This commentary is by Paul Dame, chair of the Vermont GOP.
Last week Vermont made national news once again when a memo was released from the Essex Westford School district discussing their new policy for teaching fifth-graders sex ed.
According to the memo obtained by Fox News, the school district was going to stop using the words “boy” & “girl” or “male” & “female” and reduce each of these fifth graders to being identified simply as “person who produces sperm” or a “person who produces eggs.” The justification for this has been the use of what is known as “person-first language.”
Paul Dame, chairman of the Vermont GOP
As a student at UVM studying Secondary Education, I had first encountered “person first language” over 20 years ago. As it was explained to me then, the purpose of person-first language is to place the focus on the humanity of a person rather than reducing them to one of their characteristics. The most obvious example was to say “a person who is disabled” instead of “a disabled person.” And at the time it was a slight change in language that I thought made sense and tried to get everyone to think about the person first, and the characteristic second.
But like a lot of what has happened to the Left in America, and especially in our schools, this newest move has gone too far and is now in contradiction to its original purpose. To take away from kids their identities as boys and girls, and reduce them to simply sperm and egg producers has to be one of the most dehumanizing things I have ever heard. It’s concerning that the very people in charge of shaping the minds of our youth are reducing them to bodily functions related to their sex organs. It’s bad enough to do it to adults — but to children in fifth grade? All I can say is that I’m glad I moved my kids out of that school district.
As someone who is currently teaching a section of math to fifth graders, and is keenly aware of their emotional maturity — and lack thereof — I can already imagine what a spectacle this will be when actually implemented. As much as I feel bad for the kids having to listen to this stuff, I also pity the teachers who are forced to do this with a straight face. Everything about this policy has the feel of yet another top-down action item for an educational infrastructure that is far too concerned with political objectives, and have truly lost the plot when it comes to educating our students to the highest academic standards.
When I was a State Rep for Essex, the school system had the reputation of being the best school system in the state. It provided incredible opportunities for AP courses, as well as pathways for more technical trainings. But over the past few years that reputation has been replaced and Essex Westford is attracting a new reputation for advancing the most aggressive social engineering in the country. They are conducting experiments on an entire class of students based on some educational theories that seem to have an objective that is different than the best interests of the students. And we may not know what the affects of this experimentation will be for years to come.
How much more needs to happen before we as a society get to the point of saying that the emperor has no clothes? It seems completely detached from reality that when we start talking to fifth graders about sex, despite the facts that educational leaders are so confused on basic truths about sex and gender. We have been willing to accept such rapid distortions in the past 5 years that have brought many in authority to a position that would argue that PBS’s Mr. Rodgers is now oppressive and transphobic for telling little kids that if they are born as a girl, they stay a girl. But free speech has been under such assault in this country, and especially around this topic, that – like the people surrounding the emperor — too many are afraid to state the obvious, and a ridiculous charade continues on far, far longer than it should.
For these and many other reasons we see the necessity for expanding school choice, and preventing the state from further expanding their educational monopoly. One of concerning things about the child care bill proposed by Democrats is that it would eliminate some of the choice that parents already have for their Pre-K students. Previously, every parent had the flexibility to choose from a wide variety of Pre-K and daycare options. But a few years ago Democrats piled on regulations that shut down many private providers, especially in rural areas, which reduced the overall number of slots available. Now in 2023 they are going to further restrict parents by extending our mandatory no-choice K-12 system to four and five year olds. he newest plan would assign kids to Pre-K programs based on their zip code, eventually removing all of the choice and flexibility parents currently enjoy.
But while Democrats are trying to reduce the educational options, Republicans are pushing back to expand them. Rep. Art Petersen has introduced H.405 which is an act relating to school choice for all Vermonters, which would give parents and students at the K-12 level universal school choice. Another bill H.354 which has bipartisan support, would create a tax incentive for families to get access to homeschooling materials. But we are simply going to need more Republicans in 2024 to give these ideas a fair hearing.
Our institutions of learning have become institutions of confusion. Every kind of monopoly will eventually become corrupted when it is not forced to compete for the value and attention of the people it is supposed to serve. I can’t think of an institution more in need of disruption, change and innovation than our public schooling system. Employers are telling us that our kids are woefully unprepared for the workforce, and yet instead of our schools trying to adapt to changing workforce needs our administrations are reviewing course materials for the purpose of editing pronouns. Republicans don’t believe a problem like this should be fixed with a single top-down solution. We believe instead that we should empower people, especially parents, to help them make the right decisions for themselves, and for their students. Ironically, it’s Democrats who want full control of Vermont’s student body — and it’s Republicans who are Pro-Choice.
With all this transgender BS, being stuffed down the throats of our kids from kindergarten
through HS, this is nothing more than child abuse, and the adults promoting this nonsense
on children should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law………………
If you’re of adult age “18” and want to manipulate your body or take a high quantity of
hormones to try and convince yourself you’re a different gender, knock yourself out !!
We have males in female sports, where are all the ” Pink Hat ” liberals they talk a good
game, women’s rights are going to hell in a handbasket and they let this nonsense slide,
pretty pathetic and you now know why no one took them seriously in their ” Pink Pussy
Hat ” march !!
Wake up people
Mr. Dame says:
” Republicans don’t believe a problem like this should be fixed with a single top-down solution. We believe instead that we should empower people, especially parents, to help them make the right decisions for themselves, and for their students.”
BUT he is forgetting that we are 3 or 4 generations into failing education- the parents themselves have been failed in schools as well Mr.Dame.
Go spend some time as a person in your 50s -or older- talking to these young parents. A whole lot of them have no idea what they don’t know.
They operate from an entire life spent being propagandized and they have no idea that this happened.
