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A strike

cranky_old_bastard73 · 2020-09-19T10:51:56+00:00

If this persists why dont we strike? Honestly how can some of this go unpunished? We demand love and compassion from somebody in society we shouldnt have to...

cranky_old_bastard73

September 19, 2020

13 upvotes

/r/MensRights

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Post Information

Title	A strike
Author	cranky_old_bastard73
Upvotes	13
Comments	22
Date	September 19, 2020 10:51 AM UTC (5 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/ivqex2/a_strike/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/a-strike.843797 https://theredarchive.com/post/843797

Comments

[–]TheVoluntaryBeggar 9 points10 points11 points 5 years ago (16 children) | Copy Link

[–]cranky_old_bastard73[S] 6 points7 points8 points 5 years ago (13 children) | Copy Link

[–]TheVoluntaryBeggar 4 points5 points6 points 5 years ago (12 children) | Copy Link

[–]thboog 0 points1 point2 points 5 years ago (11 children) | Copy Link

So, I'm an actual teacher in middle school. What the fuck are you even talking about?

a drive to get more men into teaching at early stages

This is the only one that makes any sense. More men in education is a good thing. Most men tend to go into either middle school or high school education. Having male teachers in elementary would absolutely be a good thing.

an immediate ban on all 'girl only' events, programs, scholarships etc...

This is dumb as shit. This accomplishes nothing.

more sport

No idea where you are from, but there are plenty of sports in schools. Schools need MORE focus on actual academics, not sports.

more playtime / roughhousing opportunities

Yes to the first. Recess or unstructured playtime is very important for development. Roughhousing is not. But more playtime for kids isn't even a gendered issue.

move back towards competitive exams, not teacher assessments

I don't even understand what you mean by this, and I work in a school. Fucking what? Schools need less focus on exams. This does nothing except add unnecessary stress on students.

return to single sex status for boys' schools (or allow boys to girls' schools)

Not really sure what you mean with this either. I went to an all male HS. It's not really all it's cracked up to be. This does not accomplish what you think it does. All male schools help repress issues more than anything. There is no discussion of problems, you'd appear weak. It turns everything into a competition which is unhealthy and it reinforces putting women on a pedestal because you aren't around them. I know this because I went through it. It took me years to get comfortable talking about how I feel after HS.

a more manly curriculum

This is fucking meaningless nonsense.

[–]TheVoluntaryBeggar 2 points3 points4 points 5 years ago (5 children) | Copy Link

So, I'm an actual teacher in middle school.

He who can does; she who cannot teaches.

It sounds like you're a part of the problem, yet here you are haranguing me.

I'm really just walking back some of the changes I've seen.

a more manly curriculum

I tutor young people on occasion. I remember a young lad recently facing writer's block for an essay.
We had just studied yet another text about integrating muslims, and thought long and hard about the injustice of the hijab.

His task.

Imagine you are a young muslim girl rebelling against her father. Write a letter to your bgf and tell her how you feel.
He might just as well have been asked to critique "Being and Time" or something.

It was all like this. We even had feminist texts from inferior writers (like Sheryl Sandberg) to study.
He was down marked not just for vocab mistakes but also for not reproducing feminist dogma correctly.

[–]thboog 0 points1 point2 points 5 years ago (4 children) | Copy Link

Your tactic here doesn't make much sense. I can't quite tell if you're switching from your first point about needing more male teachers or you're assuming I'm a woman because I disagreed with you.

Well, I am not a woman. Saying I'm part of the problem because I disagree with your points and for some reason assuming I chose to teach because I didn't have other options is pretty bold of you. Wrong on all fronts.

And yeah that's really not a terrible assignment. Being able to think about another person's experience and empathize with them is an important skill to teach young people. It helps make better humans. But you're just a tutor. Maybe you don't quite realize this since you aren't actually in a school, but the skills we teach aren't only academic in nature. (See, I can be condescending as hell too).

[–]TheVoluntaryBeggar 0 points1 point2 points 5 years ago (3 children) | Copy Link

I'm happy to continue after an initial round of insults. Having a good shout is also an important skill; not bottling up those emotions.

We had loads of these when my kids were at school. It was really dispiriting - "take your daughter to work day"; "get more girls into stem fair"; and so on.

As you rightly point out I am not a schoolteacher, I lived as a diving instructor for a few years, and I have done TEFL in one way or another since the 1980s. I have run my own company, and trained half a dozen young people in a complex technical profession.

I also have 3 adult sons, who have been educated in the last few decades. I personally was sent to an single sex boarding school at a very young age, doing much of my time before the reforms of 1978 (UK). It's more or less since then that boys have been left behind.

Anyway, a couple of remarks:

Schools need less focus on exams. This does nothing except add unnecessary stress on students.

It was the way we used to do it, sure it puts stress on students - but as Nietzsche would say nobody ever became strong who didn't need to. It was a rite of passage, a test of the ability to synthesis all that one had learned. Boys were better at it than girls; hands down.
My wife tutors the neighbour's daughter in maths. My goodness. That girl is utterly clueless. My wife teaches her like a parrot, every two weeks a fairly predictable set of questions is asked on this one narrow topic (not blending previous) skills. Once it's done, it's forgotten. The next week she can't even remember that minus numbers go on the left.
Boys must get bored to tears with this. I know one of my sons did - stuck in a class with 21 girls and 3 boys he was, for two years. He was such a bright kid, and left that school academically dull as dishwater.

I remember being motivated purely by the desire to be placed above my contemporaries who were rivals for top spot in the class.

