“It’s just a major breach of trust,” said Lynn Floyd, whose 11- and 13-year-old daughters were part of the outing to the Smitten Kitten. “You just can’t erase those images.”...Are you sympathetic with the parents here? First, they chose to send their kids to Gaia Democratic School. From the school's "Our Philosophy" page:
While at Smitten Kitten, students sat in the front in a library section of the store, [the school's director Starri Hedges said]. Everything deemed pornographic was off limits to the students, though sex toys and other products were visible, Hedges said....
Gaia is a private school that provides holistic educational services to students K-12 with emphasis on democratic process, individualized instruction, academic freedom, self-motivation, cooperative learning, youth empowerment, and environmental stewardship. We are part of an education movement that has a long, fascinating history and a vibrant, viable future.That page includes a quote from Alan Watts: "You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean."
ADDED: "City officials sent a license inspector and a zoning inspector in plainclothes to Smitten Kitten on Tuesday...."
Inspectors found that the store did not isolate sexually explicit materials in a separate section of the shop, as required by city code, said Grant Wilson, who oversees business licensing for the city. The store also had sexually explicit materials within view of minors, which is also a violation....
“If you are going to be out in the neighborhoods out of downtown, you can have sexually explicit material, but only [in] 15 percent of your retail floor area,” Wilson said.
Smitten Kitten opened in 2003 and is committed to promoting “an inclusive, shame-free environment where it’s OK to talk about all kinds of consensual sex.”
Posts
78 comments:
Parents are aghast at the "Gaia Democratic School" doing something inappropriate?
The Farmer and the Viper comes to mind.
That is too funny. Did you get that from the Onion?
No sympathy the same way I have none for the New York leftist artists whose coop health plan went away with Obamacare.
What a coincidence that City Inspectors showed up right after the kids did.
"Gaia is a K-12 school with a motto promising academic freedom, youth empowerment and democratic education. Parents say the school has about 25 students, including several described by administrators as transgender. IRS records show the school, housed in a Unitarian church on Mount Curve Avenue, has an annual budget of about $100,000."
Academic freedom and democratic education are not compatible, and I say that as the only human in existence (and in fact has ever existed) who knows, really knows, what the %#}? "democratic education" is beyond two wolves voting to eat sheep for dinner.
And this Gaia school isn't nearly as free as they would like to think of themselves. Socialist slaves spouting Marxist kill-orders seems more apropos.
How can these MN cheapies educate kids at $4000 a pop per year? Don't seem right. Should be more like $40,000 per pupil if parents gave a damn about their kids.
But if this Gaia school really takes only a third of the cash to educate the future sex workers of comparable schools then maybe they are superior to regular teachers and we all ought learn it, live it, love it.
Adult bookstores are open tocustomers of all interests.
It is not just creepy guys in raincoats anymore. Although creepy guys in raincoats are still welcome, of course.
I am Laslo.
Pantheism is boundary free since once the individual is merged into literally everything, then judgemental "morality" ceases to exist.
The parents only wanted to pretend they believed that. Sexualizing young girls for Pan's pleasure is not what the protective parents had in mind.
...you lost me at "holistic"...
$10781* vs. $4000 per pupil per year.
Winner winner chicken (non-meat substitute) chicken dinner!
These folks have created the cold fusion of education funding and we all should give thanks and praise.
*http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/01/29/how-states-are-spending-money-in-education
"Gaia is a private school that provides holistic educational services to students K-12 with emphasis on democratic process, individualized instruction, academic freedom, self-motivation, cooperative learning, youth empowerment, and environmental stewardship. We are part of an education movement that has a long, fascinating history and a vibrant, viable future."
I beg your pardon, Professor, but where in this statement of educational philosophy does it say "and we plan to take your kids to a sex toy store"? Not to put too fine a point on it, this entire statement is modern educational jargon that means anything and nothing.
So that's not an intelligent question. The question is *why* those educators thought this was a good choice to take children to a sex shop - no matter how enlightened they considered it. I wonder how those educators would have reacted to suggesting taking the kids to a target range?
