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Stories like these out of Florida are a stark reminder that often the problem isn't bad teachers who should not have become educators. It is bad parents who should not have reproduced.

At what point, in Florida and elsewhere, do the witch trials begin and the burnings and dunkings take place for the school teachers and administrators who have been deemed non-compliant with the parental and legislative interpretations of what represents appropriate world art and culture?

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Yes

But this is a classics education charter which makes this particularly....ahem... particular

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Pretty soon the only legal art in Florida will be the paintings of Jesus as a white guy that used to hang in every Sunday school, Elvis on black velvet, and that classic of dogs playing poker.

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Mar 25, 2023Edited
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Watching the Atlantic wash away Mar-A-Lago like the Red Sea drowning Pharoh's army is something I hope I live to see...

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Actually, it's something I hope Trump lives to see...the shocked look on his repulsive phiz will be one for the ages...

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Mar 25, 2023
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Only if the governor is at home...

Hope DeSanctimonius has a life jacket. Or, maybe, I hope he doesn't. I am so very tired of wannabe authoritarians...

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I agree with you in general, but bear in mind it was the “school’s chief idiot and board chair” - *not* a parent - who said the following:

“Well, we’re Florida, OK? Parents will decide. Parents are the ones who are going to drive the education system here in Florida. The governor said that, and we’re with the governor….We’re not gonna have courses from the College Board. We’re not gonna teach 1619 or CRT crap. I know they do all that up in Virginia. The rights of parents, that trumps the rights of kids….Teachers are the experts? Teachers have all the knowledge? Are you kidding me? I know lots of teachers that are very good, but to suggest they are the authorities, you’re on better drugs than me.”

What gets me the most is him saying that parents‘ rights are more important than children’s rights. An alleged educator explicitly said that. WHAT.

The thing that gets me second-most is him *mocking* the idea that teachers are authorities on education and have expertise that should be respected. WHAAAT.

It seems that in this case, at least, the people running the school are just as big a problem as the parents! I feel bad for every child going there.

———

Edited to add: The current president of Hillsdale College is a real winner too. According to his Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_P._Arnn), this alleged educator - who went to Oxford! - once said this: “You will see how education destroys generations of people....It's devastating. It's like the plague. We are going to try to demonstrate that you don't have to be an expert to educate a child because basically anybody can do it.”

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to go punch a wall.

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One would think that parents would want their kids to do better than them. Florida is showing that's not true.

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The Dunning Kruger Effect is passed from parent to chid. Eventually, Florida will have created a large pool of trainable morons.

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Actually, I suspect it will actually turn out to be an untrainable workforce who expect Mommy & Daddy to show up to defend them at appraisal time and who are unaware that there is any standard to which they might be held.

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The ideal workforce, in the view of the Right.

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I bet these same parents have all given their kids smartphones and don't care what content they are able to access, unhindered. More serious about political/issue showmanship rather than being good parents.

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My thoughts exactly.

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Not to mention those kids are way more tech literate that the parents.

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Wait until they hear Michelangelo's sexual orientation.

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Shhhh!!! They might hear you!

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Wait until they hear about the Ancient Greece practice of men having boys as concubines.

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Wait till they hear about Matt Gaetz flying teenage girls out of state to have sex with him...oops, guess that one's old news....

Protect those kids!

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And at the same time, **this is what Florida citizens voted for when they reelected DeSantis**. At the risk of sounding cold, maybe these people should fully experience the consequences of their votes.

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No need for a quasi-apology ("sounding cold"). In traditional conservative speak it is referred to as reaping what you sow, or as you reference: choices and consequences. You didn't change. They did.

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What I find particularly offensive is this push towards destroying the state's public school system is led by an Ivy League educated lawyer who knows better but doesn't give a shit about anything except becoming POTUS. It's not like his children will ever see the inside of a state university in Florida.

At the same time, I enthusiastically support his voters getting what they voted for. If they want their children to be ignorant and unprepared for the world, that's on them, not me.

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As a Floridian, I would like to remind so many pundits, that the gop governor was elected by such a big margin, while running against a FORMER Florida gop governor. That is hardly mentioned, if it is mentioned at all. Crist did not exactly set the Florida Democratic party aflame.

His win was verrrry inflated because of that.....

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It's also worth mentioning that Andrew Gillum was running for governor in 2018 while both he and the state Democratic Party knew he was under criminal investigation. That lack of judgment is egregious. But you're right; DeSantis' win was verrrry inflated.

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Yeah, that dude was a mess, but he did get the base energized....which is more or less what I was referring to.

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“Too dumb to know better” is the phrase that comes to mind.

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Or too afraid. Or too “something.” I think Charlie was really on target when he said they DECIDED to be offended. This is willful ignorance.

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I'd be all for this except that even with a blowout forty percent didn't vote for him, which is millions of people, and a lot of them are the minorities he's making priority targets out of.

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But how many of those millions of people chose not to vote? If you get a chance, listen to Rick Wilson's "The Enemies List" podcast with Val Demings, which goes into the weeds on this topic.

