I remember how it was -- JR
Sunday, March 31, 2024
Minnesota School District Affirms Students’ Right to Walk Out of LGBT Lesson
A 40-page demand letter from Liberty Counsel, a national Christian advocacy organization, persuaded a Minnesota school system to acknowledge the rights of teachers, parents, and high school students to opt out of a lesson celebrating and honoring the LGBT lifestyle.
The lesson, called “LGBTQIA+ History and Culture,” is scheduled to be taught to high schoolers during the first week of April.
Liberty Counsel became involved at the request of local parents and teachers who were concerned about the upcoming activity, describing it as “one-sided LGBT political indoctrination.”
A group of teachers said that they objected to teaching the lesson on religious grounds and feared retaliation for refusing to do so.
Liberty Counsel analysts reviewed the LGBT lesson and found that it proclaims the students’ multiple controversial, political LGBT positions and opinions as truth. They said that some of the lesson’s questions violate the teens’ privacy, instill confusion, unconstitutionally compel speech, and serve as a “call to political action.”
Attorneys for Liberty Counsel wrote in the demand letter (pdf), a device used by lawyers to achieve their purpose without litigation, “Government is not permitted to establish a government orthodoxy on matters of sexuality and identity.”
The District’s Reaction
In response to the demand letter, Osseo Area Schools, the fifth largest school district in Minnesota, announced on March 28, 2024, that “students themselves may choose to leave prior to or during the lesson.” An alternative class centering on college and career readiness will be available for them to attend instead.
The district stated that the request by Liberty Counsel for accommodation for teachers who decline to teach the material based on sincerely held religious beliefs “has been approved and will be provided.”
According to the announcement, parents and caregivers will continue to be allowed to sign up for an appointment to physically visit the school to review the LGBT “learning materials” and, if they so desire, opt their children out of the class by filling out a form,
In their demand letter, Liberty Counsel attorneys took issue with the physical visit requirement in the digital age and questioned whether the Osseo District “was trying to prevent as many parents as possible from exercising a meaningful review of the curriculum.”
Purpose and Content of the Lesson
According to a March 8 bulletin from the district, the purpose of the main 40-minute lesson is to help students “gain a deeper understanding of LGBTQIA+ histories and identities.”
The lesson is designed to instill in students an appreciation for “the importance of using correct pronouns and respecting diverse identities.”
After the class, students will help create “a brave space that is respectful of all members of our community,” the bulletin said.
A “brave space,” differs from a “safe space,” in that it is designed to manage conflict among equals rather than avoid it, with an emphasis on mutual respect.
On June 21, 2022, the Osseo Area Schools Board of Education laid the foundation for the annual lesson by formally resolving to “acknowledge the value of the lives of our trans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, intersex, two-spirit, asexual, nonbinary, and gender-expansive scholars and staff.”
According to the district administration, 2.7 percent of the school system’s 20,609 students fall into at least one of the 10 categories mentioned above.
The resolution recognizes the need to observe Pride Month and to “value the student’s gender identity and gender expression” in an inclusive learning environment in which “all students feel safe and supported.”
The resolution noted that 52 percent of LGBTQ youth enrolled in its middle schools and high schools “reported being bullied either in person or electronically in the past year.”
The school board resolved to “eliminate transphobia and homophobia” of all forms. Toward that end, the board promised to continue its support for such student-led clubs as the Gender Sexuality Alliance and the Queer Straight Alliance.
The board resolved to establish an “LGBTQIA+ employee affinity group,” along with a “school/parent/caregiver/ally advisory group.”
A promise was also made to “Ensure that all facility design standards include increased privacy and greater student choice in restrooms and locker rooms.”
The resolution stated that Osseo Schools would establish an entire month, sometime before Pride Month each year, “to observe LGBTQIA+ History and Culture Month,” because “it is essential for our education system to teach the experiences, honor the history, and highlight the contributions of transgender, expansive gender, and non-binary people.”
The Osseo Schools Board of Education also committed to raising the “Progress Pride Flag” at all district buildings and in the board room on June 1 every year. It also invited the entire community to do the same as “a symbol of support to our LGBTQIA+ students, staff, and their families.”
According to its website, Liberty Counsel is a national, nonprofit, litigation, education, and public policy organization dedicated to restoring the culture by advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and the family.