"Caitlyn, draw a circle on your piece of paper indicating how big your mouth would need to open to fit this twelve inch black flexible dong with realistic veins."
"Okay!" (draws circle, proud).
"Now Caitlyn, that circle is MUCH too small: you would barely get the tip in. Visualize the needed geometry, Caitlyn."
"But I am not in geometry yet, Mr. Baker."
"It is never to early to learn, child. Try again."
"Okay!" (draws slightly bigger circle).
"Oh Caitlyn, that is still too small. You want to be able to get your entire mouth around it."
"But Mr. Baker, if I got my entire mouth around it where would it go?"
"Why, into your throat, Caitlyn: into your mouth and throat."
"I'll try." (draws slightly bigger circle).
"Caitlyn, Caitlyn. Look at Mia's circle: look how big and welcoming it is."
"Mr. Baker, Mia is two years older than me. I just don't think it would ever fit MY mouth."
"You'd be surprised, Caitlyn, at what can fit if you try. Why, it could fit into spaces on your body even smaller than your mouth."
"Umm. I don't understand, Mr. Baker."
"That is alright, Caitlyn: when you are Mia's age you will better understand."
I am Laslo.
I wonder how those educators would have reacted to suggesting taking the kids to a target range?
Now that would be worth doing!
The parents are not at fault here. The mission statement, like all mission statements, is palaver, and most parents would pay it scant attention.
Your logic seems to be that there were clues that the school would do something stupid and breach trust. Maybe, but the clues were ambiguous.
For the kind of money the parents are paying, the final exam should be nothing less than randomly pairing off the students to make the other one have an orgasm.
"Mr. Baker, are all boys' pee-pees as big as the black plastic pee-pee?"
"Now Caitlyn, we are educating you to be a young adult. Adults use adult words."
"So, ...penis?"
"Good girl, Caitlyn. And the "black plastic pee-pee" is called a...?"
"A..... penis?"
"No, Caitlyn, it is not a real penis. It is a dildo. Or a dong."
"So Mr. Baker: are boys'... penises.... as big as the black... dong?"
"No, no. When boys get older their penises grow larger, but very few grow to the size of the black dildo."
"Why is the dildo black, Mr. Baker?"
"There are a lot reasons, Caitlyn. Dildoes can come in all colors..."
"Even yellow like a butterfly?"
"Even yellow like a butterfly, Caitlyn. Some women are just drawn to large black dildoes, that's all."
"Being an adult is weird, Mr. Baker."
"Caitlyn, what is "weird" to you today will seem perfectly normal to you later..."
I am Laslo.
Liberals eating their own.
Whackjob parents send kids to a school run by whackjobs and are shocked when their kids go on a whackjob field trip.
It's a science trip to learn about batteries.
The fact that the director of the school is named Starri ought to have been a red flag.
I mean, maybe Starri is an ethnic name, too, which is unfortunate. But it sure reads like something off a faded marquis by the airport.
Didn't they have to do permission slips? Or is that an outdated concept?
Students ought to have a choice to go to schools like this. And taxpayers should be forced to pay for every red cent of it.
"Ethan, I see you drew a straight line, not a circle."
"Mr. Baker, I'm not ever going to be putting a black dong in my mouth."
"It is just an exercise, Ethan: the whole class needs to participate equally."
"But I like girls, Mr. Baker."
"You say that now, but things can change as you get older."
"I don't think so, Mr. Baker."
"You know, I thought the same as you at your age, Ethan."
"But you're gay, Mr. Baker."
"Actually. I am bisexual, Ethan. It is never too early to learn the correct terminology on these things."
"But I don't want to put a black dong in my mouth, ever."
"Oh, Ethan. It may not just be your mouth, you know..."
I am Laslo.
Wait a minute! So progressive parents are having badthink conservative thoughts when it's their own precious little snowflakes involved? Whatever happened to one continuous, inclusive shame-free environment? It seems like the Smitten Kitten embodies their entire ethos, so why the hating?
