Abstinence classes that tell girls they’re dirty and used unless they “save it”; a culture that doesn’t believe women who are raped; porn-based beauty standards for our genitals; a moral compass for young women that’s based solely on sexuality. . . . There’s no doubt that we have a difficult fight ahead of us, but I know we’re up for it. So begins the final chapter of Jessica Valenti’s The Purity Myth. A world without all of those things sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? From my perspective, it sounds like a world that all would enjoy and want, not just those that wear the labels of “liberal,” “progressive,” or “feminist.” And yet, of course, there is much in Valenti’s book that would be hotly disputed by those who self-label as conservative, or perhaps even moderate. The core of her message is that, in American society, we have reduced female moral agency to be equivalent to an individual female’s sexual “status.” Is she straight, white, middle class? A virgin until marriage? Check the “good” box. Is she queer, a woman of color, of a lower socioeconomic status? Not a virgin? Check the “bad” box. It’s a passive morality, Valenti argues, one that is predicated not on what a woman does but rather what she does not do. The book brings together many strands to support her argument, and does it well. I found familiar authors and titles gracing her pages: Robert Jensen and his book Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity; Ariel Levy and her book Female Chauvinist Pigs; Julia Serano’s Whipping Girl; Michael Kimmel’s Guyland; Cristina Page’s How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America; Natalie Angier and her wonderful Woman: An Intimate Geography; Meenakshi Gigt Durham’s The Lolita Effect. What Valenti does, and skillfully, is to weave all these important pieces into a coherent whole, and tie the issues together. Inherently, she argues, padded training bras, purity balls, raunch culture, and more, all add up towards one goal: reversing the gains of the feminist movement. Putting women back in “their place,” and reverting towards the so-called traditional gender roles. If you know me in real life, you can imagine the look on my face at the idea of traditional gender roles. I’ve been doing my best to turn gender roles and expectations on their heads since I was a kid, and while I do make choices that seem ‘traditional,’ it’s just that: these are my choices, not my only options. I’m not stuck nor limited. If you don’t know me in real life, you may be surprised by my diatribe against traditional gender roles. After all, I’m a mother who stays at home and homeschools her children. From the outside, or even from this blog, you don’t get much more traditional-seeming than that. For goodness’ sake, I even drive a minivan. As I said above though, these are the choices that I have made, not a role in which I am trapped. I don’t feel that all women should make the same choices as each other, but rather that each woman should have agency to make her own choices for her own life. And, ultimately, that’s what the book emphasizes: that women are not property, that we don’t need to be covered (akin to a breeding mare or cow), that we have moral agency. Virginity has no universal or medical definition; reducing women to the state of their virginity seems ludicrous and sad–at best.
I find myself having this thought often, lately. "I'm just ONE person. What can I do? I can't change people's minds." I find myself despairing over common and prevailing attitudes. If you are, like me, despairing over the events in Wisconsin, I have something you can do. On this post, a commenter left a list of Koch Industries products to boycott. HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS: Quilted Northern®, Angel Soft®, Brawny®, Sparkle® , Soft ‘n Gentle®, Mardi Gras®, Dixie® Products CLOTHING CONTAINING: LYCRA® fiber COOLMAX® GEORGIA PACIFIC PRODUCTS: Copy, print and other office paper products Lumber, wallboard, other building products CARPET & FABRICS: STAINMASTER® carpet, ANTRON® carpet fiber, CORDURA® fabric, COMFOREL® fiberfill ITEMS CONTAINING: POLYSHIELD® resin, POLYCLEAR® resin, OXYCLEAR™ resin, PERFORMA® film and sheet, and POLARGUARD® RESORTS: Beaverhead near Yellowstone National Park in Montana, Spring Creek in the scenic Flint Hills of Kansas, Matador Ranch in Texas Matador Pro Shop’s online store We vote only periodically at the polls. We can vote daily with our wallets.
