Saturday, April 17, 2010

Day of Silence success leaves religious right sputtering

The 2010 Day of Silence has come and gone.

According to reports here:

At Willamette High School in Eugene, Oregon students march together-- their mouths covered by masks, their silence bringing attention to anti-LGBT harassment. Similar protests involving as many as 8,000 students also occurred in Green Bay and Missouri, at the University of Richmond and other centers across the country.

 here:

190 students signed up to support the Day of Silence at CECI, organized by the school's Gay Straight Alliance.

"Their core goal is to promote an environment of open acceptance," Girard said.

and here:

More than 200 Chillicothe High School students took a vow of silence Friday.

CHS was one of more than 6,000 middle and high schools nationwide that participated in the annual Day of Silence. Participation at CHS began three years ago when the Gay Straight Alliance formed.

the day was highly successful.

But if you want to really judge the event's success, check out this article via the American Family Association's One News Now:

(Illinois Family Institute's Laurie)Higgins worked at a public high school for several years and exposes the real truth about the Day of Silence. According to her, teachers and students alike are not too fond of the annual event.

"Most teachers, even those who are politically left of center, hate the Day of Silence -- they don't like it," she shares. "They don't like divisive political action in their classroom; they're just there to teach -- and they don't like having to revamp their lesson plans to accommodate student silence.

"And many, many students -- even students left of center -- dislike this day for the same reason," she concludes. "They don't like the divisive atmosphere it creates."

That's the article, folks. Basically we are to believe that the Day of Silence is an unpopular distraction simply because Laurie Higgins says so.

Now that's pitiful.



Bookmark and Share

3 comments:

  1. Hmm, the teachers don't like the DOS? You mean many of the children being QUIET? I wonder if she could actually NAME any teachers (let alone children) that REALLY object to the day. As long as the students answer questions posed to them from the teachers (regarding subject matter), I doubt that there are really any objections, except in Higgin's head. just my 2 cents ;)

    aj

    ReplyDelete
  2. Some of the christian right wing bloggers were asking parents to report on their kid's experience with the DOS.

    Could you believe it? Many reported that little Jane or John had too much work to at school and couldn't play hooky for their parents. Yeah, right, maybe Jane and John didn't want to go that far with their parents' ideology. The most negative thing commonly posted is that participation was low. Again, much do-do about nothing... sorry will.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love how they try to portray students sitting silently in class as disruptive and divisive. Back in my day that was considered appropriate classroom behavior.

    ReplyDelete