I was with you until you wrote: "Religious families should not feel any more threatened by queer theory in schools than gay kids should feel by religious beliefs or studies." The goal of Queer Theory is to be subversive and overturn boundaries. Of course they don't teach Queer Theory as an actual 'subject', but ideas of Queer Theory are …
I was with you until you wrote: "Religious families should not feel any more threatened by queer theory in schools than gay kids should feel by religious beliefs or studies." The goal of Queer Theory is to be subversive and overturn boundaries. Of course they don't teach Queer Theory as an actual 'subject', but ideas of Queer Theory are woven into the curriculum in a very sneaky way starting in Kindergarten. The guidance and materials that form SOGI curriculum have been passed to the education system from gender identity lobbyists and LGBTQ+ organizations. Many parents are shocked to learn that inappropriate child sexualizing and science-denying content has, for years now, been presented without parental knowledge or consent, based solely on political ideology that is not adequately vetted, is not backed by evidence, ignores reality, and often railroads children’s personal boundaries. The SOGI (Queer Theory) teachings are highly manipulative and seem almost engineered to manufacture gender dysphoria in children. Queer Theory is a political ideology and is not neutral. It has no place in the public school system.
I want to add that I support Sex Education taught to adolescents in an age-appropriate way. I am 58 years old and I remember that the Sex Ed I was taught was focused on human reproductive biology - how babies are made, how not to get pregnant, how to protect yourself from sexually transmitted disease. I favour a "back to basics" approach to Sex Ed. Also, back then teachers had appropriate professional boundaries and they never talked about their personal lives to students. I am mortified by teachers who feel the need to "come out" to their students, and it's even worse when they demand pronoun compliance (etc). They are using their captive audience of school children to extract validation for themselves. It's toxic, emotional vampirism. Completely grotesque.
And the one is celebrated. Can you think of a celebration at school of people being Christians? Not a school closure for the general public to celebrate a holy day/holiday, but a school-sponsored event or teacher affirmation of the person's identity?
The classical liberal marketplace of ideas may be fine, where people are given a presentation of different philosophies. But who can trust public school employees to carry this out with an even hand? Even after reading your article, a teacher is commenting below that they will continue teaching this theory as a lens through which to view literature.
Yes, I agree but in general Queer Theory isn't even being presented as one philosophy among many competing philosophies in a marketplace of ideas. If that were the case, I wouldn't object so much especially if the students were sufficiently mature to analyze and decide for themselves which philosophy was better on its merits (eg: high school students). In the present situation, Queer Theory was snuck in through the backdoor - it was woven into the curriculum at the earliest grades and is being taught as the one and only moral truth.
I teach high school literature, and in my domain, Queer Theory is just one of many lenses through which to look at literature. It certainly has nothing to do with science denial. I think you're mixing up terms here.
No, I'm not. If Postmodernism (poststructuralism) & Queer Theory had confined itself to just deconstructing literature, there would be no problem. Unfortunately, though, it escaped academia and became reified - ie: put to work in the real world to deconstruct 'social injustice'. Queer Theory presumes that oppression follows from categorization. Queer theory problematizes what is called “the binary opposition,” eg: Man/woman. Queer Theory argues that binary oppositions are inherently hierarchical, in that one term is privileged over the other as the primary, and the other term is merely its deviant. For instance, “man” is the default normal and its opposite (woman) is subordinate. Queer theory argues that we need to deconstruct all of these social binary oppositions. Thus categories of sex, gender and sexuality are seen as oppressive and QT's main objective is to examine, question and subvert them in order to break them down. In addition to the deconstruction of categories, QT is also characterized by a profound skepticism of science (as is postmodernism in general). Finally, QT asserts the theory of performativity - the idea that woman/girl is not a female person but is a performance. Queer Theory is a political project and its agenda is to challenge what is called "normativity" - the idea that some things are more common or regular to the human condition, thus more normative from a social perspective, than others. Queer Theory is deeply embedded in SOGI, with kids being taught there is no such thing as boys and girls, or that a boy who plays with dolls is a girl based on the performance of feminine stereotypes. This is how kids have been groomed to see themselves as the opposite sex and then pushed toward transition.