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New Zealand University Criticised for ‘Designated Area’ for Indigenous Students
The University of Auckland has come under criticism from the ACT Party over a photo of what appears to be a segregated space that only allows access to Maori and Pasifika students.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on March 26, ACT, headed by David Seymour and part of the country’s tri-party government, posted a picture of a sign that read, “This is a designated area for Maori and Pasifika students. Thank you.”
In a media release published online, ACT party Tertiary Education spokesperson Parmjeet Parmar said, “Blocking access to spaces based on ethnicity has an ugly past and has no future in New Zealand @AucklandUni and any others with segregated spaces owe an explanation to the Kiwis who pay their bills."
In the lead-up to last year’s general election, ACT campaigned heavily on ending the perceived division created by race-based policies. This includes campaigns against separate Maori Electoral seats and a Maori Health Authority, the latter was set up by the previous Labour Government.
At the time, ACT leader David Seymour, who is of Ngapuhi Maori descent, said ACT was committed to “remove the Māori Health Authority and turning policy away from Labour’s race obsession. Instead, we should be focused on the best public services that get results for New Zealanders from every background, including Māori.”
A separate Maori Health Authority was recently abolished by the new government as part of its 100-day plan.
Maori make up 7 percent of students currently studying at the University, while Pasifika students are at 9 per cent. Asian students make up the majority with 47 percent, while Caucasians (labelled as Pakeha) are at 32 percent.
Collin Tukuitonga a doctor and associate dean at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medical and Health Science, made headlines in December 2023 when he resigned from government advisory roles after the National Party won the general election.
“I really don’t want to work for this government. I have no confidence. They are not going to treat Pacific people well and I want to be free to speak up and speak out, ” Dr. Tukuitonga said.
Online Reaction Mixed
The picture drew the ire of many online, with one X commenter saying “The depraved divisive socialist agenda is alive and well at New Zealand’s biggest University.”
On Reddit, one poster said the University had also tried to create a Maori-only floor in its halls of residence:
“As a Maori person, this is crazy what is it with uoa and trying to have segregation the halls (which) also have an option for (a) ‘Maori only floor.’”
Another said the move to designate a space for Maori and Pasifika was not a new concept:
“When I was at uni they had these spaces, but it wasn’t a rule that was enforced or anything. It was more that if you weren’t Pacific or Maori you might feel a bit awkward in those spaces as you would be less familiar with the culture and vibes, which is how some Pacific and Maori feel in a lot of their classes.”
Dr. Parmjeet Parmar also alleged the practice is prevalent at other New Zealand academic institutions.
“ACT has seen similar accounts from other universities. If true, this is nothing short of segregation. Universities must front up and be open about whether they are engaging in these practices.”
It is understood the sign has now been removed,
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What’s lacking from today’s schooling? Any grounding in the New Testament
TONY ABBOTT
Years ago, I was still playing rugby football, in Oxford, England, and there were lineout calls, requiring the recognition of particular letters. If the captain called a word starting with the letter “t”, the ball went to the back. If he called a word starting with “s”, it went to the front. But on this occasion, the captain called “Tchaikovsky”. The resulting chaos among the students of a great university highlighted the need for a well-rounded classical education, even for those who took their sport as seriously as their studies.
What’s mostly lacking from today’s schooling is any grounding in the New Testament, even though it’s at the heart of our culture. There’s an absence of narrative history: our story from Abraham, Jacob, and Moses, our fathers in faith, through the ancient Greeks and Romans, to Alfred the Great, Magna Carta, the Provisions of Oxford, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Glorious Revolution, an American Revolution for the rights of Englishmen in the New World and a French one based on worthy abstractions that ultimately descended into tyranny, and through the struggles of the 20th century to our own times with the illusory ascendancy of market liberalism because man does not live by bread alone. There is, of course, an abundance of critical theory that’s turned great literature and the triumphs of the human spirit into a fantasy of oppressors and oppressed and regards the modern Anglosphere as irredeemably tainted.
Above all, contemporary schooling hardly conveys a spirit of progress, even though there’s still much to be grateful for. In 1990, for instance, more than 30 per cent of the world’s population lacked access to safe drinking water; by 2020, that figure was under 10 per cent. Likewise, in 1990, more than 30 per cent of the world’s population lived in absolute poverty; that too, had declined to under 10 per cent by 2020. And in 2020, more wealth had been created, at least in dollar terms, over the previous 25 years than in the prior 2500.
