While reading the newspaper today I came upon an article detailing how the state of Oklahoma is now requiring teacher applicants from both New York and California who are looking to get a job teaching in Oklahoma to pass a loyalty test. The test is produced by PragerU, an Oklahoma based conservative non-profit which is becoming well known for posting ultra-conservative and religiously based teaching materials on-line.
Here is the link to the article:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/oklahoma-to-require-id...
Apparently, the test is only being required for applicants who are arriving from a blue state, and it is being imposed as a requirement for those applicants to achieve certification to teach in Oklahoma. It should be noted that in order to teach in New York State that you must have a Masters Degree in order to obtain state certification. Oklahoma only requires that a person have a bachelor’s degree. In other words, a person who is teaching in New York and decides to move to Oklahoma to take a teaching job is already over qualified. However, a teacher from Oklahoma who moves to New York will probably not meet the state’s required educational qualifications for teacher certification.
Also, Oklahoma is already suffering from a shortage of teachers - so why not make it even harder to hire qualified people? It should also be noted that Oklahoma ranks near the bottom, 50 out of 51 (against all 50 states and Washington D.C.), for education - outpacing only New Mexico. Oklahoma consistently ranks in the bottom ten states for multiple rankings, including:
Median ACT Score (49)
Reading Test Scores (48)
Dropout Rate (46)
Median SAT Score (45)
Math Test Scores (44)
Pupil-Teacher Ratio (39)
But fear not! They will rank #1 in MAGA loyalty!
It is truly scary just what passes for intelligence in some parts of this country.
Comments
Simply
Another step towards a fascist playbook to indoctrinate students with a preferred ideology.
Not surprised anymore
I suggested I will move to Canada one day and given all this it is looking better and better.
I pass fine so it is not my transness that is necessarily driving me but for my own emotional and mental health.
Also, I refuse to travel to any red state anymore, even if it is Montana where Yellowstone is. It is most unfortunate some of the most amazing natural wonders are there.
Recently I watched a YouTube video about Canadian snowbirds who overwinter in Florida are deciding they no longer am willing to do so given the shit the US has turned into (especially Florida!) and are now avoiding the state, causing a big economic hit.
Good for them ! I share that boycott and refuse to visit there anymore also.
I am all so grateful that purely by accident I wound up transitioning in a Blue State and be able to make a good living. I would be pulling my hair out otherwise even so I am close to doing so now.
It's The Push Back
Accepted by the rednecks, cowboys, at all the stores, the clinics, VA, and far as I can tell, everyone I meet. No one has to accept me, I don't demand to be anyone special because of who and what I am. I love Oklahoma, have no desire to live anywhere else despite gov stitt and his band of trans haters. I love the U.S. despite Trump and his band of trans haters. What I can't do is change the ignorance and hate from the outside looking in.
As I told my psychiatrist when we were talking about the girls we try and help. I have an inside track, I'm one of "them". I try and share political and medical knowledge with many of the LGBT groups I know and the new ones which I run across from time to time. I won't join any nor donate to the cause for the simple reason, we, myself, as a class of people aren't anything special. We don't need laws making us different from all other humans. This is the main problem with humanity now. Everyone wants to be a special class of people more than all others in the human race rather than being a part of the human race.
Wouldn't it be nice if we were one class of people called human? Sadly there are those like Trump, Stitt, Musk, and so many others who are filled with hate. They are in a position where they can pass laws against those they believe shouldn't exist, which includes me and all those like me. Research history, include the bible, all the ancient scrolls, nothing has changed. Humanity has a big hate factor against everyone who is not like themself.
Praying I could change the basic attitude of most humans is the best I can do in this lifetime. Most have a dead lock on their belief and will never change. I will go on being me and they will go on being themselves refusing to change and accept instead of hate.
Hugs D. Eden,
Barbie Jean Lee
Don't waste one's life tilting at windmills.
"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference"
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Special Laws
So, you cheerfully blogged like last year or two that you were able to get your commercial DL (or some kind of DL) have the correct gender on it because you were able to change your passport due to a Biden administration policy to allow such gender changes.
Why is that different then ? Given what you've said, you should not have taken advantage of such a rule.
Passport Change
Girls were changing their passports long before Biden became the auto pen president. Trump in his infinite ignorant hatred of all things trans banned what had long been possible. Stitt with the same kind of infinite ignorant hatred stopped all who were gifted to be born in Oklahoma, the ability to change a doctor's best guess as the baby was expelled from the chute of his or her mother. Or possible cesarean birth.
