Deborah Pardes
@DBPardesĀ Ā·Ā 1:06
#AskSwell | Georgia teacher faces termination after reading book about acceptance to class
Ah, sometimes news makes me want to share it on Swell to get your thoughts on this. Katie Renderley is a teacher of gifted children between first and fifth grade and in Cobb County, Georgia. She now faces termination after ten years of service. This is because the book that she was reading was deemed against the law. Because there's a new law that basically looks at books as divisive if they talk about certain topics, maybe sometimes pornographic
Nikkeita Sharrma
@NatureaddsĀ Ā·Ā 1:56
The book isn't divisive, but the decision that these people took think is divisive. It is not inclusive. So my take on this decision is completely it's a big no, I do not agree to this. This is uncalled for. It
Mahima Mamgain
@MM007Ā Ā·Ā 2:10
It's making students aware about each other and it's providing and imparting knowledge and wisdom to those specially gifted children to collaborate, to understand how colors work and what's the psychology behind colors and different people. And in regards to the termination of the teacher, any such big event or any such towering event happens because of a lot of past events in life and lots of energetic exchange between people realities
Renee šŖ¬
@RensLensĀ Ā·Ā 3:46
Our kids are taught to respect others gender identity and to respect others pronouns. Now, that being said, my oldest daughter gets a little like she gets frustrated because sometimes she feels that especially with teenagers, their entire identity can be caught up in their pronouns, and she's just trying to not offend people and she doesn't know how. But that's kind of a different subject. They're still taught to respect gender differences and different gender identities
Mahima Mamgain
@MM007Ā Ā·Ā 2:00
So, yeah, overall, I think it's all about transitioning those education system into much more collaborative and aware, imparting knowledge places. So, yeah, thank you
Renee šŖ¬
@RensLensĀ Ā·Ā 3:37
So you're not sheltering them from a reality, and you don't necessarily believe that exposing them to something is going to mean that they become that. But if it did, then that's fine too. Because the ultimate goal is not for you as the parent to control based on your subjective perception of how they should live in this society. That goal is to ensure that that child grows up to be happy and content within themselves. And that has to be based on their own perceptions and definitions
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardesĀ Ā·Ā 0:43
Hey. Thank you all for chiming in and adding your perspective. And it's making me think about something with regard to the law and parenting, specifically parenting and having choice, but choosing to unfortunately, because of the state laws that are coming into place, choosing private schools, charter schools that don't fall under the same limitations, and I might be wrong. And I would love someone to tell me if it's a private school, they could teach anything they want. Is that correct?
Dare Darice Strickland
@SOMEWHERE2Ā Ā·Ā 5:00
The little book is cute, and I love the illustration of it, but to read it to young children that can't read it for themselves is probably not a good idea. If you wanted to put it in a library and somebody who's looking for that particular area of information, if they wanted to read it, that might be different
Dare Darice Strickland
@SOMEWHERE2Ā Ā·Ā 5:00
You might as well put it in a book because they're going to hear about it. They're going to wonder about it. They're going to try a little bit of it. It's like, dope you say you shouldn't do that? Or you can't do that? Well, that's the first thing they're going to try to do
Margaret Hayes, MAEd, TEFL
@EasyEnglishĀ Ā·Ā 1:02
But anyway, I was going to say if I had any school boards around here that were doing the same thing at their next meeting, I would bring a copy of the book and read it out loud and get it in the meeting minutes and see if the parents still have a problem with it. I don't know. Sometimes I weep for this country. Anyway, thanks. Bye
Renee šŖ¬
@RensLensĀ Ā·Ā 1:50
Some would even be teaching tolerance for gender identity and respecting people's pronouns. It just depends on the degree. Without a doubt, they're teaching cultural awareness in those non religious affiliated private schools. Now, if you're public or even if you're charter, if you're receiving money from the state, then the state has a say in how you go about teaching things and whether you teach things otherwise, particularly for charter schools, you could lose your funding
Katharine Coles
@katharine.colesĀ Ā·Ā 1:02
But unfortunately, we have a minority of people in the United States who thinks that anything that includes people who aren't just like them is inherently divisive because it challenges is their sense of order and their sense of what having the right to take up all the space
Eluchianna Olive
@LuchiannaĀ Ā·Ā 4:42
It's so easy to pounce on the negativity instead of just raising our voice and saying this is just not right. Tell me where she violated any law. It's your law. Right. But we answer to a different higher power which could be at true as our self confidence, our self awareness. And just because someone says it's not so, doesn't mean it's not so. That's just my personal opinion
Leanne Pritchett
@TheMs.LeanneĀ Ā·Ā 3:09
Now, I'm not saying, like, certain books. Yes, okay. So certain things yes, certain topics are appropriate and are not age appropriate, is what I'm trying to say for children. But again, we really, as a society, need to look at this whole thing and really what our personal beliefs are. I don't think people have the right to project them onto others. And doing so through banning books and other things, it's just not cool
Andrea Piggue
@Andrea_SpeaksĀ Ā·Ā 3:30
They teach them what needs to be known about this. But children in the first and the fifth grade, they have no business be involved in this conversation. Absolutely ridiculous
Dare Darice Strickland
@SOMEWHERE2Ā Ā·Ā 5:00
You don't fire people for giving information that they think will help. She knew what was going on in the class. She knew what the children were thinking. And if it's in front of your face, you don't slap them for looking at it. Explain. Thank you