Prior to the pandemic, the world at large was more free, more fair, more safe, and more rich, for more people than at any previous time in human history, largely thanks to the long Pax Americana, based on a preference for whatever makes societies freer, fairer and more prosperous under a rules-based global order. But while the Western world has never been more materially rich, it’s rarely been more spiritually bereft. Relieved of the need to build its strength and assert its values against the old Soviet Union, like a retired sportsman it has become economically, militarily and culturally flabby.
The pandemic was a largely self-inflicted wound, with the policies to deal with it more destructive than the disease itself. For years, we will face the corrosive legacy of mental illness, other diseases that were comparatively neglected, economic dislocation, the surrender to authoritarian experts; and worst of all, two years of stopping living from fear of dying.
And now there’s the ferocious assault on Ukraine; the renewed challenge of apocalyptic Islamism, especially against Israel; and Beijing’s push to be the world’s dominant power by mid-century, with all that means for free and democratic Taiwan, for the rest of East Asia and for the continued flourishing of the liberal order that has produced the best times in history so far.
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In the face of an intensifying military challenge from dictatorships on the march, militarist, Islamist and communist, it might seem trivial, almost escapist, to stress the life of the mind but, in the end, this is a battle of ideas: the power of the liberal humanist dream of men and women, created with inherently equal rights and responsibilities, free to make the most of themselves, individually and in community; versus various forms of might is right, based on national glory, death to the infidel, or the dictatorship of the proletariat.
In most Western countries, people’s faith in democracy is shrinking. Mental illness, especially among young people, is a new epidemic. And while this may or may not be related to the waning of the Christian belief in the God-given dignity and worth of each person, which incubated liberal democracy, and that armoured its adherents against pride and despair, it’s noteworthy that the Christianity that was professed by some 90 per cent of Australians just a few decades back is now acknowledged in the Census by well under half.
Politics, it’s often said, is downstream of culture, and culture is downstream of religion. It’s the coarsening of our culture, exacerbated by “the long march through the institutions”, that’s at least partly to blame for the feeble or embarrassing leadership from which we now suffer, and for the triumph of prudence over courage, and weakness over judgment, that has produced virtue-signalling businesses, propaganda pretending to be learning, the elevation of every kind of diversity except intellectual diversity, eruptions of anti-Semitism, out-of-control social spending and a drug culture in parts of Western cities that can only be the product of moral anarchy.
In the long run, the antidote to this is to rediscover all that’s given meaning to most people in every previous generation: a knowledge of our history, an appreciation of our literature, and an acquaintance with the faith stories that might not inspire every individual but have collectively moved mountains over millennia.
I was lucky enough to be schooled under Brigidine nuns, and then under Jesuit priests, and the lay teachers who took inspiration from them: fine, selfless people, who saw teaching as a calling more than a career, encouraging their charges at every turn to be their best selves. Their lives were about our fulfilment, not theirs, as reflected in the Jesuit injunction of those days to be “a man for others”, because it’s only in giving that we truly receive.
Later, at Sydney University, and especially at Oxford, I had teachers who valued their students’ ability to assimilate the authorities and to create strong arguments for a distinctive position, rather that regurgitate lecture notes and conform to some orthodoxy. Indeed, this is the genius of Western civilisation: a respect for the best of what is, combined with a restless curiosity for more; a constant willingness to learn, because no one has the last word in knowledge and wisdom. The whole point of a good education is not to “unlearn”, as Sydney University has recently put it, but to assimilate all the disciplines, intellectual and personal, that make us truly free “to have life and have it to the full”.
The Oxford tutorial system, where twice a week you had to front up to someone who was a genuine expert in his field, with an essay demonstrating familiarity with the main texts and the main arguments on a particular topic, plus a considered position of your own, was the perfect preparation for any form of advocacy, especially politics, where you always have to be ready to apply good values to hard facts.
These days, as a board member of the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, I’m conscious of the many elements of the Western canon that I’ve largely missed, in over-focusing on politics, with only a smattering of philosophy and theology, from a brief pursuit of the priesthood; but am still immensely grateful for an intellectual, cultural and spiritual inheritance that I’ve now been drawing down over 40 years of advocacy, journalism, and public life. I have few claims to specific expertise, save in political decision-making, and certainly no claims to personal virtue because an inevitably imperfectly and incompletely practised Christianity doesn’t guarantee goodness – but it does make us better than we’d otherwise be, this constant spur to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.