My world isn't perfect as I seem to upset many who are fixated on their own view of what is the way the world should be. I've been called what is probably every derogatory name possible in the English language and a few languages I didn't understand. For that, I'm thankful. I have upset their limited understanding of humanity, gender, or sex, and possibly their singular view of self. A few have been so infuriated I have disturbed their construct of male, female, and political views, they threatened to kill me. Those I don't debate I only advise. Don't miss.
We may correctly call out the ignorant misguided hatred of those in charge of this nation and some of the states. Sadly, like many who are claiming they have been regulated to non status as acceptable human, those who are in charge were pushed into accepting what they didn't like or want. Their view of the world consisted of male or female..., period. Laws were passed they had to "accept" a deviant lifestyle, a non binary or a floating gender society. Disagree or make unkind remarks, or refuse to serve, and go to jail or be fined, be sued into oblivion, and all it took was one complaint whether true or not.
Most people can understand there is a difference between male and female, not only physically but the way each thinks emotionally and mentally. Medical science has proven MtF has the brain structure of a genetic female and FtM has the brain structure of a genetic male. There is, as in all humanity, a wide divergence as it's not always absolute. In time medical science will again be accepted. The pendulum will swing back eventually where trans are accepted. It won't be in my lifetime.
One can't stop a dust devil as they come and go whirling across the fields dancing to their own rhythm. Accept life and it's challenges for what it is. And my part in all this? Less than the grain of sand on an endless beach. I made that trip already and God gave me a choice of finishing what I had. Not my job to convince anyone what is right, only share what I believe. This life is a gift. Don't waste it.
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Everyone wants to be a special class of people
Yes indeed;
George Orwell - Animal Farm
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann
I have always loved that quote…….
And have often considered myself to be the more equal pig - but not out of prejudice or bigotry.
The fact that I was born male, that I am a WASP never contributed to that feeling. No, what made me refer to myself as the “more equal pig” had much more to do with intelligence and education; one an accident of genetics, the other an accident of being privileged to grow up in areas with very good school districts and in a time where advanced programs were not only available for better students, but were actually actively emplaced.
Add in the fact that I was an officer in the military, which did in fact afford me with certain advantages along with the added responsibilities, as well as the fact that I have always been senior management in my civilian career.
Yes, I was given the benefit of advantages not available to everyone - and yes, that is wrong in many ways. In our society, there will always be those with inherent advantages due to birth. But it falls upon all of us as a society to make every effort to give all our citizens equal opportunities to excel, to make the most of what their genes have provided them.
Some animals will always be more equal than others, but all should be given equal opportunity to make the most of themselves.
Restricting what can be taught and repressing ideas simply because they don’t meet your narrow political or religious viewpoint does not meet that goal. This is a road to becoming a second class society and a third world nation.
D. Eden
“Hier stehe ich; ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir.”
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
We are all individuals
We all have inherent qualities that make us stand apart. IQ is my only claim to fame. I have the innate ability to learn in all three ways education is imparted; verbally, visually and reading. That makes learning easy for me. I believe I inherited that from my father. Working along side of him in DYI projects around the home taught me to be confident in my ability to size up a problem and move ahead toward the solution without specific education in that area.
I grew up in the fifties and sixties in a lower middle-class neighborhood. In reality, we were poor, only I didn't know it because most of my friends were in the same social/economic strata. My father worked as a baker and, as a single parent, raised four kids; all on an eighth-grade education. But he was well read and could hold an intelligent conversation with far more well educated people on nearly any subject.
I have a high school education. When I need to do a job I've never done or been trained to do, I simply grab a reference book (or in these days research on the internet) and after a quick scan of the material I just do the job.
I didn't really think too much about that until my youngest got old enough to be asked to be a bridesmaid. Twice, she needed a dress made for the occasion. My wife didn't sew, so I stepped in an made the dresses with the help of a sewing encyclopedia. My sister was visiting just after I sewed the first one and the subject of my daughter being a bridesmaid came up and my daughter showed her the dress.
My sister compliment my wife on have done a good job with it and my wife told her it was me who made the dress. I was asked where I learned to sew. I showed her the book and told her I just looked up the terms I wasn't familiar with in it. Then she paid me the biggest compliment she ever could have. "You're just like your dad. Have a job to do with no training in the area; read a book and do it like a pro."
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann