The other day on The View that brilliant analyst of social relations, Joy Behar, said that a lot of homeschooled kids are demented. The gaggle had been talking about the Obama girls going to the pricey Sidwell Friends school, and Joy said wouldn’t it be swell (she didn’t use the word swell, of course) if they brought a bunch of D.C. kids into the White House and had their own little school there, like Little House on the Prairie (she did use those words).
Which led to a brief discussion of homeschooling, which Elisabeth Hasselbeck alone defended (surprise) and which former public schoolteacher Joy Behar denounced as making a lot of the kids “demented.”
As I’m sitting at the computer reading this (I have better things to do with my time than watch The View, and only hear about the asinine – or should I say demented? – things Joy and Company say when they make the news or blogs) my own demented homeschooled kids are playing the rhyming game. They’re doing –ard words, like hard, card, etc. They exhaust all the ones they know, and move on to made up words like nard, zard and bard.
“Bard’s a real word,” I interrupt, and tell them what it means.
I go back to surfing the web and they go back to jard, vard, dard, mard.
“And retard,” I add under my breath, because I’m now reading the comments on a Daily Kos post.
“What?” Their little ears perk right up. They know by now that when mom says something sotto voce, it’s likely to be something juicy.
“Nothing.”
“What’s a retard?”
“If you heard me, why’d you say ‘what’?”
Ignoring me, intent on getting the goods. “What’s a retard?”
So I explain what retarded (stress on second syllable) is, and how retard (stress on first) is a horribly mean name that schoolkids used to use as an insult meaning “dummy” when I was in school, but which isn’t at all nice, and which they must never call anyone.
“So it means nincompoop?” That’s their favorite name to call each other at the moment.
“Yes, but remember, you don’t call people retard. Or nincompoop, either, really. But retard’s worse.”
“Or imbecile.” They like that one, too, but not as much as nincompoop. Though thanks to me and my big mouth, both will probably give way to retard now.
It occurs to me that what Joy Behar meant by “demented” might include being so socially maladjusted as to not be able to call someone a retard. If my kids were in school, surely they’d be calling each other retard instead of nincompoop. If they were in school, they’d have classmates with older siblings who watch South Park and could call each other a lot worse than retard or nincompoop.
They’re winding down on the –ard words now. “And retard!” my eldest repeats gleefully as they finish.
“But remember,” I say, “you don’t ever call anyone retard.”
If they ever happen to meet Joy Behar, however, I may make an exception.
Comments 9
So, you proved Joy correct. How ignorant you are. Worse – a bad parent – some would consider immoral.
“So I explain what retarded (stress on second syllable) is, and how retard (stress on first) is a horribly mean name that schoolkids used to use as an insult meaning “dummy” when I was in school, but which isn’t at all nice, and which they must never call anyone.”
Perhaps you’d do better to get your face into a dictonary and away from opining on a blog. Better yet, get your kids into a real school, with real teachers – teachers who know the actual meaning of words and are able to convey that information to children – rather than have them grow up ill-informed ignorant demented fools.
Here are definitions:
Retard – To impede or delay; cause to proceed slowly. To become delayed. Hinder
Retardate – A mentally retarded person.
Retarded – Relatively slow or backward in mental or emotional development or in academic achievement.
Will your children be considered retarded by other well informed people due to your mis-information? Even though they are not retardate are you retarding their advancement?
I think so.
Posted 28 Nov 2008 at 6:50 pm ¶“Perhaps you’d do better to get your face into a dictonary…teachers who know the actual meaning of words and are able to convey that information to children…”
Perhaps instead of writing insulting comments, you ought to read what I actually wrote:
“So I explain what retarded (stress on second syllable) is…”
This means that I explained what the word meant. I just didn’t think that typing out all the dictionary definitions on the blog the way you did would make for interesting reading. The kids and I actually had quite a long discussion of what the word means, in both its verbal and adjectival forms. I’m not exactly clear on why you would think I need to “get [my] face into a dictionary” (an, um, interesting way of phrasing it) after I wrote that I explained the meaning to them.
As to whether I’m retarding their advancement, well, since you’ve never met my children or me, and since you don’t read my blog very carefully, I don’t think you’re in much of a position to judge.
Posted 28 Nov 2008 at 9:55 pm ¶To call Ms Russell immoral and ignorant shows that you are reading through the left lense of your glasses. Only someone from the left would choose to use the phrasing you did in your post. It only goes to show that what Ms
Posted 28 Nov 2008 at 10:09 pm ¶Russell, originally, wrote was the truth and nothing but the truth. I guarantee you her children are much better off being home schooled than being in a public school administered by the left!
I don’t know Brigette Russell personally, only know her from reading her blog, but no one who reads it regularly could possibly think she’s too ignorant and immoral to educate her children.
Posted 28 Nov 2008 at 10:41 pm ¶I know Brigette personally and she is very moral and well educated. I can only pray that when my children reach school age, their teacher will be as educated as she is.
Posted 30 Nov 2008 at 11:22 pm ¶I’ll chime in here. I’ve known Brigette about 8 years from chatting online and she is anything but ignorant. Her children are extremely lucky to have her teach them!
Posted 03 Dec 2008 at 5:59 pm ¶I’ve known Brigette through an email list for 8 years also, and she is one of the few people I’ve ever met that I know could properly homeschool their children. She did the right thing by explaining the correct meaning and then also emphasizing that some people use the word “retard” in a derogatory manner against people. In the same way that people use “ignorant” and “immoral” out of context. For what it’s worth, I watch and enjoy The View. But I don’t like Joy Behar because she *is* ignorant in every meaning of that word.
As for teachers, just because they work in a school does not mean they are capable of teaching our children.
Posted 14 Dec 2008 at 1:43 pm ¶While you may be right that she originally wrote the truth, Dianna, to say that ARoseS is “reading through the left lense of [her/his] glasses. Only someone from the left would choose to use the phrasing [she/he] did in [her/his] post” only makes you look ignorant. One cannot judge an entire side of the spectrum as one entity, nor can one say that one on the right may have made similar statements. Think before you post.
Posted 22 Dec 2008 at 1:56 am ¶“Bev” said Brigette is one of the few people she’s met that she knows could properly home school their children. That statement was probably meant as a compliment to Brigette. Just for information’s sake, North Carolina has 38,367 home school families registered with the state. There are far more than just a ‘few’ moms out there who can and do properly home school their children. This isn’t the ’80’s anymore when home schooling was new and different.
Posted 11 Mar 2009 at 3:27 am ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 2
[...] must be either a CEO in line for a fat bonus, or mentally challenged. I’d say retarded, but last time I used that word I got called an unfit mother. Screw it. Anyone who thinks we need to shovel more [...]
[...] She can write a series of encyclicals titled with cutesy names for excrement, work to ban the horror that is homeschooling, and canonize Barack Obama as the first patron saint of the Church. There wouldn’t be any [...]
Post a Comment