Some of the kids are okay

Nice story about The Gadsden Kid earlier this week. Don't comment on old threads. There have been a couple of other stories this week that have involved kids taking anti-woke positions.

A win against secret school transitioners

You may remember back in December of 2021, when we discussed Abigail Shrier blowing the lid off the outrageous behavior of teachers and school officials in attempting to transition a girl into a boy behind her mother's back. There was also a great speech at Princeton by Abigail Shrier about speaking up when these kinds of insanities occur. Though she didn't just speak up. She acted strategically.

Well, after some publicity about the case, the Center for American Liberty filed suit, and have announced a $100,000 settlement. Could have been more, but it's a start.

If you follow the link, you will see that the girl is definitely not a boy.

More:

A mother and daughter have settled with Spreckels Union School District in California after the school allegedly tried to socially transition her daughter behind her back.

Jessica Konen, represented by The Center for American Liberty, filed the lawsuit after a school allegedly recruited her sixth grade daughter, Alicia, into an "Equality Club," where she was taught about bisexuality and transgender identity. The school allegedly took active steps to help Alicia conceal her identity as a boy, giving her articles on how to keep her identity a secret from her parents. Alicia was also allegedly allowed to use the unisex teachers' restroom instead of the girl's restroom without her parent's knowledge.

"Parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children. Parental Secrecy policies, as employed by the Spreckels Union School District and by schools across the country, unconstitutionally rob parents of that right."

School staff reportedly threatened to call Child Protective Services when Jessica refused to refer to her daughter as a man. Konen's husband, Gunter, was informed of his daughter's transition during a meeting with the middle school's principal and another teacher.

"We are thrilled to have played a role in this landmark victory, which sends a clear message that parental rights must be respected," Harmeet Dhillon, CEO of the Center for American Liberty, said in a statement provided to the Caller. "Jessica and Alicia's courage has inspired countless others to defend their rights against unwarranted intrusions."

Another California school district is hanging with their secrecy policy despite a similar lawsuit . . . . And the State of California is suing a conservative-leaning school board for requiring notification of parents if their child identifies as transgender.

California, but it could be elsewhere.

Free Press High School Essay Contest

Three essays were chosen from 400 submitted as winners of their high school essay contest. Maybe some other outfits should try high school essay contests, instead of hiding state education test results, like New York.

There is a common theme to the three essays, involving social media and hand-held devices.

Back in June, when we announced our first-ever high school essay contest, we invited teenagers to describe a problem troubling American society--and how they would fix it. We told young writers that we were especially interested in hearing about challenges older generations have misunderstood, missed, or maybe even created.

1. A Constitution for Teenage Happiness

. . out of the hundreds of essays we read, one writer really stood out: 17-year-old Ruby LaRocca from Ithaca, New York.

Ruby is a homeschooled rising senior. She told us she entered the contest because she believes in our mission of finding "the people--under the radar or in the public eye--who are telling the truth." . .

When we tried to reach Ruby to tell her about her win, she gave us the number for her mother's cell phone because she doesn't have one of her own. And when we asked her to respond to some of our edits, she said she'd tackle them as soon as she was done "putting in 15-hour days at a Latin program. I translated about 500 lines of the poet Propertius today!"

All of which is to say: Ruby lives by her ideals, as you will see below. We look forward to seeing what she does next and we're sure you'll understand why. --BW

The essay:

When people ask me why I sacrificed the sociable, slightly surreal daily life at my local school for the solitary life of a homeschooled student in 2021, I almost never reveal the reason: an absence of books.

For many students, books are irrelevant. They "take too long to read." Even teachers have argued for the benefits of shorter, digital resources. Last April, the National Council of Teachers of English declared it was time "to decenter book reading and essay writing as the pinnacles of English language arts education."

But what is an English education without reading and learning to write about books?

Many of our English teachers instead encouraged extemporaneous discussions of our feelings and socioeconomic status, viewings of dance videos, and endless TED Talks. So five days into my sophomore year, I convinced my mother to homeschool me.

Distance from high school affords a clearer view of its perennial problems. . .

Is that what school is like for the kids you know?

A few highlight from her recommendations below:

Like human happiness, teenage happiness does not flourish when everyone has the freedom to live just as they please. Where there is neither order nor necessity in life--no constraints, no inhibitions, no discomfort--life becomes both relaxing and boring, as American philosopher Allan Bloom notes. A soft imprisonment.

So, here is my counterintuitive guide for teenage happiness:

#1. Read old books.

Today's teachers and students talk a lot about "relatability"; they want to see their own lives and experiences reflected in the books they read. I, however, am electrified when a book gives me the feeling Hector brilliantly describes--words from someone who is not at all like me, from a very different time and place, yet speaks words that feel written just for me.

#2. Memorize poetry. Learn ancient languages.

Timms: I don't see how we can understand it. Most of the stuff poetry's about hasn't happened to us yet.

Hector: But it will, Timms. It will. And then you will have the antidote ready!

Like Timms, I sometimes don't understand what I'm learning or memorizing when I study poetry, but I believe Hector when he says it prepares us for the very real events of the world--going to war, falling in love, falling out of love, making a friend, losing a friend, having a child, losing a child.

