Firebutt

DO YOU WANT A COUNTRY OF DEAD PEOPLE

Yeah because the LAST thing you want is people making sure that the food your putting in your body is safe for human consumption and wasn’t made in filthy conditions that will give you food poisoning and/or kill you

Why would you want the food you, your friends and your family eat to be SAFE

So, I’ve seen this post going round my dash. In fact, at least 3 of my friends reblogged it today, and I have a story to share with you.

Disclaimer: I only tried this for one year. Perhaps it was my class at the time, or maybe my teaching methods have some sort of impact, but I seriously hope it’s more the latter than the former. I’m working on starting it back up this year.

I can’t choose where my kids come from. Some come from well off parents who give them the world. Some are from a family fighting to keep bread on the table. While this child has a supportive and sensitive family, others have parents who could care less about that picture they “scribbled” on. But there’s something that all these children have in common.

They mimic what they see.

I never know what I’m going to get every year. I have to learn about 16 children, change my teaching style to fit their individual needs appropriately (sometimes daily), and then do it all over again the next year. This makes me very good at reading non-verbal cues, thinking patterns, and behavior in social situations.

There were two very strong personality children in my class. One was a very confident young lady, assertive, and strong willed, but very bossy and dismissive to the other students and their achievements. The other was a young boy, independent, helpful, and from a house with little attention to his behavior or impulsive habits.

Both bullied the other students on a daily basis with words and actions.

I know preventing bullies starts young. That’s my favorite part of being a preschool teacher: knowing my words can affect their behavior for the better in the long run. And the best way to adhere to the mind of a child is by modeling what behavior I want them to have. And thus, I created “The Anti-Bully” who would surround my students in positive actions, feelings, and thoughts.

The girl had a habit of pointing out what she didn’t like. She would be coloring with another student and comment about what they were doing wrong. The other student would ignore them or get upset, and the girl always seemed confused by their reaction. As soon as I caught this, I would tell their victim, “I think it’s a beautiful picture. You’re doing an excellent job, and I hope you keep going.” and I would get a positive response from the student. After modeling the behavior several times, other students would join in and repeat my behavior.  

The boy was a compulsive tattler. Not in the “he’s hurting me and needs to stop” kind of tattle, but the “they made a mistake and I want them to get in trouble for it because I think it’s funny” kind of tattle. So one day, when the child next to him spilled their drink, he was the first to yell out about it. So, I responded with “I see they made a mistake. We should fix it. How can we?” to which a few students told me to clean it up. After wiping it, I said, “See? It’s fixed now. No big deal; everyone makes mistakes.”

These and a few other things, like “my body, my choice,” “If you don’t like [x] doing [y] to you, don’t do it to them,” and “when they ask you to stop hurting them, you stop,” were a few phrases I implemented in my daily teaching.

Not only that, but I watched what I said and how I handled situations. I complimented my students daily, asked them about their interests and ideas, and looked for ways to relate to them. I started watching kids shows, educated myself in their interests to share a common connection, and played with them instead of supervising.

And you know what happened?

After a while, the girl started saying, “Wow, that’s a beautiful picture you have. I really like it.” She’d ask them if they needed help, would tell them their outfit looked nice, and used less nasty remarks while speaking to the other kids.

The boy would notice another student doing something wrong, and tell them why what they’re doing is wrong, instead of coming right to me. He’d then ask if he could help fix their mistake, and remind them that everyone makes mistakes, and it’s okay as long as we fix them.

And now they’re teaching other students to do the same.

It’s true; the “no tolerance” bullying things at schools don’t work. That’s because the behavior they want to see is not being modeled. How do we expect these bullies to learn if we neglect teaching how not to bully someone and be consistent with consequences?

We need to work on bullying as a society, not just in schools. How many adults are being bullied by co-workers, neighbors, and family right now?

That’s because we place the blames on schools. They didn’t do enough. They didn’t stop the bullying. And to a fair degree, I’d agree with you, but what did you do to stop the bullying? How many hate comments did you type into Facebook? How many girls did you skinny shame or catcall today? How many comments did you make about someone being a “fag” for liking girly things? Who did you call stupid for not knowing or behaving a certain way? The list goes on for miles.

