Fair enough, we can disagree. I don't believe in this idea that everyone has to agree on everything to get along, be social, even be friends. This idea that's become pervasive in this country that we all must agree on everything to get along on anything is simply, wrong.

Jeff

This is a great post with a number of valid points. Just wanted to say that.

Jeff

This I agree with 100%!

I’m broad-stroking with my particular shade of paint, for sure. I grew up on a street with an inordinate number of home schooled kids. One was a family that had roughly a gross of children and were straight up a cult. The others were children of parents that were damned near shut-ins. All those kids were shot out of the womb into nuttiness. But we have a few friends that home school. I really think a lot of one of the families’ program, which actually exposes their kids to other home school kids, and offer extracurricular activities and somewhat normal looking social exposure. Their kids are giant dorks, but functional. The others? Eh. Those kids are living in the woods alone types.

A dad of a girl in my class in 1986 raised hell to the school and the teacher because they played the movie “Romeo and Juliet” and the teacher had to cover the boob scene with a cardboard box. The dad was livid.

A bunch of us kids got wind of it so we ding dong ditched him several times over the next years. Once with flaming dog poop and another one where we all peed in a seven-Eleven big gulp and tilted it on the door. “Honey, get the mop” we heard from across the street in the corn field. Be careful what you wish for.

In this scenario the teacher is doing their best to engage with children on their level thru content that is relevant to that age group. We have to acknowledge that teens right now are all wrapped up in youtube and tiktok personalities and meme culture. That in mind, this content seems well thought out and in line with audience. Even the original song is light content compared to most young teen tv plot lines these days. IMHO, instead of sheltering it is best to be setting an example of a reasonable and reliable moral compass as a framework for children to form their own for navigating this world. However, one of the keys to doing that successfully is to stay on top of the modern component and not overeating based on own dated ideas of what is acceptable. Societal norms are drastically different for each generation. Kids today are exposed to more adult topics and culture earlier than any generation before and parents are never going to be able to plug the firehose of information they are blasted with. The best chance we have is to dive in with them and try and keep up. That way we can help them understand what they are seeing, hearing, and experiencing while being accepting and providing context. Overreacting and sheltering will just leave us with a child that doesn’t trust us enough to ask for guidance. Try and keep in mind that what we find appropriate really doesn't matter as they will be exposed to everything wether we like it or not. When issues like this pop up with a young teen its better to tell them why we feel that way and let them form their own opinions as they are going too anyway but if they respect our opinion and trust us then have more influence on their development.

That's the hardest lean I've ever seen.....it's practically parallel to the floor.

This. This right here. Do some parents really actually think that by 7th grade their kid haven’t seen a boob? What kind of chastity belt Puritanism is so gullible as to think that shielding a child from an exposed breast on a tv, between Active Shooter drills, is the dragon that needs to be slain in school?

In fact, the real atrocity here is that they show that boring POS 1969 version of R&J to this day, instead of the vastly superior and more socially relevant Baz Luhrmann joint. Tapping into relevancy and adapting are key to educating.

So, while I might not agree with the process being used, one thing to bring up is that it is well known that putting words to melody(song) can help you remember things. It's an actual learning tool. Did you listen to them yourself and see if they had actual valid information? Maybe you're overreacting.

PS: Weird Al also did songs over songs with questionable lyrics.

Well many do wish it was the 1950's again.

Pinside definitely leans Left. Also, If you are not a parent you are not qualified to be posting in this thread.

Pinside leans right. Moreso the older it gets. I’ve participated in these discussions for a decade now. The discords we have for stocks and general asshattery are HARD right. Disposable-income wielding, 6 and 7 figure earning, houses with room for a dozen pinball machines owning white dudes. It’s right of middle, for sure.

No... My conclusion is drawn by the number of threads I've read here over the years on a great number of topics where the right leaning opinions dominated the conversation time and time again. You really can't be serious to think Pinside is somehow a "good cross section of America and the world", it's a pinball forum... I will say there are a number of different viewpoints available here and I think this thread calls that out nicely.

Also, if it were about money this would be left leaning exclusively as we're the ones with all the cash anyhow... LOL HAHAHA... Joking of course so I hope no one takes that seriously.

Jeff

More specifically they wish it was a fairy tale version of the 1950's that never really existed to begin with. Leave it to Beaver was in fact, not a documentary...

Jeff

If you think that schools should do exactly as YOU please, then yes, homeschooling is probably the best for you. You do realize that teachers have to follow a curriculum that has been approved by a school board and in many states, the state itself, right?

It's amazing to me that people think this place leans left. I'm Canadian left its way more left than the US version. The shit I see on here, is so far crazy right I can't even comprehend it. I had no idea what that picture of children's books even meant and it is a level of racism I don't think I have ever actual witnessed in real time. That picture is still up and unmoderated, leans left come on LOL

Ok

You're not and you once again, proved my point. What does being a mechanical engineer have to do with anything in this discussion? Are you looking for a sense of intellectual superiority? Providing a child a stable and loving home with food on the table and a comfortable bed will do wonders and also has nothing to do with your qualifications to question your children's teacher(s). You continue to provide all of these straw man reasons why you think your entitled to provide this feedback but the fact remains, you're not qualified. Hell I'm not qualified, it's why I stay out of it. I engage my children as to what they're learning in school, I go to parent teacher conferences, I engage with my children's teachers when appropriate but I will NEVER tell them how to do their job or provide them "feedback" on how to do it either (again unless of course they do something bat shit crazy). There's a difference between being engaged in your children's education versus being a Karen to their educators...

