Purple Penguins and the Radical Gender Agenda

purple-penguinsJust when you think you’ve heard the most outrageous example of progressive irrationality in our public schools – usually something to do with anti-gun hysteria – along comes word that a school district in Nebraska is training teachers to abandon “gendered expressions” such as “boys and girls” in favor of “gender inclusive” euphemisms like “purple penguins” instead. You read that right.

“Don’t use phrases such as ‘boys and girls,’ ‘you guys,’ ‘ladies and gentlemen,’ and similarly gendered expressions to get kids’ attention,” instructs a training document given out by a staffer on a “district equity team” to middle-school teachers at Lincoln public schools. Instead, say “hey campers” or “create classroom names and then ask all of the ‘purple penguins’ to meet on the rug,” it advises.

“When I read about this,” said a friend of mine, “I was sure it was satire.” Well, we inhabit a satirical world now, and our children inhabit an educational culture perverted and dumbed-down over the last several decades by political correctness and social justice progressives. Our schools are no longer focused on educational standards that will make us competitive in the real world; instead, they are obsessed with pushing social justice – and that includes a radical agenda to indoctrinate kids as early as kindergarten about sex. Its ultimate goal is the promotion of promiscuity and the dissolution of the very concept of gender, thereby destroying “patriarchal” culture, delegitimizing parental authority, and dismantling the family unit.

The instructions distributed to Lincoln teachers are part of a list called “12 steps on the way to gender inclusiveness” developed by Gender Spectrum, an organization that “provides education, training and support to help create a gender sensitive and inclusive environment for children of all ages.” All ages. The document warns against asking students to “line up as boys or girls,” and suggests organizing them instead by whether they prefer “skateboards or bikes/milk or juice/dogs or cats/summer or winter/talking or listening… Always ask yourself,” the document says, “‘Will this configuration create a gendered space?’” Actually, what teachers should always be asking themselves is, “Are my students learning?”

Also on the list? Decorating the classroom with “all genders welcome” door hangers and asking all students about their preferred pronouns – because the gender spectrum is apparently so broad now that our current set of pronouns is insufficient. If teachers absolutely have to mention that genders exist at all, the document advises that they be listed as “boy, girl, both or neither.” Both? Neither?

“Avoid using ‘normal’ to define any behaviors,” the document urges. By all means, children should be taught to tolerate others who are different; but eradicating the very notion that normal behavior even exists is not tolerance – it is a denial of reality and an irrational reorienting of children’s understanding of themselves and the natural order.

Speaking of tolerance, the training materials instruct teachers to be intolerant of anyone who references gender “in a binary manner… Provide counter-narratives that challenge students to think more expansively about their notions of gender.” It’s unclear how teachers are supposed to find so much time to discuss gender with students without cutting back on their readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmetic.

The teachers were also given a handout created by the ironically-named Center for Gender Sanity which explains to them that “gender identity… can’t be observed or measured, only reported by the individual.” And they received an infographic called “The Genderbread Person” produced by Sam Killermann, who describes himself as “a social justice comedian” and is the author of The Social Justice Advocate’s Handbook: A Guide to Gender.

Al Riskowski, executive director of the Nebraska Family Alliance, said his group has supported legislation to combat bullying, but that these training materials go “way beyond trying to teach someone how to respect another individual” to a “whole new idea of boy-girl.” The idea that “your biology at birth doesn’t designate who you are” is at odds with the beliefs of “almost everyone in the community.” He said that the school district shouldn’t have to re-educate the 99% who aren’t transgender. Clearly Riskowski must be re-educated to understand that there is no such thing as normal behavior.

He noted correctly that the materials seemed geared to children younger than those in middle school. A sister organization that works on such issues nationwide told Riskowski that it’s “some of the most radical material we’ve ever seen.”

Lincoln Superintendent Steve Joel noted that the training documents are not intended as hard-and-fast rules, only recommendations, and he has declared that he is “happy” and “pleased” with them. As for the controversy those documents have engendered (pun intended), he explains that “We don’t get involved with politics… We don’t get involved with gender preferences. We’re educating all kids… and we can’t be judgmental,” he said.

But by sitting back and letting these gender radicals insert their indoctrinating materials into the classroom, Mr. Joel is caving in to people who are consumed with politics and gender preferences. That’s the problem with not being “judgmental” – moral neutrality equals moral impotence.