Who doesn't want to hear George Takei's voice saying "douchebag"? A tip of the hat to a friend whom I know would appreciate that I chose this one for her birthday. :)
Happy Presidents' Day! I still vaguely remember when it was called Washington's Birthday, and people remarked on Lincoln's Birthday as well. Does this make me old? EG & FB don't have Master's Academy today, because of Presidents' Day, but we're still having school here at home. I did manage to plan some Presidents' Day themed reading, though. FB and PC are going to listen to Anne Rockwell's Presidents' Day, which, to be honest, was something of a late addition; PC spotted it at the library and decided we had to bring it home with us. FB has two readers for today, George Washington--Soldier, Hero, President and Abraham Lincoln: Lawyer, Leader, Legend. I had hoped to find a reader about Thomas Jefferson, but I didn't have any luck with that at the store I tried, and I didn't have a chance to look at any others. FB & EG will both listen to Yes, We Can! and (over the course of the week ) Don't Know Much About the Presidents. Finally, EG will read The Complete Idiot's Guide to the American Presidency. If we were looking to spend lots of money, or our library carried them, we would watch the Mike Venezia-produced videos on Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. Since neither of those are true, we won't, but I do wish our library had them. Three of the courses offered by The Great Courses (formerly The Teaching Company) look interesting for the future: Mr. Lincoln: The Life of Abraham Lincoln (12 lectures); Abraham Lincoln: In His Own Words (24 lectures); and Great Presidents (48 lectures). What are you doing to mark Presidents' Day? Do you celebrate it at all? Perhaps you're more the type to bake a cherry pie or make a pretzel-log cabin? Inquiring minds (well, okay, one mind–mine) want to know!
Some things go together - peanut butter & jelly; ice cream & chocolate syrup; apples & caramel. Some things, though, do not. I would argue that politics and curriculum do not and should not go together. Of course, I'm aware that my political views are a minority within the homeschooling community. It would be hard to miss that fact! However, when I make a decision to purchase books from a curriculum provider, I expect my personal information (e.g., my email) to be used to communicate with me about the products of the company. It's no surprise to me that Veritas Press and I have little in common politically. We have little in common religiously, either, as they are Calvinist and conservative, and the Christian parts of my beliefs are Arminian and liberal. In fact, I have paused before purchasing from them, but the books that have purchased have been hardly available from other outlets, and seem either non-religious or at least not specifically Calvinist. Monthly, Veritas Press sends out an "epistula" to those who are lucky enough to be on their list. Usually it's about teaching Latin or history or perhaps it delves into a religious subject, which I promptly ignore. I just couldn't ignore the title this time, though: "Calling for the Vote." Voting is, to me, at once a privilege, a civic duty, and a profound responsibility of all citizens. I may joke about voting "early and often," or suggest that perhaps only those who agree with me should vote on a given day, but they are, at heart, jokes only. We must vote, and when citizens fail to vote, we all lose, in some way. Naturally, then, I wanted to read an article entitled "Calling for the Vote." Instead I found myself in the midst of a poorly-written propaganda piece that was carefully cloaked so that they could not be seen to be endorsing a particular candidate or party. "We are smack-dab in the middle of a disaster." "There is much talk about the Republicans taking back the House and maybe even the Senate. That would certainly counterbalance some unfortunate policies of the current administration." "Over the years I've heard talk of a flat tax replacing the graduated income tax…. This also seems too little." (I cannot argue with the last third of the article, which suggested two actions: taking the time to vote on Tuesday, and praying.) As I mentioned on Facebook, I would have had equal problem with an email sent from a curriculum company sending an email in 2002 or 2006, damning the administration then in power, and remarking about a hot-button political topic in such cavalier terms as to deem it "too little." It's not the particulars of the message than bother me (though I admit I disagree!), but rather the assumptions and the crossing of lines. It isn't a church's business to tell anyone how to vote. It isn't a curriculum provider's business to tell anyone how to vote. When you vote tomorrow, Americans, your choices are between you, your conscience, and your Higher Power, should you believe in one. No one else.
Today, I achieved something close to podcast nirvana. I have no back episodes waiting for me. When I've been close to having this happen previously, I've inevitably heard about some wonderful new podcast to which I simply had to begin listening. I think I'm done searching out new podcasts, though. I like the (extensive) line up as it is now. I'm leaving out podcasts that aren't updated regularly or haven't been updated for more than a year, even they were updated regularly up until that point. 60 Second Civics & 60 Second Science are both great daily podcasts. The latter is only released on weekdays, but the first one has an episode every day. Classics for Kids is released every Saturday. Each month takes a different composer as the main focus. Past episodes are also available on the show's website. At six minutes, it's a good length for the kids. We like to listen to it on weekend drives or on the way to Master's Academy. From the Quick and Dirty Tips group of podcasts, I like to listen to Get-It-Done Guy and Grammar Girl. Get-It-Done Guy isn't always relevant to not working in a corporate office, but plenty of it is. They're both weekly podcasts. My favorite podcast at which to poke fun is How to Homeschool. It's a homeschool graduate and his mother, and they say completely inane things each and every episode. I only include it for the sake of completeness, really. That, and as a cautionary tale. If you want to do a podcast, don't sound like Scott & Becky. The Princeton Review has a couple of great podcasts - LSAT Logic in Everyday Life, and The Vocab Minute. The kids love the songs for vocabulary. EG sometimes listens to the logic with me; it's not all that LSAT specific, but does do a good job at covering informal logic. If you're a geek, don't miss Math Mutation. It's funny and interesting. I blame Math Mutation for FB's obsession with the concept of infinity. In Our Time, from the BBC, is a new favorite. It covers a variety of topics once a week. EG and I listen to it on the way to and from her piano lesson each Thursday. I love several podcasts from NPR. Weekly, they compile the education stories and environmental stories into two respective podcasts. I also like the It's All Politics and Science Friday podcasts. While we're on the subject of politics, my other political indulgences are P3: Post Politics Program, a 25 minute weekly review of the nation's politics, and President Obama's Weekly Address, available in convenient podcast format. I feel more informed by my three weekly political podcasts than I do after days of trying to find real news on mainstream media websites. Finally, I've recently added Scientific American to the mix. The most recent podcast discussed human evolution, and there was a special episode about the new Nobel laureates. EG & FB don't listen to all of these, especially not FB. When they do, though, we often have great conversations about them. Since I'm in the car so much, I like not constantly scanning the radio stations for decent music or hearing part of an NPR story only to miss the conclusion when I reach my destination. What are some of your favorite podcasts?