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I'll hit that if I can.

But hell, there's also the percentage who didn't show up to vote. And the kids who are suffering, particularly LGBT+ kids, who don't have any chance to vote yet.

If the suffering was confined to the MAGAs, I wouldn't give a crap in the slightest for how they shoot themselves in the feet.

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As I get older, my ideal vision of conservative governance is to do no harm. At some point we have to understand that we're not some homogeneous blob that thinks, looks, and sounds exactly the same and that any attempt to purge nonconformists will lead to misery. But to be honest, I don't think Florida is going to arrive at that conclusion any time soon. The MAGAe want the government to do harm to their enemies, but fail to understand that same government can be weaponized against them, and they'd be the first to whine about it.

So, yes, I feel awful for the kids who are or will be suffering as a result of all this nonsense. But at the end of the day, it's the parents who are ultimately responsible for this.

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Parents can object to nudity, I think that is their right (though I would not object but instead explore the art periods with my kid, and how big a deal it was to be able to capture the human form both at rest and in a moment of action).

I am more concerned with how unprofessional and even backward sounding the board is. The dismissed teacher could sue. Any teacher who has to carefully cleanse their speech, lessons, etc isn't doing as good a job teaching.

So sickening how the party of "less gov in our daily lives" is passing Big Brother bullshit all over America. And of course Democrats will not complain about "liberal voices" being crushed and "weaponization of gov" because cuz 1) they are busy doing their jobs governing & solving problems instead of politicking and 2) they are not cry-baby victims. Congress could use a civilian oversight board that reviews timecards and audits expenses.

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Carolyn, I’m a Dem and by most standards a Libtard (but not in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Iive). I find the extreme Left to be oppressive as well. The extremes may be polar opposites in ideas, but their stridency is very similar. And so is their “judgy-ness” and intolerance.

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Yes with the stridency. But the left is less likely to cross to violence IMO. I also think (hope) that a lefty is slightly more likely to realize it or see it when someone points it out in them.

I am guilty, once I hear a comment like "Biden is ruining the country" to assume I can guess a lot of a person's opinions, and I have to remind myself to focus on one person and one topic at a time.

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You’re right about lefties. If it’s a zero-sum, must-decide moment, I’ll always end up on the left. At their core I think they(we) have people’s best interests at heart.

The spectrum of people, Left to Right that has the common good as a goal is a great majority. The extremists on the right are the outsiders.

Obviously, Bill Kristol, Charlie, Mona…not libs by any stretch. Yet, they’re firmly positioned in the that great majority.

This is not GOP vs. Dem anymore. Sorry to say it’s us against them. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. And guess what: I’m more apt to listen to Bill and Charlie and Mona now. I don’t dismiss them out of hand. And I’m so impressed with their courage. And integrity. It can’t be fun to see their former party dissemble.

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I find all stridency and intolerance disconcerting. What scares me is that any nut-job can occupant a school board seat , ridicule the teaching staff and use the position to impose their religious and crackpot notions on kids.

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100%. These be scary times.

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How much do you want to bet that these same board members are big fans of Ted Nugent and Kid Rock?

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Yeah but if I am paying to send my kid to a classical school and some parent pitches a fit about CLASSICAL ART I’m going to have some words with them about putting their kid in a Jeff Foxworthy school instead of wasting my kid’s time and my money on their issues.

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If you're fighting against Trump to see who is the bigger asshole, banning stuff left and right, you must be a redneck. Right?

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If you think Michelangelo is “woke” you are a redneck.

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I was inferring to DeSantis, who is acting like a redneck.

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Mar 26, 2023
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I'm talking about DeSatanist who is trying to out-asshole Trump.

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DeFascist and his henchmen don't care about the other parents. They are just looking to censor "wokeness", also known as intellect, a dirty word in the Republican party these days.

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Yes, you are absolutely the more logical parent. I imagine these parents have no idea what a classical education implies.

I got a little triggered when my 5th grader reported one day that her teacher discussed Fifty Shades of Gray with the class. But once I asked her to describe the context, it was inconsequential. I can see how "nude" can trigger.

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When I was a kid in the early 70s, my mom was taking me to Sunday school on the grounds of our church. Some vandal had painted "F*** You" on the side of the building (without the asterisks). As we walked into the classroom, I asked in a loud voice, "What's F***, Mommy?" Kids learn things in the strangest places....

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Okay, now that book is porn for women's fantasies and as far from literature as you can get for any age. If the teacher thinks it is literature, I have severe doubts about her credentials!

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Mar 24, 2023
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Yes. I don't even remember the context anymore. Maybe an example of a book "going viral." The funny thing was, my daughter already knew enough about the book and knew I would have something to say about the teacher mentioning it. So when I asked what she knew, she said "Mom you don't wanna know the stuff I know." When I did carpool for highschool, my son used to try and stump me with sexual terms, and he stumped me plenty. I'm glad they are mostly grown now.