It gets even better when you see a picture of ol' Starri, herself.
Remember these people voluntarily sent their children to be educated by this woman!
"Ethan, I am sensing resistance to diversity in your words."
"Mr. Baker, I'm trying to be good. Isn't okay though to just be straight?"
"There are very few "just straight" people in the world, Ethan: sexuality is very fluid."
"But my mom and dad are straight..."
"Well, that's the facade they are choosing to present to the world, Ethan."
"My dad is NOT a homosexual, Mr. Baker."
"Ethan, Ethan: playing with another man's penis doesn't necessarily make you homosexual."
"My dad doesn't do that."
"Nor does putting a black plastic dong in your anus, for that matter. People are allowed to experiment freely."
"Mr. Baker!"
"There may be a lot of things your dad could be hiding from you, Ethan. For instance, have you ever seen him dress up in your mother's clothes?"
"No!"
"Would that change how you feel about him, Ethan?"
"Yes! Wait - no. I mean -- this is so confusing, Mr. Baker."
"Ethan, sexual confusion is the first step to sexual understanding..."
I am Laslo.
"... a long, fascinating history and a vibrant, viable future."
Interesting choice of words...
JOB
"You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean."
That quote is just gibberish. It has no actual meaning at all. Well, I guess if the children were wondering if they were actually spirit beings with no physical form, that quote might be an appropriate response.
Starri is the tattooed lady in the circus freak show.
Will this knowledge" now be required for a high (Or, passing?) score on the "Advanced Placement" or "Common Core" examinations?
“ A culture in which everything can be said and shown will produce, as night follows day, a society in which everything, no matter how terrible, can be done.” Philip Rieff- 1968
NotquiteunBuckley said...
"Gaia is a K-12 school with a motto promising academic freedom, youth empowerment and democratic education. Parents say the school has about 25 students, including several described by administrators as transgender.
What kind of school has "several" transgenders among only 25 students? It's not surprising a school catering to outlier interests or needs is engaging in outlier activities.
"Smitten Kitten opened in 2003 and is committed to promoting “an inclusive, shame-free environment where it’s OK to talk about all kinds of consensual sex.”"
Bernie Sanders wants to talk about non-consensual sex.
Fascists.
AJ Lynch beat me to it. This is just a particularly obvious case of "my airy-fairy unprincipled open-mindedness good; your airy-fairy unprincipled open-mindedness bad."
There are two basic problems with claiming you're tolerant and open-minded without exception.
1. You're lying.
2. Your lying open-mindedness will conflict with someone else's once you come into contact with reality.
At least the Gaia school has enough sense not to employ a repug wrestling coach.
What is democratic education?
The personalized and dynamic nature of democratic education makes it difficult to define. There is no “accepted” definition of what exactly democratic education means (and, in our opinion, we hope no authority ever presumes to claim an exact definition). However, it might help to provide a brief description of what it is not as well as varying perspectives on what it is. Democratic education, as we see it and in the context of this directory, does not refer to an authoritarian approach involving a hierarchical structure and pre-determined course-work designed to create “citizens of a democracy.” Such an interpretation is taken by, among others, University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann in her book entitled Democratic Education (1999). While Gutmann uses the term “democratic education” to describe the end goal of a mostly pre-planned, authoritarian form of schooling, we believe that democracy and freedom ought to be both the end result of education as well as the means through which education takes place.
Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaia
The pictures of the place don't look too bad.
Before the internet,before video stores most popular place for coin operated movies and toys and accessories was sleezy place on El Camino Real. Walked in one day. Recogbized my brother-in-law,back to me, perusing magazines. Snuck up behind him, grabbed his ass. Pretty dang funny
Students ought to have a choice to go to schools like this. And taxpayers should be forced to pay for every red cent of it.
garage you ignorant slut..
1) It is the parents' money, redirected from failing public schools to a school of the parent's choice.
2) Every student who uses a voucher or a charter school means there is more money left behind for the students who stay in the public school, because they charters and vouchers receive less money per student.
