You know what offends me? Crazy censorship bills. And touchpads.
I won't type much, for a couple reasons:
1: I'm between mouses and I hate my touchpad. I can't turn the damn thing off without a mouse, so I'm stuck trying to type without bugging the touchpad. It keeps moving my cursor around, or highlighting sections, etc., and just generally driving me crazy. I had it set (I thought) to stop working while I'm typing, but it doesn't seem to respect that decision. Stupid touchpad... Anyway, I'm upset enough, and then I see this:
Kansas Lawmakers Consider Bill that Would Enable Prosecution of Educators for “Offensive” Material
Which leads me to reason number -
2: How much do I really need to say about this? It is wrong on so many levels, all of which the above article covers pretty well. But I want to point out one thing in particular that I find disturbing. The senator who introduced the bill is quoted as saying, "Right now if a teacher were to give pornography (to a student) … it is not likely at all that a prosecutor would take the case because there is such a high hurdle protecting our schools.” That's pretty ridiculous - the bill was precipitated by a sex ed poster; generally speaking, sex ed materials are not considered pornography, and any teacher handing out actual pornography would be pretty heavily censured. So, apparently, there's a pretty big divide between what is generally accepted as porn and what the senator would like to label porn, at least as it applies to middle school kids. (I am assuming the senator would not object to adults reading over sex ed materials; I could be wrong about that, too.)
So who would decide what constitutes "offensive" or "pornographic" materials? Not the teachers, obviously. Will all educational materials have to pass some sort of inspection? What if some parents are offended by materials teaching evolution, and others by bad science? What if they're offended by the wording of math problems? And what in the world will kids read, when parents can be offended by books as innocuous as Green Eggs and Ham and The Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (And I'll point out that both books were banned for reasons amounting to "They're pornographic!")
Many teachers and school boards, confronted with the mere possibility of being sued should someone be offended by genuinely educational materials, will, no doubt, start self-censoring. They may want to use a particular book or curriculum, but decide to go with something less likely to cause trouble, even should this second choice be a terrible one for the kids, in the end.
And now I'm going to stop typing, because I hate this stupid touchpad. I hate it so, so much...
Links!
1: I'm between mouses and I hate my touchpad. I can't turn the damn thing off without a mouse, so I'm stuck trying to type without bugging the touchpad. It keeps moving my cursor around, or highlighting sections, etc., and just generally driving me crazy. I had it set (I thought) to stop working while I'm typing, but it doesn't seem to respect that decision. Stupid touchpad... Anyway, I'm upset enough, and then I see this:
Kansas Lawmakers Consider Bill that Would Enable Prosecution of Educators for “Offensive” Material
Which leads me to reason number -
2: How much do I really need to say about this? It is wrong on so many levels, all of which the above article covers pretty well. But I want to point out one thing in particular that I find disturbing. The senator who introduced the bill is quoted as saying, "Right now if a teacher were to give pornography (to a student) … it is not likely at all that a prosecutor would take the case because there is such a high hurdle protecting our schools.” That's pretty ridiculous - the bill was precipitated by a sex ed poster; generally speaking, sex ed materials are not considered pornography, and any teacher handing out actual pornography would be pretty heavily censured. So, apparently, there's a pretty big divide between what is generally accepted as porn and what the senator would like to label porn, at least as it applies to middle school kids. (I am assuming the senator would not object to adults reading over sex ed materials; I could be wrong about that, too.)
So who would decide what constitutes "offensive" or "pornographic" materials? Not the teachers, obviously. Will all educational materials have to pass some sort of inspection? What if some parents are offended by materials teaching evolution, and others by bad science? What if they're offended by the wording of math problems? And what in the world will kids read, when parents can be offended by books as innocuous as Green Eggs and Ham and The Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (And I'll point out that both books were banned for reasons amounting to "They're pornographic!")
Many teachers and school boards, confronted with the mere possibility of being sued should someone be offended by genuinely educational materials, will, no doubt, start self-censoring. They may want to use a particular book or curriculum, but decide to go with something less likely to cause trouble, even should this second choice be a terrible one for the kids, in the end.
And now I'm going to stop typing, because I hate this stupid touchpad. I hate it so, so much...
Links!
- A handy flowchart: Will digitization solve my problem?
- March 7, 1923: "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" is published. I love this poem. If you don't know it, shame on you! And you can fix that here!
- Well, we found the next Great Mad Scientist, anyway: Don't worry, Sir, it's only a nuclear reactor: Boy of 13's record-breaking experiment in school science lab.
- Scientists dig up giant virus more than 30,000 years old in Siberia. Luckily, it isn't a zombie virus - this time.
i can barely find my way around any type of touchpad. i am so used to a mouse that without one i would only be able to check email and facebook. no uploading pictures. i am of the mouse generation. my kids don't even use a mouse on a laptop. they use the pad that i also have on mine but never touch. i'm glad i'm not the only "mouse needy" person i know!
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