I have to agree. There is nothing neutral about it. It is activist brainwashing. "Deconstruct" does not mean analyze. It means destroy, as does their other favorite euphemism: "dismantle." The right and left are fighting tooth and claw to inject their preferred militant propaganda into the classroom. But while the right is fighting for censorship of all gay/queer voices, the left is fighting to redefine education into a totally meaningless endeavor. Ridiculous constructs like "equity math" promote self-indulgent naval gazing and rob (already far behind) American kids from the chance to learn. Teaching the fundamentals of reproductive biology is healthy, necessary--and empowering. When I was a kid, we were forced to listen to a Christian couple in our sex ed class discuss their sex lives and why they think we should "wait until marriage." For the 99% of us who did not share their values, they were a joke, because even 10th graders could tell the difference between ideology and propaganda versus truth. Gender identity is no different than a strict, puritanical religious ideology. It has no place in schools.
I would add that the term "Queer Theory" exemplifies poststructuralism's propensity to alter reality by manipulating language. Here it's the word "theory" that's being subverted. Slap the label "theory" on a set of subjective ideas that advance an ideology and - presto! - they become empirically derived scientific truths. If Judith Butler is a "theorist," then Donald J. Trump is a statesman.
Your response here is exactly why our education system has been on a downward spiral for decades. Self righteous nonsense emanating from entitled individuals, who have never worked outside of their groupthink environment. Schools are places of knowledge, not throwing around made up stuff which only confuses novice learners. If you can't stick to teaching kids properly, maybe it's time to retire. Good day.
I was with you until you wrote: "Religious families should not feel any more threatened by queer theory in schools than gay kids should feel by religious beliefs or studies." The goal of Queer Theory is to be subversive and overturn boundaries. Of course they don't teach Queer Theory as an actual 'subject', but ideas of Queer Theory are woven into the curriculum in a very sneaky way starting in Kindergarten. The guidance and materials that form SOGI curriculum have been passed to the education system from gender identity lobbyists and LGBTQ+ organizations. Many parents are shocked to learn that inappropriate child sexualizing and science-denying content has, for years now, been presented without parental knowledge or consent, based solely on political ideology that is not adequately vetted, is not backed by evidence, ignores reality, and often railroads children’s personal boundaries. The SOGI (Queer Theory) teachings are highly manipulative and seem almost engineered to manufacture gender dysphoria in children. Queer Theory is a political ideology and is not neutral. It has no place in the public school system.
Yes, I agree with you. I don't think that religion or queer theory belong in public school.
I want to add that I support Sex Education taught to adolescents in an age-appropriate way. I am 58 years old and I remember that the Sex Ed I was taught was focused on human reproductive biology - how babies are made, how not to get pregnant, how to protect yourself from sexually transmitted disease. I favour a "back to basics" approach to Sex Ed. Also, back then teachers had appropriate professional boundaries and they never talked about their personal lives to students. I am mortified by teachers who feel the need to "come out" to their students, and it's even worse when they demand pronoun compliance (etc). They are using their captive audience of school children to extract validation for themselves. It's toxic, emotional vampirism. Completely grotesque.
There’s so much waste in education budgets. Fix this by bringing in school nurses to teach sex Ed appropriately, and cut the crap.
Yes!
And the one is celebrated. Can you think of a celebration at school of people being Christians? Not a school closure for the general public to celebrate a holy day/holiday, but a school-sponsored event or teacher affirmation of the person's identity?
The classical liberal marketplace of ideas may be fine, where people are given a presentation of different philosophies. But who can trust public school employees to carry this out with an even hand? Even after reading your article, a teacher is commenting below that they will continue teaching this theory as a lens through which to view literature.