FullMoon said...
The pictures of the place don't look too bad.
The people in the pictures are overwhelmingly white. Must be a Tea Party operation.
I expect that the children will suffer more long-term harm from the Gaia indoctrination than from the visit to the porn store.
And the "Sex positive" (read: libertine) side of the Left bumps into, yet again, the puritanical side.
Aren't these the folks who go apeshit when conservatives rail against sex education in the schools? I mean, it's okay to teach your kid about homosexuality, bi-sexuality, transgenderism, etc, but not okay to show your kid what a dildo looks like? I'm not seeing the consistency here.....
Sometime within the last ten years, I got a high speed Internet connection for home use. During my search for the elusive Higgs boson, I inadvertently stumbled across several porn sites that revealed the full panoply of human sexuality. Holy shit. I see young women who, back when, I would have proposed to on the first date performing sex acts that I didn't know existed when I was her age......The birds and bees ain't what they used to be. A young person of minimal craftiness has, I presume, access to the same porn. I wonder how a middle schooler processes this information.......Maybe it's not all bad. Perhaps it leads to tolerance of unusual sexual behavior. Maybe it's not all good. Maybe young women suspect that vast numbers of young men are into gang rape......Music, sexual mores, dietary habits--these all change over time and one generation's ick factor is another generation's sushi. I prefer Gilbert & Sullivan, sexual repression, and pot roast, but I love in a world that is evaporating. Rap, bukkake, and kale are the waves of the future.
1) It is the parents' money, redirected from failing public schools to a school of the parent's choice.
Public money redirected to a for-profit private enterprise. Since that is all the rage these days I should open a charter school. Maybe a madrassa. Maybe a Scientology school. I'm sure you wouldn't have any problem paying for that whatsoever.
I'm sure you wouldn't have any problem paying for that whatsoever.
1) I Wouldn't be paying.
2) Your fight would be with your fellow Lefties, not me.
"During my search for the elusive Higgs boson, I inadvertently stumbled across several porn sites..."
I suspect your finger slipped a bit to the right typing the last letter of boson.
Students ought to have a choice to go to schools like this. And taxpayers should be forced to pay for every red cent of it.
Nice try, garage, but no one in this thread has said anything about making the school illegal; nor has anyone even hinted that they've now changed their mind about private schools and vouchers.
If you live in Wisconsin you sure as hell would be paying for Madrassa.
Public money redirected to a for-profit private enterprise. Since that is all the rage these days I should open a charter school. Maybe a madrassa. Maybe a Scientology school. I'm sure you wouldn't have any problem paying for that whatsoever.
I'm not paying for it. The parents are. At least the ones who pay taxes. But that said, in the long run, even if I am "paying" for it, as weird as some of those kids will be, they'll STILL be better off than with the indoctrination that goes on in the public school system. They'll be more apt to get a better job and stay off the public dole. So net-wise, I'm saving money.
Of particular note from your comment, you seem to think that the government taking my money suddenly belongs to the "public". That's typical of socialists, though.
"... is committed to promoting an inclusive, shame-free environment where it’s OK to talk about all kinds of consensual sex.”
When is a smut shop not a smut shop? When it is purporting to promote the ideals of secular progressive decadents.
Man, I remember when we needed to get permission slips to even leave the school.
Does Gaia Peoples' Revolutionary School require their Young Pioneers to be vaccinated?
the school, housed in a Unitarian church
Q: What do you get when you cross a Jehovah's Witness with a Unitarian?
A: Some who goes around ringing doorbells for no apparent reason.
garage mahal said...
If you live in Wisconsin you sure as hell would be paying for Madrassa.
Yes, but:
1) I would be paying less for the Madrassa then for the public schools, so my taxes would go down.
2) The Madrassa is a full standard deviation closer to centrist than the typical public school, so I would be reducing my support for extremism.
Thank you for today's serving of Schadenfreude. It was delicious.
How is Patrick ever going to get into a good college?
garage mahal said...
If you live in Wisconsin you sure as hell would be paying for Madrassa.
>Ignorance is Bliss said...
Yes, but:
1) I would be paying less for the Madrassa then for the public schools, so my taxes would go down.
2) The Madrassa is a full standard deviation closer to centrist than the typical public school, so I would be reducing my support for extremism.
3) The Union Goons would agitate for firing incompetent teachers at failing madrassas.
garage mahal said...
Students ought to have a choice to go to schools like this. And taxpayers should be forced to pay for every red cent of it.
6/3/15, 9:12 AM
Yes indeed they should. Bad as it is, its far better than any unionized inner city public school. And cheaper. Thanks for making the suggestion.
Now, I don't care about the school or sex ed.
But I do care about mocking hippies.
That page includes a quote from Alan Watts: "You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean."
That's true.
But it's also true that a lump of granite is exactly as much "continuous with the physical universe" as a human being is.
It's true but effectively meaningless. It doesn't make anyone special, Mr. Watts, and I'm pretty sure nobody has the idea that they're not part of "the physical universe".
@NorthOfTheOneOhOne/
Proving once again that a picture IS worth more than 10,000 words..
"Was that wrong? Should I have not done that? I tell you I gotta plead ignorance on this thing because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing was frowned upon, you know, cause I've worked in a lot of offices and I tell you people do that all the time."
Can't wait for drug and alcohol education day
"Gaia Democratic School." That should tell you everything you need to know about the school, the people who run it, and the parents who send their kids there. This field trip should be no surprise to anyone.
This is not a popular homeschool field trip.
Can't wait for drug and alcohol education day
Boy: "Hello, my name is Willem, and I'm a student at Gaia Democratic School."
Meeting attendees: "Hello, Willem."
I gotta say, this gave me a well-need laugh this morning. Thank you, Professor. And, thank you, unruly hordes of comically-talented commentators:)
The "Gaia Democratic School"?!!? That is priceless!
I'm surprised we don't have one of these schools in Berkeley -- I would send my kids there to play a huge cosmic joke on them.
I wonder what the mascot is -- the "Gaia Fighting Gophers" sounds pretty formidable. Probably, though, sports don't fall within the school philosophy. Maybe, co-ed badmitton would work.
Never in the history of education has a school name "Gaia Democratic School" conveyed so much with so few words.
I think that the school motto should have provided a warning for parents:
'All your dildos are belong to us'
I hope the Gaia school has another exciting field trip in mind soon so that Laslo can turn his imagination loose. Disgusting on the one hand, riotously funny on the other.
Progressive morality. Progress dysfunction. Progressive corruption. Progress is an unqualified concept defined as a monotonic process or change that has an unearned positive connotation.
It's a private school. If they want to upset the parents, they will bear the cost of their stupidity with lost customers. This is unlike public schools, which have a largely captive population that have no options for telling the school administrators to go to h***.
Insty had an article yesterday I think on how the great state of California is now teaching kids how to have sex the right way. Ahhh, those progressives, progressing backwards.
When you hear or read the word "holistic" you are in the presence of bullshit.
"That page includes a quote from Alan Watts: 'You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.'"
Do you think maybe Mr. Watts meant "contiguous" instead of "continuous?"
Just as long as they don't go on a field trip to a church.
Or - picture some deviant teacher taking them down to see the ROTC drill.
Then there would be lawsuits.
Clyde,
"So progressive parents are having badthink conservative thoughts when it's their own precious little snowflakes involved?"
Yeah, who was it who said: "If only our elites preached what they practiced!"
Trashhauler,
"Do you think maybe Mr. Watts meant 'contiguous' instead of 'continuous?' "
I think Mr. Watts didn't really mean anything at all.
It's not just "progressive" parents. Feminists are having second thoughts about the selective-child policy (i.e. pro-choice) that was necessary to fight a sexual revolution and establish a false gender equivalence; and the progressive institutional discrimination of their sons, including denying them justice with a prejudicial presumption of guilt. Perhaps if they changed their names...
what did they expect exactly?
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