KENNETH UDUT 11:37 AM +rare avis "It takes a village to raise a
child" - yes; and I agree.* While I believe in individual rights
and liberties, at the same time, if there are institutions (like
schools and such) that children have to go through, their
responsibility level to do it right goes way up in my book.*
They shift the blame back to the parents; but the parents barely
see the kids most of the time; they're asleep or in school or
doing homework. I know.* My* 9 yr old nephew has about 5 hours
of freedom out of 24 hours a day.* He spends most of his time in
school or doing homework, maybe 1/2 hr, with his mom and the
rest?* Playing video games or, with me.* He likes me because I
let him be himself [unless he's being excessively mean to
someone... he knows the distinction between trolling and
bullying now... or at least pretends for my sake - I'll never
really know for sure :P ] KENNETH UDUT 11:51 AM +gayle noble* -
For boys, it's a social problem too, although the Internet is
improving it somewhat for them, by allowing them to go outside
of their tiny communities and see a greater variety of
possibilities than they could beforehand. But the reminents of
the social problem remain for boys:* Starts around 3rd grade -
it did for me, and I watched my nephew go through it, and
thankfully I was there to help him through. You do something
socially unacceptable to the fellow 3rd graders?* You're a
faggot / gay / a girl / whatever.* Lord of the Flies wasn't a
documentary but there's elements of truth in it. By 4th grade, I
embraced my weirdness (Credit goes to Mork & Mindy and Doctor
Who - they were my positive male role models in the "it's ok to
be different" department) - and my nephew has done the same,
while also being more socially adept than I was at that age. But
I'm a lucky one; Others haven't been so lucky, and spent years
or decades questioning their sexuality or their gender.* My
mother's foster brother, Alice, after 50 years of being a HVAC
repairman, married and with grow up kids, FINALLY was able to
come out as a transgender.* She's not gay, just always felt like
a girl and had to hide it his WHOLE FREAKIN' LIFE. How many
straight guys spent years questioning their sexuality or gender,
because of childhood taunting?* Again, I was lucky; By 4th
grade, I no longer cared what mine or anybody else's was - it
just didn't matter to me because it was just a word. [and the
thing it represented?* Well, since gay/faggot/girl were just
taunting words, by the time I learned what the words meant to
the adult world, I saw them as entirely different things:* There
was the words which were taunting words, and then the
sexuality/gender issues were something entirely different. But
the negative emotional content that many boys get from certain
magic words just wasn't there for me, and I was able to evaluate
gender and sexuality issues separately from 3rd grade taunting.*
Rationally, I didn't have a problem with it because it had
nothing to do with me.* To me it, sexuality is like a choice of
exercise partner, and gender? Well, I can't know what goes on
inside someone else's head or how they feel, so who am I to
judge their inner demons?