Understanding ancient authors as they understood themselves is the surest means of finding alternatives to our current way of seeing the world.

#3. Learn from the monks, and slow your pace -- of reading, of writing, of thinking.

I used to think speed equaled competence.

#4. Learn how to conduct yourself in public.

Part of learning how to conduct yourself in public is learning how to interact with people of different ages and experiences--who read different books, watch different shows, and grew up in a different time than you.

#5. Dramatically reduce use of your phone.

The final key to being a happy teenager is to do away with the "machine for feeling bad," as we call it in my house. Seriously, walk away from your phone. You've seen the statistics, you've read the Jonathan Haidt articles, and you've watched that Netflix documentary with Tristan Harris. You know it's bad for you.

*

My suggestions for teenage happiness are, I know, unlikely to appeal to the intended demographic. And yet I hope my peers will hear me: if you choose to take on three out of five of these precepts, I guarantee your heart will stop sinking.

What do you think? There are comments at the link. Bet most teenagers never thought of learning ancient languages as a key to happiness.

2. Why I Traded My Smartphone for an Ax

At 15, Caleb Silverberg made the most important decision of his life. He ditched technology and headed to the forest.

During the pandemic, I became a slave to screens. Online classes were followed by scrolling Instagram or playing Fortnite for hours, ignoring hunger pangs while I immersed myself in a world of pixels.

My Saturdays were pretty grim: I'd wake up and drag myself to the couch where my Xbox had been waiting for me all night long. The closed shades blocked the beaming sun and any hope of enjoying it--swimming in the ocean, biking in the mountains, hiking with my dogs.

At 15 years old, I looked in the mirror and saw a shell of myself. My face was pale. My eyes were hollow. I needed a radical change.

I vaguely remembered one of my older sister's friends describing her unique high school, Midland, an experiential boarding school located in the Los Padres National Forest. The school was founded in 1932 under the belief of "Needs Not Wants." . .

3. I Had a Helicopter Mom. I Found Pornhub Anyway.

Porn is not content. It's a substance. And it must be controlled like one, argues 16-year-old Isabel Hogben.

I was ten years old when I watched porn for the first time. I found myself on Pornhub, which I stumbled across by accident and returned to out of curiosity. The website has no age verification, no ID requirement, not even a prompt asking me if I was over 18. The site is easy to find, impossible to avoid, and has become a frequent rite of passage for kids my age.

Where was my mother? In the next room, making sure I was eating nine differently colored fruits and vegetables on the daily. She was attentive, nearly a helicopter parent, but I found online porn anyway. So did my friends.

Today I'm 16, and my peers are suffering from an addiction to what many call "the new drug." Porn is the disastrous replacement for intimacy among my sexless, anxiety-ridden generation.

First, let's get on the same page about what porn really is today. When I talk to adults, I get the strong sense they picture a hot bombshell in lingerie or a half-naked model on a beach. This is not what I stumbled upon back in fourth grade. I saw simulated incest, bestiality, extreme bondage, sex with unconscious women, gangbangs, sadomasochism, and unthinkable physical violence. The porn children view today makes Playboy look like an American Girl doll catalog.

I am told that in the less explicit twentieth century, porn stars looked human. Today, they are fake: the boobs, the butts, the pleasure. Even the erections are artificial. The Los Angeles Times reported as far back as 2001 that Tyce Bune, a former L.A. porn actor, brought a "vial of Viagra" to work every day.

But the preadolescent and adolescent brain doesn't know it's all fake. It believes wholeheartedly what it sees. I certainly did.

. . . some, including Nadine Strossen, the former national president of the ACLU, argue that minors' access to porn content is a "free speech" issue, noting young people have a constitutional right to information about sexual health.

They are wrong. Porn is not about sexual health. Nor is it "content." It's a substance.

If a child ordered three shots of vodka at a bar, the bartender would object. If a child asked for cigarettes at a gas station, the attendant would laugh. But with a quick Google search, a child has access to millions of hours of a dangerous substance.

With that same Google search, children consume dangerous lies about sexual pleasure. A recent BBC study of 2,000 UK men ages 18-39 found that 71 percent have gagged, slapped, choked, or spat on their partner during sex. A third said they don't think to ask for permission before committing these acts.

An Indiana University study shows that the earlier a girl is exposed to porn, the more she will accept behaviors like choking, facial ejaculation, and "aggressive fellatio" from a sexual partner.

Meanwhile, models and female entrepreneurs--women who little girls look up to--are flocking to OnlyFans to sell naked photos of themselves.

In short, most of my friends think this stuff is normal.

Grim. She has suggestions.

I think there must be a connection between some of this scary porn and the transgender/bisexuality craze. Not to mention the looming transhumanist ideology we see coming down the pike.

Does a high school girl need to be the one who blows the whistle?

Music

R.I.P. Jimmy Buffet. Come Monday

Hope you have something nice planned for this long weekend. Doing something outside with kids?

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Last week's thread, August 26, Welcome to Election Season!

Seems like a long time ago, somehow.

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 11:16 AM

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