Still, example and experience are often the best teachers of all. A mother who welcomed everyone into our family home. A late father who urged me to look for the good that’s present in almost everyone. An inspirational teacher, the late Father Emmet Costello, who encouraged me to set no limits on what could be achieved. A boon friend, the late Father Paul Mankowski, my Oxford sparring partner, a kind of internal exile within the Jesuit order, who showed that a celibate priest could also be a real man. And the luminous George Cardinal Pell, of blessed memory, who endured a modern martyrdom, a form of living crucifixion, and whose prison diaries deserve to become modern classics. One day, I hope again to enjoy the communion of these saints.
I was lucky to have a reasonably broad experience beyond the classroom and beyond the confines of political life. Coaching football teams was an early introduction into managing egos. Running a concrete batching plant was a great antidote to pure economic theory, and to corporate flim-flam, and a goad to unconventional problem solving. Plus serving in a local volunteer fire brigade for more than two decades has been a wonderful lesson in grassroots community service.
My Jesuit mentor, Father Costello, had a favourite phrase – “genus humanum vivit paucis” – which he translated as “the human race lives by a few”.
Of course, there’s no discredit to being among the many who largely follow, because no one can lead unless others fall in behind. And whatever our individual role, large or small, public or private, sung or unsung, our calling is to be as good as we can be, because even small things, done well or badly, make a difference for better or for worse. Everyone’s duty, indeed, is to strive to leave the world that much better for our time here: our families, our neighbourhoods, our workplaces, our classrooms, our churches, everything we do should be for the better, as best we can make it.
Still, some are called to more; more than worthily performing all the things that are expected of us. Leaders are those who go beyond what might be expected; who don’t just fill the job, but expand it, even transcend it; who aren’t just competent but brilliant. To paraphrase the younger Kennedy, they don’t look at what is and ask why; but ponder what should be, and try to make that happen.
In my time as prime minister there were decisions to be made every day, expected and unexpected. Ultimately, the job of a national leader is to try to make sense of all the most difficult issues, and to offer people a better way forward. Inevitably, there’s much that can only be managed, not resolved, because much is more-or-less intractable, at least in the short term. The challenge is to keep pushing in the right direction so that things are better, even though they may never be perfect or even especially satisfactory. No matter how many changes you make, and how much leadership you try to provide, economic reform, for instance, or Indigenous wellbeing, is always going to be a work in progress. There’s no doubt leadership can be more or less effective depending on the character, conviction, and courage of the leader. This is the human factor in history that’s so often decisive, such as when the British Conservative Party chose Winston Churchill rather than Lord Halifax to invigorate the war effort against Nazism. In the end, leadership is less about being right or wrong than about being able to make decisions and get things done.
In providing leadership, what matters is the judgment and the set of values brought to decision-making, at least as much as technical knowledge. The same set of facts, for instance, namely the surrender of France and the evacuation from Dunkirk, would have produced different leadership from Halifax than from Churchill. It would hardly be fair to claim that Churchill’s education at Sandhurst was better than Halifax’s at Oxford. It was their character, disposition and judgment that differed. Just as the respective characters and judgment of presidents Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky so sharply differed when one offered an expedient escape from Kyiv, and the other resolutely refused it.
Still, there’s no doubt that education can help to shape character, and that judgment can be enhanced by the knowledge of history and the appreciation of the human condition that a good education should provide.
I’m sometimes asked by young people with an interest in politics what they should do to be more effective, and my answer is never to join a faction, to consult polling, or to seek any particular office. It’s to immerse yourself in the best that’s been thought and said, so that whatever you do will be better for familiarity with the wisdom of the ages.
In particular to read and re-read the New Testament, the foundation document of our culture, that’s shaped our moral and mental universe, in ways we can hardly begin to grasp, and which speaks to the best instincts of human nature.
And to bury yourself in history, especially a history that’s alive to the difference individuals make, and to the importance of ideas, of which a riveting example is Churchill’s magnificent four-volume History of the English-Speaking Peoples, that’s also pretty much a global history, given that so much of the modern world has been made in English. And which Andrew Roberts has brought more or less up to date with his History of the English-Speaking Peoples in the 20th century.
More here:
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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