Jeff

The juxtaposition of these two comments posted almost simultaneously is pretty funny.

In any case, please, please, please can we avoid politics and get back to the main topic about the student assignment, the concerns of a parent, and possibly contacting the teacher? We're not going to solve the world's problems here today. Thanks

Dude it's a picture with the context that the a women that is the Vice President should not be allowed in a childrens book for the colour of her skin and it is somehow indoctrinating children. Now that I understand the context it is probably one of the most racist things I have ever seen happen in real time. Racism is everywhere but to actually see it just dropped like that is amazing to me. Most internet forums I visit that would be an instant lifetime ban. Here its just a Wednesday afternoon.

Ive thought about this a lot as my girls are 8 and 11. I think the more you restrict something the more the kids must find a way to have it. I do limit screen time but were pretty liberal. Just try to teach them whats ok and not ok.

I get feeling the assignment was weird. Just calmly ask the teacher what their thought process was. Dont be one of those dudes that go to a school board meeting to preach about it. Thatll just single out your kid anyway and embarrass him…

Well then stop using those types of arguments and I'll stop using the term... Now we've moved on the "my rights" portion of this broadcast. Again, equally pointless but I get that's not going to stop you from doing it so whatever.

I never said educators should have immunity or they are untouchable, once again you're making shit up because that's all you have left. Of course educators should be subjected to criticism, but from qualified sources. Which again, you are not but you clearly don't seem to understand that which is why you flipped to the "my rights" BS. More accountability is needed in education for sure but not from parents, ESPECIALLY not from parents. Again, as a person who has many family members in education (both active and retired) your initial post reads like most of the crap they get from parents these days and they do nothing but roll their eyes and move on. I guess the silver lining here is you aren't proactively emailing them about the "dangers of CRT"... So there's that... Although you did dive right into the ridiculous "my rights" position so perhaps that's the next email the teacher will get from you...

Jeff

“Crack that” bottom line does not belong in curriculum. Redone slightly or whatever, IMO. The rest is how you handle it. With the teacher the district and your own kin. Best of luck.

I just played Godzilla for the first time last weekend. Fun game and I'll play it again soon.
Oops! Sorry, I thought pinside was about pinball and was honoring the theme. My bad.

Deleted.

Jeff

…and quintuple and sextuple down on defending your desire to raise a ruckus over a YouTube video. Oops! I said “sex.” Make sure your kid can’t see this.

Again, why does this even exist outside of arguing your point and now giving us all your CV?

I’d rather hear let me ride by Dre but that also is not curriculum to me.

It's not a disagreement its ignorant dangerous bullshit that is the plaque of society. Yeah that shit needs to be fucking deleted. If people promote rape would just be like hey don't talk like that around women they don't agree with you. I need to take a break from this place.

Have your kid use a school issued chrome book or laptop. My kids did that during remote schooling last year. The school system has strict policy for usage of the equipment and they configure it before issuing them.

No one assigned Crack That to anyone. It’s a song using the tune, about something educational. It’s not a “slight” revision. Making a mountain out of a molehill is what I believe you call it.

Now we're to the phase where you want to take a shot at how I post now too? JFC... (hehe said that again)

I'm not the one digging but hey, you do you. You can't even grasp basic reading comprehension but you feel qualified to be a Karen to your child's teacher. Go figure.

Jeff

ROFLMAO... Man you're naive... I'll bet you most of the kids already knew the real version before they heard the parody.

Jeff

Some Karens are good. Reminds me of 4th grade.

80% Karen.
No personal attacks from me, I am guilty of making video edits to R-rated movies to make a "family cut" so I can watch them with my now 13 year old son. I did leave one quick shot of Lilu Dallas' boobies in the edit I made of The Fifth Element, just to see if my son was paying attention. Spoiler, he loved the movie and the blurry boobies. Everyone is doing the best they can.

So you are concrete on this. Regardless of how educational, how effective, and how much your kid and classmates might have learned from it, because it is tangentially related to a song you find offensive, it is purely taboo. Cool. I disagree and think it’s a shortsighted, outdated, and needlessly puritanical view. But it’s not my pig and not my farm. But you titled the thread as a question, put up a poll to sample the issue, and invited this community to come weigh in on you question and reasoning.

But it’s not actually a question. It’s a hill that you are determined to die upon.

Also known as Peyronie's disease.

This I agree with. In fact, just last night my 5th grade son asked if he could watch Deadpool. I said I just couldn’t take it there yet, because that movie goes just too hard. By 12 or 13? Yeah, sure. So he watched Once Upon a Deadpool instead - the PG-13 version of Deadpool 2. He had watched it before, in fact. That said, I am not advocating for limitless access to anything for children. I set limits. I just am conscious of the naivety line.

Politics are so polarized that the sin seems to be having a book about any modern politician, much less the current Vice-President of the the U.S. There should absolutely be books to read about her in a school library. There should be books available on former President Trump as well. Undoubtedly, there would be people up in arms about that too. To acknowledge is not to endorse.