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Always assume the best until proven otherwise. (Easier said than done, I’m a human with a temper.). Would agree that Fifty Shades is not suitable content for education.

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Mar 24, 2023
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Actually, I might be a little surprised. I keep reverting back to assumption most people want a decent society for their children and are willing to follow norms to have it. So whenever an ignorant person shouts out this stuff, or a public GOP pushes it when they know it's not reality, I am a little surprised.

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We got us a full-blown Satantic Panic, Part II going on down there.

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I don't think so.

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We’ve got a couple of those Classical Charter schools here in OC, California thanks to a five member OC Board of Education that thinks we should be Florida. The county, state, and national GOP, plus the Charter School PAC, spent hundreds of thousand of dollars PER CANDIDATE to get them elected. I kid you not.

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Are they religious fundies, too?

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Is Satantic a reference to DeSantis? I’m surprised Trump hasn’t used something like DeSatanic yet.

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“DeSatanic”

I’m picking up so many good nicknames for him here: Ron DeFascist, Ron DeSant-ass, Ron DeSatanic…

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dev,

"DeSant-ass"

No fair to use Meatball Ron's own pronunciation of his surname.

Here's the Old World Version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDyZIEu8F8Y

Obviously, never having lived in Western PA and Youngstown, Ohio as did his parents, he would have never heard the "neighborhood" pronunciation of his surname.

While my heritage is Irish, German, Catalonian (an ethnic people held captive by their Spanish oppressors on the the Iberian peninsula --- think Irish and British on the Emerald Isle), I grew up in suburban NYC in a multi-cultural neighborhood --- except for Blacks.

My neighborhood was 2 miles away from the original site of the United Nations site, so we had a number of foreigners renting on our blocks...except for Africans.

I appreciate most ethnic foods, but I loved the food prepared by the Nonas (Italian grandmothers) of my Lorello, Cerami, Virgilio, Civiello, and wait for it --- "DeSantis" buddies.

It is a travesty for American ethnics to "anglicize" their names for the sake of "fitting in" to the patch-work quit of Americana.

Homogenization of multi-cultural America SUCKS!!! I love the fact that there are still a semblance of ethnic neighborhoods in larger metro areas. Best food, interesting shops with vendors not on their iPads.

Anyway...here is where the DeSanctimonious moniker is most applicable. Down-home, the Wannabe-Cracker (as well as Wannabe-Mussolini) is willing to forgo his pride of being Italian.

Runner-up Ron is a UNO STRONZO TOTALE. (As they'd say in Florida, "Look'er up")

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Frankly I think Ron De-Fascist is most apropos.

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I have a definite soft spot for that one. Gets straight to the heart of the matter.

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Keith Sherman contributed 'Rhonda Santis' this morning. Genius!

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So he's a possible transgender like Mad Dog Marge "Dude Looks Like A Lady" Greene?

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The first time I ever saw her, that was my exact thought!

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And I am not making a judgment...before living in the Hoosier Heartland, I worked in Marketing Communications in Los Angeles and Boston.

People are people, professionals are professionals sans gender choice.

I remember a political confrontation in L.A. politics when one candidate accused the other of being racist. The opponent said, "At what time can we just agree that a person, regardless of race, is just a total asshole, regardless of race, religion, or sexual persuasion,"

A story per that concept...a friend of mine, Lizzie, a UCLA psych graduate student, was a bartender/server at a L.A. rock music club.

She happened to be the server at a table with John Lennon (when separated from Ono), Harry Nielsen, and a small entourage.

Lennon was "in his cups" and walked into the women's restroom and grabbed (1970s folks) a Kotex.

Slapping it on his head (for effect?) when she came back to the table to see about any further orders, Lennon said, "Do you know who I am?"

She observed, "You are some asshole with a Kotex on your head who wants my reaction to your celebrity and behavior, thinking I am some dimwitted waitress."

The realty that Lennon didn't figure was that In L.A., people serving you in such clubs could be future music, film, or television processionals learning about the egocentric tendencies they'll eventually have to deal with.

SAME WITH POLITICS!!

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OMG! I am so here for this!

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Ron DeSanteria, Ron DeSanitation, Ron DeSphincter....

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The medieval French version, Ron Delay.

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Give him time. He ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

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Don't call him dumb. DeSantis is plenty sharp, highly educated, and 100% aware of what he's doing. He's deliberately sacrificing quality public education (among other things) to improve his own political prospects.

He's also a coward who will fold like a wet paper bag when Trump decides it's time.

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That comment was a response to someone about Papa Don, not Baby Don.

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Good analogy, but he is clearly becoming duller by the minute. Time is definitely not on his side.

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TFG would have to read the Bulwark first and not only it is not on his list, he probably no longer reads; too much effort and use of rapidly disappearing gray matter. Of course, some one who does read the Bulwark could suggest it, but TFG likes to come up with zingers himself.

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No first he would have to read.

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"Ehhhxxcellet!"

~ Montgomery Burns

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"Make it so... ."

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At the point DeSantis realizes he is losing the violence sweepstakes to trump.

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