Nothing earth-shaking has taken place, in fact. I don't know why I didn't write yesterday; it's not that I had nothing to say. Perhaps I was collecting my thoughts. Hopefully, I got'em now.We had a quite a GSA meeting yesterday afternoon. None of the advisors were expecting very much, a little talk about what we're going to show on Movie Night, perhaps. But an unexpected student joined our ranks, someone we were all quite aware of for some time but who had always seemed a little hostile and not a group kind of guy. But there he was, and he so needed a place to be himself and talk about a great deal that has shaped -- and damaged -- his young life. Two of the other boys who were already members of the club and not exactly closeted shared a great deal, along with this new member, and holy cow. They were just very honest. If there had been any doubt (and there wasn't) as to the pain gay teenagers live with about 100% of the time, it would be gone now. These are boys who are teased all the time, and more, and our school is probably a better environment than most. The meeting ended with a resolve to in-service the teachers again and to come up with a program we can bring to the freshman class. It won't solve the problem, but it may ease it a bit.
And then today, I had a large freshman class in the library during the lunch period, an honors class, and the library was closed, but people kept wandering in anyway and I would just turn around, say "Sorry, we're closed" and go back to my lesson. But one of these was the boy from yesterday's meeting, and when I turned back to the freshmen, I saw a few of them snickering. At him. Girls! I was angry, but I resisted the effort to address it right then and there because I didn't want to embarrass the boy, who hadn't left yet. This class has two teachers, one of whom happened to be out of the room at that moment, but I told her when she got back. She is one of our staunchest allies in the fight against hate speech/bigotry, whatever you want to call it, and I knew that she could handle it better than I, especially since this is her class and she knows the kids. And she did, taking a few minutes at the end of the period to address the issue without singling out anyone on either side. I think she handled it very well.
What is it about someone who's different that makes people giggle, or turn defensive? Really, what the hell do they care? So what if Boy A is really short, or somewhat effeminate? Does it hurt them in some way, or really, affect them in any way at all? I realize that they laugh because they're uncomfortable, but why should they be?
I actually had this conversation with the SCM yesterday, before I went to my meeting, about how children are raised by their parents to have particular attitudes. I don't remember how it came up. Oh, right; he mentioned (in what context I don't know) that his mother believed very strongly that Polish people were anti-Semitic -- all Polish people -- and this is ludicrous to him now as it was then, but that his mother had some very firm opinions on the characteristics of people as defined by their ethnicity, national origins, and so on. He wondered if my parents had been the same, given the similar backgrounds of our parents.
I thought and I searched my memory. I could honestly tell him that no, they were not. I've mentioned this before. Both of my parents had very strong feelings that such things did not define people; there might be generalities but they could not possibly be applied universally. Bigotry of any kind was simply the ultimate in bad taste and manners in my parents' household. They certainly had a sense that they had much in common with other Jewish people, but nothing beyond that. I remember that once at the dinner table, my sister repeated a bizarre remark that one of her college professors had made which she had never even realized was a stupid bigoted remark -- something along the lines of all black people being good dancers -- and both of my parents simply put their forks down on their plates and stared at her for a minute or two, saying nothing. After a moment, she said "Oh!" and got just how absurd and insulting it was, and they just picked up eating again. As I say, poor taste.
Looks like R is buying her first car on her own. It's another Tracker -- of course -- but it meets her number one criterion, which is that it's a car built in this century. It's actually very cute, very clean, has decent mileage, a clear carfax report, and not a bad price. With any luck, it will all be done before Thanksgiving, but we'll see.
I ate a brownie today at lunch. I couldn't help it; I've been so good about avoiding the Friday desserts, but a good buddy said to me this morning "Make sure you don't miss dessert today; it's my turn and I made brownies!" and I didn't want to hurt her feelings. I probably gained five pounds.
I raised my bird-flu conspiracy theory at the lunch table, and let me tell you, these people looked at me as if I had just grown eight new heads, all of them purple. You think you know people. I guess no one there knows me. (Although the Chum was not, to tell the truth, all that surprised.)
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R and I just got into a nearly hour-long Lost discussion, so I'm just going to post before I completely lose my train of thought.
