Educrats to Schools: Gender-Swapping Sex-Ed trumps Shakespeare

For decades, public schools across American have been bedeviled by misguided, often nonsensical theories of instruction promulgated by promotion-hungry educrats at the local, state and federal levels. From bilingual education, which mandated that Spanish speaking children should study only Spanish, to "whole language," which held that children should teach themselves to read, our unelected education leaders have tried their best to destroy what was once the world's greatest and most effective public school system.

Well, they're at it again in the district where I teach, the nation's second largest, Los Angeles Unified. The target this time is the 11th grade language arts curriculum. Juniors in L.A. have traditionally taken American Literature, starting in the fall with William Bradford's account of the Mayflower, hitting Mark Twain in the autumn, and finishing with maybe John Updike in the spring. Now, per the mavens at the California State University at Northridge School of Education and the district "literacycadres," we're told we need to scrap this dinosaur. At the program roll out last week, 11th grade teachers listened as a CSUN professor told us that there's no real reason to teach literature, by which she meant fiction- novelsand short stories- or poetry. Literature, per the pundit, was forced down our throats in the 1890's by elitist professors at Yale and Harvard. Today, she explained, the experts understand that literature is useless except for the few students who will be college English majors; it does nothing for the great unwashed. What we need instead is expository writing: how-to manuals, "you can do it" pep talks by celebrities and other light fare that won't unduly tax our kids' minds. This enlightened view, we were told, is backed by both the California State Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Education. Figures.

After the professor's introduction we received copies of the student edition of the 11th Grade Contemporary Composition Course," which, should we choose to obey, we will use in the spring semester. The presentation turned to what the presenters considered the showcase piece in the new book: "Virtual Selves," an article by MIT "cyberanalyst" Sherry Terkel which explores "avatars," artificial "selves" used to represent people while they play video games. We spent a good two hours studying the unit. By the end of the session, many teachers were shouting in fury and storming out. Let's see what you think.

Terkel begins by claiming that computers are "not just changing our lives but changing our selves." Specifically, we have relocated our fantasies from our heads to our computer screens, and this is making us "comfortable with new ways of thinking about relationships, sexuality, and identity." We have become "decentered" into lots of "windows," where real life (abbreviated RL) becomes just one more window.This is apparently a good thing, though in past times we might have called it schizophrenia.

Examples follow. Terkel describes how a 21 year-old college student creates a rapist avatar and other violent characters, giving him "... the chance to explore multiple and unexplored aspects of the self." Similarly, our 16 year-olds will be advised, we can have "virtual adulterers, or virtual gender-swappers." Terkel explains the latter: "In the 'fake-lesbian syndrome,' men adopt online female personae in order to have netsex with women." Likewise, women can "present" as men to have either heterosexual or homosexual net-sex." Other possibilities include "group sexual encounters" and "animal" sexual encounters.

The module ends with a suggestion that students break up into groups where teachers direct them to discuss "what your multiple personalities might be and/or who you'd like to be."

As mentioned, during the presentation a great unease and increasing clamor spread among the English teachers. They demanded to know if it is the public schools' charge to teach teenagers how to have fantasy sex. The presenters had to concede that some "traditional" teachers and perhaps some parents might be uncomfortable with the unit. Some parents? Perhaps uncomfortable? These people are tone-deaf to politics and the struggle to keep public schools viable.

They are also,apparently, unaware of the profound wisdom and beauty of literature. Our "experts," left unchecked, will be the strongest argument for charters and vouchers.

An outraged public, alerted by activist parents and teachers, saved California from bilingual education and whole language. Let's hope a similar coalition will save us now from our "other selves."