These are parents that feel it’s perfectly acceptable to not even feed their own kids- allowing the schools to feed them what they choose to nourish them with- two meals out of three.. and these are the parents we want to change the world?
Even animals instinctively feed their young- not these people though.
You’ll begin to see the roots of the issues.
Do you think that people that were raised in daycare centers by absent parents will then go on to become good parents?
How is it possible to be something you never saw or experienced?
What is a good parent these people? prepare to hear that answer and reflect on the parents you had in the 50s and 60s– now you’ll see why we are here.
Next, you, Mr.Dame forget that a large part of the Republican platform is supposed to be about Freedom.. creating it, preserving it, restoring it. You have to be free to practice your freedoms.
Parents that are working like dogs some 60 hours a week just to pay for food, heat and a roof over their heads are now so enslaved as they attempt to survive, the last thing they can do is take on Homeschooling. They don’t have the time in their schedules to drive kids to the better school that is 30 minutes away- or even on the other side of town. They may not have the gas money or a vehicle that will hold up to the extra travel.
Republicans come up with these ideas picturing peoples lives to be all neat and pretty like their own are.. they totally forget that we’ve got over a 50% divorce rate, and a drug and alcohol addiction crisis. There are many, many people’s lives today that are in a stage of crisis where they live hour by hour. Most Americans today live paycheck to paycheck and can’t take time off to even be properly involved with their kids schools.
Layer after layer of failures in policy has brought us to this point where we’re at today-with the astonishing lack of vital freedom- and yet we see no elected Republicans owning this or rolling any of these failures back to restore the freedom=power that we need for correction.
So while what you are saying is correct Mr.Dame, the freedom needed to put your kids in another school, the freedom to be part of building new schools, ALL of this is completely inaccessible to most all parents and people.
The elected Republicans and the RNC have completely ignored what the great Andrew Breitbart said about Politics being downstream of Culture.
In order to get where you want to go, there needs to be a massive cultural change at this point so that people can free themselves up from the enslavement of debt so that they have the time it takes to do what needs to be done!
People enslaved by debt don’t have the freedom to do a damn thing except work as Debt Slaves.
When you understand this, you’ll get why the Left works so hard to make us all into Debt Slaves.
I have said for many years now that if Republicans want to solve this mess, we need to teach young people not to take on the massive debt, and risk of college, parents should be helping instead with housing. We need to restore our freedom and our families.. so that people can then build new schools, educate their own kids, work on marriages, build communities and relationships, solve mental health and addiction issues and have time to be on committees and volunteer locally where needed so that both sides truly have a seat at all tables.
There is a whole lot of prep work and clean up that needs to happen to get us from where we’ve fallen to where we need to go.
I see no elected Republicans working to restore the freedom we’ve lost to set us free to do as they want us to do..
Much of what we are looking at today is the fallout of an enslaved and over controlled people.
Fix that and a whole lot falls into place.
Freedom is not Free.
We all need to do the work- which is why the Left doesn’t want anyone with the time on their hands to do so.
Put your kids and your families first and make better choices.
We need to teach our way out of this by creating a cultural change.
Nothing new under the sun. In ancient times, parents willlingly offered up their children for sacrifices believing it was for the greater good or would garner them favor from their gods and idols. The same spirits are in our realm today. Societies rise and fall by their own complicity and delusion. If our forefathers (a minority at the time) did not rise against the Crown, we would never have acheived the status we have today. Yet, we are about to lose it all for the same reasons other civilizations fell before us. We are at the end of times – these times. Those in the “power” seats know it for a fact. The battle is on for humanity now and for the future. Those who fight for humanity over profit, will survive and prevail. The hour of decision is now.
What is the game plan?
What can we do?
Where can we get some success?
How can we be positive change?
How can we build a team?
How can we open a lane so there is a voice for those who will be canceled is they speak?
How can we be more loving and forgiving?
What is the strongest organization to ever make positive change in this world?
What is the thing that every dictator, every theocracy, every military fears most?
What are they all helpless against?
What is cryptonite for all these corrupt politicians? Corrupt governments? dictators?,propagandists? Theocracies? Military run countries?
Do,we know?
Instead of spermers and eggers the leftist freaks could have used more Vermontesq language like Rooster and Chicken… or how about just stick with what it’s been for thousands of years xy=boy man male xx=girl women female If the trans mental impaired need a special designation then they can make up something for them but i’ll just continue to call them what they are, freaks..(bearded lady at the fair) I’m not going to affirm a trans thinking who they are if they can’t accept who they really are according to scientific FACTS.
It’s a one-size-fits all dumbing down of society. I’ve sensed it all along. My intuition told me that something was really ‘off’ as long as I can remember in that school felt like one, big social experiment. And I was to go along to get along. I can’t imagine how it’s any different today other the amplification, increased duration and ultimate subjugation. Fortunately, there are thinkers out there like Clif High who recognize the ultimate aim of the three-letter agencies in stating, “The plans of the WEF are evil, as we see them constantly trying to quantify everything about humans, and humanity. With absolutely NO regard to human quality. These are all evil plans by definition. These plans fail. That is a binary state. They fail due to totally ignoring human quality.”
Excellent piece Paul.
Where are all the pink hats boycotting the erasing of women? So much for pro woman.
We have to defund govt schools by sacrificing whatever it takes to home or privately school.
Parents – this is a 12+ year attack on your child’s faith, and your family.
Don’t think you can counter it when they come home and tell you all they learned-it’s too weaved into every hour of every day/lesson/hallway/activity/conversation that your child likely cannot even discern most of the ills they are being taught.
They don’t have you, so they are going after your kids. The bullseye is on their backs. You are sending them each day to Cesar to be discipled, it’s time to get them out!