Genderless preschool bans "him" and "her"

[Mr Rayon]

A Genderless school in Sweden http://www.heraldsun.com.au/lifestyle/the-other-side/pc-preschool-bans-words-him-and-her/story-e6frfhk6-1226082516997 has banned the use of him/her.

 

What's your opinion of this?

[Marat]

This is just an extreme version of the mistake quite generally made today, which is that our moral duty to treat all humans with equal concern and respect must also derive from the fact that everyone is equal in all respects. But as the 18th century philosopher David Hume quite intelligently pointed out, "You cannot derive an 'ought' from an 'is,'" or in other words, facts have nothing to say about values, since we usually hold our values -- like human equality -- independently of any factual evidence. That's why stupid and smart people, alcoholics and judges, and ditch diggers and brain surgeons all get one vote at elections.

 

Thus if gender roles allow it to be more easily perceived that boys are better at math than girls, and girls are better at poetry, an intelligent philosophical perspective shows that this has no effect whatsoever on their moral equality as humans, which is an ethical assumption independent of facts. You don't achieve respect for human equality by dumbing down smart people, pretending dumb people are smart, providing elevator shoes for the short and putting all the tall in wheelchairs so you can't tell their height.

 

Experiments with monkeys have already shown that even male and female apes seek out, according to their gender, the respective male and female human toys made available for them to play with. This whole endeavor smacks of the vast and stupid social engineering projects of Pol Pot and Mao in making intellectuals work in the fields to humble them so that everyone would be the same in fact and thus equal in moral status. If they had read their Hume or Kant they would know that the relationship between fact and value is inverse.

[Brainteaserfan]

A Genderless school in Sweden http://www.heraldsun.com.au/lifestyle/the-other-side/pc-preschool-bans-words-him-and-her/story-e6frfhk6-1226082516997 has banned the use of him/her.

 

What's your opinion of this?

I think that it is sad that they have gone this far. Naturally, boys and girls want to play with different toys, different books, different games etc. Why would they try to force this on these little children? Yes, I obviously agree with giving both genders an equal opportunity in education, jobs, and the like, but too often, I see various historically male dominated professions like engineering, actually giving away scholarships and the like based on race and gender. That's just reverse discrimination and needs to stop. An African-American scholarship fund should not be allowed to exist IMO.

 

People may say, "gays are born that way", but even if they are, don't they think that most are born properly?! They shouldn't force that on us. Let these little children decide for themselves in ~12 years.

[JohnB]

I think it's taking it a bit far. For example;

Nearly all the children's books deal with homosexual couples, single parents or adopted children. There are no Snow White, Cinderella or other classic fairy tales seen as cementing stereotypes.

 

This is virtually saying that a male and female meeting, marrying and having kids is somehow abnormal. By all means have the books described, but have books about "usual" relationships as well. Not having a male/female as caring parents of a natural child is just as one eyed as not having a gay couple as caring parents.

[insane_alien]

jeezo people seem to be confusing distinction with discrimination these days.

 

you would have thought the difference between male and female was one of those necessary and appropriate distinctions. you know like girls have babies and boys don't etc. etc.

 

by all means teach that homosexuals are normal people too but for the sake of the children don't make everybody out to be exactly the same. They're going to have to deal with differences sooner or later, might as well teach the how to cope with people different from them from the start.

[pwagen]

jeezo people seem to be confusing distinction with discrimination these days.

Sweden in a nutshell, unfortunately. We've been been schooled with the Jante Law for ages now, and it seems hard to break out of. This is taking it just one step too far though.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jante_Law

[John Cuthber]

On what basis do they assume that mankind has been getting this wrong for at least 10000 years?

If we have not been getting it wrong, then why change it?