Teacher approval meant nothing to me. I'm guessing many lads are (were) like this.

(On banning girl only events) This is dumb as shit.

We had loads of these when my kids were at school. It was really dispiriting - "take your daughter to work day"; "get more girls into stem fair".
There was a whole other level of career development support and advice on Uni etc. for girls.
So - I call unfair.

[–]thboog 0 points1 point2 points 5 years ago (2 children) | Copy Link

Hello again. I cannot speak to how things are in the UK. I live in the US. There will most certainly be some differences between them. I would also imagine within the UK itself there are differences between the countries.

However, your response here kind of perfectly illustrates what bugs me about non-teachers arguing about school reform. You are using anecdotal evidence (largely from decades ago) to inform your opinions about the current state of education. You seem like a reasonable and intelligent person, so you have to realize that's not how things work.

To your point on testing - research shows it really depends on the type of exam. Boys do better on math/science exams and girls do better on reading/social studies exams. And that gap really only exists within standardized tests such as the SAT, and largely diminishes on State standardized tests. here

To the example of the girl your wife tutors - Good for her, tutoring is not easy (and you too since you tutor). But just based on the information provided, it's very possible the girl has a learning disability, and should have some additional accommodations in her class to help her succeed. However saying the boys got bored to tears with that, while probably true, is an example of making something gendered for no reason. Do you honestly think some of the girls weren't bored as well? Going slow in class because of a few students absolutely does cause boredom for the students who understand the material, and usually will lead to behavior issues as the students act out. Sounds like your son's school failed to provide the correct placement for certain students and should have focused more on differentiating the material better for students. That is more of a recent development in schools though.

To your point about motivation - Every student I have encountered over the years has something that motivates them. For some it is teacher approval, for some it is parent approval, and others it is competition. There has not been a gendered divide in these motivations. One of the most competitive students I have ever taught was a 7th grade girl. I am not familiar with research talking about student motivation, so anecdotal evidence will have to be used by both of us for this one.

Finally to your last point - I can't speak to how things were done when you were in school, frankly that was before I was born. However, in my experience here in the US going to school and now working in one, we have the same number of events for boys and girls. Except when I was in HS because as I mentioned it was all male.

As for the "get more girls in stem fair", have you given thought to why they would have something like that? It is NOT because schools are trying to push boys out of stem. It's because research shows time and time again, that there is quite a large gender gap in stem fields and there isn't really a need to focus on getting more men into stem. Trying to get more women into stem majors/careers isn't a bad thing. It is showcasing a societal change about what has for decades been considered a "man's career".

Now, something I think we can agree on here- a push for women into stem fields isn't a bad thing. However, there should be an equal push to get men into education. I really do agree with the first point you made originally about more men being needed in early education. Teaching, at least early childhood education, is still largely seen as a "woman's career" in the US. I think I can safely assume it's the same over in the UK. That is something that should absolutely change. Having more positive male role models earlier in life would be a net benefit for kids. (Note I said kids here. Positive male role models are important for boys and girls alike.)

[–]TheVoluntaryBeggar 0 points1 point2 points 5 years ago (1 child) | Copy Link

[–]thboog 1 point2 points3 points 5 years ago (0 children) | Copy Link

[–]Oculi_of_Ungoliant 0 points1 point2 points 5 years ago (4 children) | Copy Link

[–]thboog 0 points1 point2 points 5 years ago (3 children) | Copy Link

[–]Oculi_of_Ungoliant 0 points1 point2 points 5 years ago (2 children) | Copy Link

[–]thboog 0 points1 point2 points 5 years ago (1 child) | Copy Link

Sure. Couple reasons really. My job is to teach, and if people are roughhousing during class not only are the students messing around missing instruction, but it is distracting the other students as well.

If it isn't during class, like say during transition time in the hallway or something, it runs the risk of other students potentially getting hurt if it gets too intense. Or, and I have seen this before, the roughhousing starts out friendly enough and then it devolves into an actual fight.

If students are roughhousing and one of them gets hurt, even if it's an accident, I can be held liable for it. Wether that be with parents or my administration.

Keep in mind, I'm not a super strict teacher during the down time parts of the day, like homeroom or dismissal. My students move around and I don't really care if they are playing and talking. Hell just yesterday I was arm wrestling a few of them during HR. But 'roughhousing' is just not appropriate at school.

Granted, a lot of that probably depends on your definition of roughhousing I guess.

[–]Oculi_of_Ungoliant 0 points1 point2 points 5 years ago (0 children) | Copy Link

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point2 points 5 years ago (1 child) | Copy Link

[–]RockmanXX 0 points1 point2 points 5 years ago (3 children) | Copy Link

[–]cranky_old_bastard73[S] -1 points0 points1 point 5 years ago (2 children) | Copy Link

[–]RockmanXX 0 points1 point2 points 5 years ago (1 child) | Copy Link

[–]aussietoads 0 points1 point2 points 5 years ago (0 children) | Copy Link

[+]Salt-Prize18461 points 5 years ago [recovered] (1 child) | Copy Link

There is a group r/MGTOW. Men going their own way. We are on strike and cut out all contact with women (well some guys don't). No dates, no contact. You'll find like minded men with their own horror stories in their dealings with women.

The channel is quarantined but only because Reddit claims some of the posts are offensive. I have found most with few exceptions to be inoffensive. Most of the posts are quite tame compared with some of the sex channels on Reditt. Anyway givef it a look.

[–]cranky_old_bastard73[S] -1 points0 points1 point 5 years ago (0 children) | Copy Link