Show compassion. Address issues with empathy. Build communities of love and acceptance. Comment on a dress someone else is wearing. Join in to help when someone needs it. Give a hater a hug. More active listening and less passive assumptions. And if you don’t like what someone is doing, refer to the three step guideline:

1)    Is it hurting me physically or emotionally?

2)    Is it hurting someone else physically or emotionally?

3)    Is it going to hurt someone in the future?

If the answer is yes, address the issue in a positive way.

Snapping or lashing out does more damage than it’s worth, and it teaches others that violence is the only way to solve their problem. It also makes the bully the victim instead of fixing the problem.

Now, I know this is not a 100% way to fix it. Shitty people will still do shitty people things, regardless to whether society thinks it’s okay or not (I’m looking at you animal abusers and pedophiles.) and not everyone thinks the same way. However, if we ever want to improve our situation, we must all take an active role in showing the world how to behave.

X X X X X

There is a difference, I think, between “fighting ableism because it’s an axis of oppression” and “fighting it because you genuinely believe a diversity of perspectives on the world is a good thing”.

The essence of ableism, to me, is insistence that there’s only one way to be a person. Real people can walk. Real people can communicate verbally. Real people learn in X way and have no trouble integrating unfamiliar information. Ballastexistenz wrote that ableism is integral to every other kind of oppression, and I find that powerfully true. Oppression relies on the principle that marginalized groups are doing Person wrong. Blacks are animals, gays are perverts, women are hysterical. Another blogger noted recently that anti-oppression work can’t just “pass the unperson ball” - it has to deflate it. And too much anti-oppression rhetoric, I think, is focused on merely passing.

Something I see a lot: “It’s okay for autistic people to have trouble with SJ concepts, because their brains aren’t wired that way. But neurotypicals have no excuse.” That’s…colossally missing the point. It’s putting the symbol before the substance in a big and dangerous way. Rather than reconsidering the standards of correct thought, it’s saying that certain groups, by virtue of being sufficiently marginalized, can be excepted from those standards. Instead of achieving a curb-cut effect, wherein accommodations for the disabled end up benefiting everyone, it sets up yet another binary.

And neurotypical vs. neurodivergent is not a binary. Certain clusters of traits are indisputably one or the other, sure, but there are far too many edge cases for it to be simple. What do you call a person who fits no diagnostic criteria, who isn’t actually disabled in any meaningful way, but whose worldview orbits a fundamentally different axis than most people’s? If you’re anti-SJ, you might call them a special snowflake; if you’re SJ, an edgelord. I call them a person who in some ways has it harder than quantifiably disabled people. At least disability has a name and a tribe. Where do you fit in when you’re not clinically “neurodivergent” but just a person who thinks differently?

I struggled mightily with that before I knew I was autistic. But still, I eventually found a name for my strangeness. I’m lucky that way. Some people never do, and some people’s strangeness has no name. And their alienation is not any less tragic than that of “officially” neurodivergent people. It isn’t.

(ʘ‿ʘ✿) “what you say ‘bout me”

the original post

Creepy, threatening clown sightings have been increasing over the last couple months, leading residents of affected states to wonder just what’s going on. Earlier on Friday, some schools in Reading, Ohio were closed after a woman reported being attacked by someone dressed as a clown who threatened the students at her school. But the complaints extend far beyond Ohio. At least 32 states have had strange clown sightings so far.

Some clown sightings just hoaxes or jokes, and some may have been copycats from earlier news reports. For example, a report of a clown in Agawam, Massachusetts ended up being part of a promotion for the New England Scare Fest. And a report about a clown shot and killed in Indiana was apparently a hoax. (Read more about that in the Indiana section below.) But not all incidents are explained that easily, and a number of arrests have already been made. Some of the social media threats to different schools have caused parents a lot of concerns. And some of these threats, even though they’re sent to different states, are coming from accounts using the same fake clown names.

The affected states so far are Alabama, Arizona,  Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Scroll down to see details on each state and let us know in the comments about any sightings that aren’t listed here.