Yes, I agree but in general Queer Theory isn't even being presented as one philosophy among many competing philosophies in a marketplace of ideas. If that were the case, I wouldn't object so much especially if the students were sufficiently mature to analyze and decide for themselves which philosophy was better on its merits (eg: high school students). In the present situation, Queer Theory was snuck in through the backdoor - it was woven into the curriculum at the earliest grades and is being taught as the one and only moral truth.
Completely agree
Yep- depressing!
Great comments April.
I teach high school literature, and in my domain, Queer Theory is just one of many lenses through which to look at literature. It certainly has nothing to do with science denial. I think you're mixing up terms here.
No, I'm not. If Postmodernism (poststructuralism) & Queer Theory had confined itself to just deconstructing literature, there would be no problem. Unfortunately, though, it escaped academia and became reified - ie: put to work in the real world to deconstruct 'social injustice'. Queer Theory presumes that oppression follows from categorization. Queer theory problematizes what is called “the binary opposition,” eg: Man/woman. Queer Theory argues that binary oppositions are inherently hierarchical, in that one term is privileged over the other as the primary, and the other term is merely its deviant. For instance, “man” is the default normal and its opposite (woman) is subordinate. Queer theory argues that we need to deconstruct all of these social binary oppositions. Thus categories of sex, gender and sexuality are seen as oppressive and QT's main objective is to examine, question and subvert them in order to break them down. In addition to the deconstruction of categories, QT is also characterized by a profound skepticism of science (as is postmodernism in general). Finally, QT asserts the theory of performativity - the idea that woman/girl is not a female person but is a performance. Queer Theory is a political project and its agenda is to challenge what is called "normativity" - the idea that some things are more common or regular to the human condition, thus more normative from a social perspective, than others. Queer Theory is deeply embedded in SOGI, with kids being taught there is no such thing as boys and girls, or that a boy who plays with dolls is a girl based on the performance of feminine stereotypes. This is how kids have been groomed to see themselves as the opposite sex and then pushed toward transition.
I have to agree. There is nothing neutral about it. It is activist brainwashing. "Deconstruct" does not mean analyze. It means destroy, as does their other favorite euphemism: "dismantle." The right and left are fighting tooth and claw to inject their preferred militant propaganda into the classroom. But while the right is fighting for censorship of all gay/queer voices, the left is fighting to redefine education into a totally meaningless endeavor. Ridiculous constructs like "equity math" promote self-indulgent naval gazing and rob (already far behind) American kids from the chance to learn. Teaching the fundamentals of reproductive biology is healthy, necessary--and empowering. When I was a kid, we were forced to listen to a Christian couple in our sex ed class discuss their sex lives and why they think we should "wait until marriage." For the 99% of us who did not share their values, they were a joke, because even 10th graders could tell the difference between ideology and propaganda versus truth. Gender identity is no different than a strict, puritanical religious ideology. It has no place in schools.
Well said!
I would add that the term "Queer Theory" exemplifies poststructuralism's propensity to alter reality by manipulating language. Here it's the word "theory" that's being subverted. Slap the label "theory" on a set of subjective ideas that advance an ideology and - presto! - they become empirically derived scientific truths. If Judith Butler is a "theorist," then Donald J. Trump is a statesman.
Queer Theory is a construct. It absolutely has NO PLACE in a K-12 curriculum.
Why would a construct not have a place? I've been teaching for 40 years. What do you teach? How long have you been at it?
Your response here is exactly why our education system has been on a downward spiral for decades. Self righteous nonsense emanating from entitled individuals, who have never worked outside of their groupthink environment. Schools are places of knowledge, not throwing around made up stuff which only confuses novice learners. If you can't stick to teaching kids properly, maybe it's time to retire. Good day.
Things that belong together: phrenology, creationism, Lysenkoism and Queer Theory . . .