So The Boy was cast in his school's fall production of the musical Jekyll & Hyde. He's going to be Utterson, Jekyll's best friend. He's excited. So are we. It's the little things.
Have you ever been doing something fun and interesting, then begun to have the feeling you've created a monster? Sort of like the revelation Dr. Frankenstein should have had. Or maybe like Dr. Jekyll becoming Mr. Hyde.
I've been in serious Mr. Hyde mode. Hopefully no one has noticed besides me, but that's probably not the case. I'm fairly transparent.
I think it comes from reading too much news.
I've also been frustrated with the "monster" that is our house. Not that our house is a monster or at all monstrous. I love our house. We do, however, have on-going renovations that can, at times, be monstrous. Every so often I have to give myself a mental pep talk for inspiration and motivation. I'm overdue for a pep talk.
My body is feeling monstrous of late. The whole quit-smoking-gain-weight phenomenon. Last week I could get by blaming it on PMS, but I can only kid myself so long. I need to get off my ass and move around more.
I was listening to NPR at work yesterday and there was a piece on how sex ed curriculums should include more about homosexual sex. My boss walked in just as it started and I didn't get to (have to?) listen to it. The part I did hear was regarding a kindergarten curriculum. I was like "Huh? Sex ed as part of the kindergarten curriculum!?" Surely I heard it wrong. I think I made a noise like one of the grunts in Warcraft II because my boss looked at me funny and asked "Are you okay?"
See, that's the kind of thing that I imagine totally turns off the general population from letting their minds even touch on the idea of accepting homosexuality. I mean, it turned me off and I am a homosexual. Quit messing with the children already! Let's educate the adults first. Yeesh. Or do I have it backward? In actuality I'm probably more freaked by folks thinking it's necessary for schools to teach sex ed to kindergarteners in the first place. I've always felt sex ed is more the responsibility of parents. Am I missing something?
My thought processes are crabby and disjointed. I started out thinking about Jekyll & Hyde because of The Boy. And then I started thinking my behavior of late has been monstrous. Which it has. In a cranky kind of way though, not a murderous kind of way. I'll blame it on adjusting to no nicotine.
I sure could use a good night's sleep.
4 comments:
Long comment alert--
Bear in mind that "sex ed" in kindergarten is kind of a misnomer-- usually what that means (if the term's used at all,) is learning about families. I missed the piece yesterday but listened to it today on the NPR website, and I thought it was kind of sensationalist (ooh! NPR, being sensationalist!) to use the term "sex ed," when what they were really talking about was educating young kids that all kinds of families are okay. The only talk I heard about specific sex acts was from an 8th grade teacher, and sex ed in 8th grade is pretty standard-- in the (private, religious) school where I work it's taught as part of the 7th grade science curriculum, and I haven't heard of many complaints from parents.
As to educating the adults first-- have you seen the movie "It's Elementary"? It's a documentary about educating elementary-school kids about gays and lesbians. Yeah, it sounded like a little much even to me, but after I saw it I changed my mind. I realized I'd been thinking about young kids as a blank slate, but the 7-and 8-year-olds interviewed in the film had very definite-- and negative-- ideas about what the word "gay" meant, all gathered from movies and TV and adults' casual talk. All the curriculum in the film is age-appropriate-- nobody's going around talking about sex itself to young kids, but rather about who people love and about accepting differences.
So what really bugged me was how NPR plugged the piece. If nice, calm, liberal NPR gave the story such a misleading slant, what will Fox News do with it?
[Okay. Stepping off soapbox now & dusting myself off.]
Website references: (just so you can tell I'm a librarian ;)
It's Elementary website:
http://www.womedia.org/itselementary.htm
To hear the NPR story:
http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgDate=13-Sep-2004&prgId=2
--Scroll down to "Massachusetts Schools Weigh Gay Topics"
Woot! There's a librarian in the house!
Elswhere, thanks for the links and your thoughts.
I've had this bubbling around in my head since I
made this post and you've added more spice to the
chili. I'm going to let it simmer a bit before I
take another bite.
Hi-- hope it was helpful or at least interesting-- sorry if I went on a bit. How's the nonsmoking going?
OK off to work now--
It is both interesting and helpful.
I like it that you "went on a bit". :)
The non-smoking is. Just is.
Just when I think it's getting easier,
I'm reminded it's still hard. But the
end result is well worth the effort!
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