This is a little story. It's nothing super-important. But FOX News is under the impression that a Republican lawmaker taking his kids out of public school is a bigger story than it really is. The reason it gets a place on pleadingthef1rst over all the other important news of the day is because of the twisted logic.
Before we get to the lack of rationality by a politician - which almost goes without saying - it's worth pointing out for those not in the know that Republicans are notorious for their fear of public schools. One of my favourite fat GOP targets, Chris Christie, has been afraid of public school far longer than Rep. Tim Donnelly.
The background to Donnelly's knee-jerk lack of support for the people he represents was instigated by California Gov. Jerry Brown's signing into law a bill that enables transgendered students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of the gender with whom they identify. Donnelly's reaction was - not surprisingly - to pull his children out of public schools, saying students' privacy rights "will be replaced by the right to be ogled."
Allow me to summarise why Donnelly's decision and reasoning (available in the FNC link above) are logically flawed:
1) Gender identity is totally a separate matter from sexual orientation, meaning Donnelly's fear of his boys being "ogled" is irrelevant, and therefore unfounded, and therefore stupid.
2) Let's say a person born female but identifying as a male is trying to act "as male as possible": wouldn't the conservative basis of our society mean that individual is more likely to be ogled as a girl in boys' facilities and not the other way around? And what heterosexual teenage boy would really have a problem being ogled by someone born a girl?
3) Regardless of transgendered individuals, the current setup of public schools means that there could very easily be homosexuals (of any gender) forced into those locker room situations with members of the same gender, meaning there coulde be lots of ogling already going on simply by virtue of our conservative system of education put into place centuries ago. Horrors, no!
The only way I can think of preventing that problem is by setting up gay boys and gay girls locker rooms separate from the straight boys and straight girls locker rooms already in existence. However, such a setup would violate the privacy rights of those students to figure out their sexual identity as they grow into adulthood, and as Donnelly rightly defends students' privacy rights - hey, I'll give him credit where it's due - he probably would not be in favour of exposing those gay students' private lives before their entire community at a vulnerable age where many are still figuring out those identity issues.
So perhaps the simplest solution is to throw all students of every gender into one locker room and let them ogle one another. I seem to recall such a suggestion by Socrates in The Republic, though perhaps today's Republicans have forgetten the roots of their philosophies.
As has been stated many times on the PtF radio show, taking public education seriously and fixing its flaws is the key to rebuilding the American democratic republic and fixing the current flaws with the other parts of the system. My own academic background is in public education, and others in the PtF community are currently active as teachers in public education.
With that in mind, allow me to propose yet another solution that works in the German public education system. First of all, know that the general German public school student attends his/her regular classes in the morning, goes home for a 1-2 hour dinner break with family around noon (German dinners happen at noon while a light lunch happens in the evening), and then returns to school (if s/he wishes) for what we Americans call "extracurricular activities" like band, drama, or sports. Of course, in Germany, these are considered serious courses of study and participation is heavily encouraged, not in the least by parents who need to go back to work in the afternoon.
Furthermore, the 3 hours of playing music, acting in a school play, or playing on an athletic team sufficiently taxes the young students' bodies and minds to the point where it far surpasses the measly 30- or 40-minute designated period for physical education in American public schools. When the student goes home for his/her family dinner at noon, s/he can shower in the privacy of home and dress for athletics without the uncomfortable stares of classmates.
I doubt Rep. Donnelly will ever read this little philosophical diatribe, but if he does, I do think that the German concept would be great not just for students of any gender and sexual orientation, but it would also do wonders for family values to know that kids are expected to head home to eat a meal with their families. Of course, this would interfere with the way America's political parties help exploit the working masses, but hey, family values wouldn't be under attack in the first place if Republicans and Democrats hadn't worked together to undermine them.
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