I’m making a blog post for this because I posted it all on my social media, but I’d like another space for it, as well:
I am glad to be raising my child in France, where the concept of laïcité is heavily enforced in schools and also extends to any cult-like movements, like focusing on collecting checks on your oppression passport being more important than making you a well-rounded and educated human who can survive as an adult in this world.
All ideologies are banned from educational – and government and public – spaces. Be who you are, practice what you want to practice, love who you want to love, but you absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, force people to be subjected to your personal and political beliefs. And that’s how it should be in Canadian schools.
As someone who brought social activism into my classrooms and now regrets it, make schools about learning again.
My political beliefs and my anger should not have been projected on my vulnerable students. They should not have been made to carry the weight of my virtue signaling. I should not have exposed them to my rainbow flags, my feminist t-shirts, my smash the patriarchy sweaters. I was going through a period of feeling lost, and I latched onto a movement – a cult – and tried to bring my students there with me. Not realizing how lost and consumed with rage the cult (“movement”) I was following was (even more so than me).
We can learn how to be good humans while keeping politics and personal beliefs out of it. We can be good for the sake of being good, not because of ABC or XYZ. We can teach children and teenagers how to be compassionate humans without bringing fear into it, and without allowing them to feel the fear of the canceling and doxxing of the Far Left and the Religious fear and persecution of the Far Right.
We are doing a HUGE disservice to children if we are teaching them, “You should care for, be compassionate towards, and be respectful for all living things BECAUSE (insert fear-based adult/cult thinking here)” instead of just saying, “All living things should be cared for, respected, and have your compassion -PERIOD.” They should not be taught to be respectful and kind OR ELSE. They should come to this conclusion from a place of heart-centered love and deep soul understanding. Not fear, never fear. And so many of these movements are centered around JUST that: FEAR. Keep fear out of classrooms.
The Left has become authoritarian, and the Right is responding with religious vengeance because, quite honestly, it’s totally getting out of control.
Keep politics and ideologies and religions (even the religions of the Left – because that’s what they’ve become) out of schools.
Keep your personal beliefs out of your teaching.
Let parents take the lead on the personal education of their own children.
Make schools about learning again.
I think there are several issues that will not allow these two groups to meet in the middle at common ground.
Firstly, I believe the Left has become the complete opposite of everything it has always stood for.
It once represented anti-establishment, now it worships the establishment and the media and it shames anyone who does not or questions it.
It once stood for free speech, now “free speech” is only within the confines of what it deems acceptable and needs to adhere to their rules on language and speech, and anything else deserves doxxing and persecution.
It once was against the indoctrinated idea of “sin” and believed in grace, and it now finds the “sin” of people’s past and uses this to cancel them, shame them, and destroy their lives.
It once believed in peace and love as a solution to aggression and anger, and now aggression and anger lie at the heart of all it’s solutions.
It has become completely authoritarian. In fact, I find it scarier than the Right because it proceeds with its authoritarian stance under the guise of “justice” and “peace” and “compassion” — when it represents NONE of these things.
The Right are responding to this with an unmatched intensity. This is because the Right once represented the figurehead of shaming people into acting a certain way, and using fear as a way to control others. But now the Left are the Masters in this game. So, the Right see a mirror and they are responding the only way they know how; by pushing it as extremely far and with as much aggression as they are capable of. It’s not Defense vs. Offense; it’s Aggression vs. Aggression. It’s kill or be killed for both parties.
I believe in the idea that all human beings deserve respect on the basis of their being human beings. I extend that to all living things, personally. I also believe that you don’t need to understand or even agree with something/someone to respect them.
I believe all people have a right to love who they want to love and to do what they need to do to live their most joyful lives (as long as it doesn’t negatively impact another human being) – I think this is a soul right of every human. But I do not believe we have a right to force people to understand or accept us. That’s impossible.
I also think it’s impossible to force people to see the world from our sense of reality. We are all experiencing reality differently – it’s a subjective experience – and we cannot demand that someone see life through our eyes. That’s illogical and, quite frankly, insane. And it’s being done by both the Right and the Left, now.
I think both sides are using, “do xyz/believe xyz/affirm xyz OR ELSE!” and that’s where the problem arises. I think we can create safe and accepting spaces for all people without inserting “OR ELSE!!!” into those spaces, and without shoving the ideologies of one side or the other in the face of those we are trying to convince.
I think we can teach children to be themselves without guiding them towards what we, as adults, think that self might be. I think we can teach children compassion and respect just on the basis of treating others the way we want to be treated. And I think we can shift back to a focus on education while still affirming to children that they are valid as they are and without guiding the conversation beyond the scope of what some people might be uncomfortable with, and without introducing them to concepts that, at their development level, they just might not be ready for.
I don’t think kindness sits on any political side. And I don’t think it’s necessary to flood children with more – religious or cult or otherwise – than they need to help guide them down a path of kindness and respect.
xx C
lifeofcloud 