The Snake Pit called "School"

[firecat]

[Reposted from alt.polyamory, in response to a post in which someone came out in favor of cosmetic surgery on intersexed infants as a better alternative to being abused in school.]

I agree, kids use the school environment as an excuse to abuse. I don't think that abuse is something kids *have* to do, but society has not particularly done much to prevent it, and by promoting one-size-fits-all schools it's done much to encourage it.

Well, maybe it's time to figure out a way to stop kids' abusing each other at school (and elsewhere).

It really says something nasty about our society that it's a lesser evil to force surgery and a gender assignment on a child than to let them go to school as they are.

I was watching a show on Tourette's syndrome last night and a similar evil choice was forced on kids with Tourette's: take drugs with serious side effects at a very young age, or be subject to abuse at school.

And I certainly could have done without the abuse I experienced as a fat kid.

Comments

[xp85goblin.livejournal.com]

Kids are too mean and there are too many opinions and beliefs floating around out there. I may not agree with fundies, or the PC crowd, but they have a right to thier opinion. Intersexed kids probably would be a pet issue of the Queer community and would get no else but the kid's parents up in arms. Fundies would just go "Ewwwwww", squirm a bit, then ignore the issue.

A massive realignment of opinion to where intersexed kids didn't make kids into monsters and adults felt something other than massive discomfort, would require the irradication of Christianity as a cultural and political force. Desirable? dunno. Ethical? probably not. Feasible? Almost certainly not. The Right has enough clout to elect a president, even if by narrow margins, so they aren't going to be a footnote to history any time soon.

[firecat]

I would rather massively revamp the concept of school than massively revamp everybody's opinion.

[xp85goblin.livejournal.com]

I wholeheartedly agree. The current method is too labor intensive, hasn't had a major overhaul in thousands of years, and isn't really working that well to boot.