picked that out, too. Just d*mn.

[squarebarb]

Why do parents put u with this? Aren't school boards under local control? Aren't parents allowed to elect school board members?

Why would parents elect school board members that would put up with this crap?

It's just an uneducated regurgitation of crappy Hippie 'philosophy' that came from Timothy Leary, Skinner, and other media-created drugged-out creeps from the 60's.

In a minute I'll tell you what I really think.

[NativeNewYorker]

What did they expect? This place is barely an hour's drive from the CITY OF EVIL.

[squarebarb]

Yup. The school systems are crawling with pedophiles.

[GSWarrior]

I think this teacher herself came from a dysfunctional family and is using her pulpit to lash out at her parents.

[Borges]

Are you reffering to B.F. Skinner?

[I_like_good_things_too]

It's a war of attrition against the left to recapture the culture. We've made serious headway in media, time to step it up even more in the education arena-- before it's too late.

[I_like_good_things_too]

It's a war of attrition against the left to recapture the culture. We've made serious headway in media, time to step it up even more in the education arena-- before it's too late.

[L98Fiero]

That was just sick. And I don't mean that in the hip way that kids use it now.

[SteveMcKing]

I don't see any tenets I disagree with.

I wouldn't promote them to kids however, and certainly not as formal literature.

[L98Fiero]

"I don't see any tenets I disagree with."

Then, according to the teacher, you are dysfunctional.

[TXBubba]

Okay, I must have read this different than other folks. I would agree that the first two would be part of a dysfunctional family. To tell a boy he can never cry is abuse. I agree with General Schwarzkoff (sp?)when he said he would never trust a soldier who couldn't cry. Then with number two about girls having to be nice all the time. Being a girl I totally disagree with that one. The next two are strange and I didn't even get to the ones not listed. But I would have to agree with the first two as being dysfunctional if held to rigidly.

I may have misread these somehow so feel free to clarify if I saw it all wrong.