When my daughter recently completed her standardized testing, as required at the end of third grade by state law, we chose to have her tested through the same organization that runs her arts enrichment program. We reasoned that a familiar location with familiar faces would likely be a boon, and we appreciated not having to delve further into our testing options with this, our first venture into the world of testing. Accordingly, I admit that I failed on some level. I didn't inquire as to through whom the test would be scored (though I knew that it wasn't directly from the test publisher). To be honest, I didn't want to know. If I didn't know for sure, then I wasn't deliberately doing something I found distasteful and unethical. My fears were confirmed, though, when her score report arrived. The accompanying booklet about interpreting scores was, in fact, marked as I feared - BJU Press. I don't buy from the major fundamentalist curriculum companies, such as Alpha Omega or A Beka. Beyond my reasoning for those decisions, though, are even more reasons not to purchase from Bob Jones University. I think most people are aware that they had a ban on interracial dating until the year 2000. I'm upset that any part of my money went to their organization, and I'm forced to conclude that we'll be testing on our own next year, or through an organization that gets tests from another supplier. If that weren't bad enough, though, there was the oddity on the score report. The subtest Math Computation had an asterisk beside it, and the explanation given was simple. "Math Computation not included in Totals or Composite." My daughter and I were both understandably a bit bummed by this - she had gotten all twenty-five problems in this section correct! I didn't go back to it, though, and more or less put it out of my mind. Just a few days later, though, a thread was started on the Well-Trained Mind forums. Another poster had tested her children using ITBS through BJU, and since her child's scores could have been brought up by inclusion of the math computation score, she wanted to know why it wasn't included. A few of us responded that we, too, would like to know the answer to that question. Then a few more people responded that their children's score reports did not have the asterisk or the explanatory note. It was finally pieced together than those who had the asterisk all had, purposefully or inadvertently, tested their children through BJU. The original poster decided to call and ask why this was the case. Here's what she reported back to the board: Apparently it's an option for a company to include it or not. The math computation section is a timed drill, and apparently based on feedback from other homeschoolers, BJU has opted to not include it in the totals, so as to not drag down the scores.
Other companies, who have that same option to include it or not, apparently do include it. Yes, you read that correctly. Homeschoolers felt that including a timed drill on their children's tests would bring down their children's scores, and consequently, BJU opted not to include it in the totals or composite. I almost don't have adequate words to discuss this. No, the ability to do add, subtract, and multiply whole numbers (the three categories tested by Math Computation) does not directly relate to mathematical reasoning ability. However, the ability to quickly calculate sums, differences, and products is essential, especially as one leaves arithmetic and begins to study mathematics proper. Beyond that line of reasoning, however, is the fact that standardized tests are explicitly designed to measure certain items. People may argue about what standardized tests do and don't reveal, but rarely will you hear an argument that a standardized test is anything less than carefully planned - because it is almost painstakingly prepared. Further, no other subtest is singled out for elimination. True, the science, social studies, and maps & diagrams subtests are labeled optional, but if the student opts to take the test, they are included in the composite score. No other scores are eliminated, even though, in truth, they all are "timed drills." It's a test that is timed and each question, due to the nature of a multiple-choice test, has just one correct answer. It could be argued, and probably quite persuasively, that the ITBS in its entirety is a timed drill. Manipulating the totals and composite score so that homeschooled children appear to do better on standardized testing than their public-schooled counterparts is, in my mind, distasteful. It's just another reason to continue to avoid ever giving my money to BJU Press.
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