These are our schools now. Our educational system, in the grip of social justice missionaries, is hopelessly broken. Homeschooling is increasingly becoming the best option for raising educated, free children with actual critical thinking skills instead of progressive brainwashing. So of course, the progressives are beginning to target homeschooling – as in Connecticut, where the state intends to increase its oversight of homeschooled children, purportedly because they are considered to be potential Adam Lanzas.

The truth is that they are a threat not to other students but to the state’s authority. As National Review’s Kevin D. Williamson put it in his forceful article, “They Are Coming for Your Children”:

Home-schooling isn’t for everyone, but every home-school student, like every firearm in private hands, is a quiet little declaration of independence. It’s no accident that the people who want to seize your guns are also the ones who want to seize your children.

It’s also no accident that the people who want to indoctrinate your children about sex want them too.

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  • Håkon Grjotgardsson

    The Orwellian day is upon us. ….getting darker and darker by the hour.
    …looks like there will be a horrible evil unleashed on humanity up
    ahead. ….in keeping with the prophetic word of YHVH.

  • Von Stierlitz

    “Purple Penguins” ?
    But this is “racist” to non-purple penguins and “specieist” to non-penguins !
    This is “hate speech” !

  • Jeff Traube

    Tell your kids to ask whether they should go to the boys room or girls room, or if the school should have a ‘both’ or ‘neither’ bathroom. And complain about discrimination against the disabled who can’t go camping to fight this idiocy.

  • I_Am_Me

    Great article. There is no way to root this “Progressive” disease out of the media, higher education and public education. Alinksy and the Communists have won their 85+ year war against America (and the West in general). They’re just cleaning up a few loose ends at this point.

    • DB1954

      Actually, there is ONE way to root it out of “public education.” 1. Stop calling them “public” schools. They’re government schools, even though they’re administered largely by the state governments. 2. Stage massive boycotts in all 50 states, demanding that the state legislatures repeal all compulsory school attendance laws and any other laws which enable the government or the states to maintain the government monopoly on education.

  • tagalog

    Approaching this issue with a sense of humorlessness consistent with the “liberal” consciousness that has inspired this sort of nonsense, I ask: how can teachers use terms like “purple penguins” or “campers” when the pupils are neither purple penguins or campers? I mean, isn’t that lying to them? Of course, it’s lying to them to refuse to identify them as boys or girls, too; I vaguely remember as a elementary school kid that I LIKED being a boy and girls LIKED being girls. Calling us what we were was a kind of validation of WHO we were. Of course this new trend is aimed specifically at negating that kind of thing so that children can become the New Soviet Person.

    • I_Am_Me

      This is exactly what they are doing. It’s the same Utopian tripe every time. Eliminate all differences and meaningful distinctions between people to eliminate violence and achieve peace and harmony. A bunch of bland, effeminate and retarded drones controlled by the elites.

  • Big_Foot

    The left loves to preach “diversity”, but refuses to acknowledge the most obvious diversity of all, the difference between male and female.

  • Joe The Gentile

    The Leftist eyes turn starry at the thought of genderless pronouns. In Sweden, there is a significant move for genderless pronouns. It fits their models that gender is socially-constructed and socially reinforced.

    The problem is that there has been a test-case of genderless pronouns on front of their very eyes in the heart of Europe for centuries. Hungary. Hungarian, the natural language, has genderless pronouns. Yes, there is one and only one word for both ‘he’ and ‘she’ in Hungarian. Has it made any difference on the extent to which boys will be boys and girls girls in Hungary? Of course not!

    The Leftist models have never had to work. When they clash with reality, brush reality under the carpet. All that matters to them is what they call the Dream, and what the rest of us can see is the Delusion

    • hopkins

      Language has never been a factor in gender issues. You have countries that have feminine and masculine nouns such as French, German etc., but when spoken people never think of the gender issues, it’s just rote. And Europeans are really great people if they would just throw out the national suicidal policies. Enlightenment has nothing to do with language; the one exception miight be Islam where I’ve heard that the language is degraded and sexist, having nothing to do with pronouns. I’ve heard Ayan Hirsee(don’t know how to spell her name) make this comment about Islam, and she is an expert on this subject as much as anyone. Pronouns are irrelevant. You can use the pronouns he and she and know that we are all equally valuable. But the politically correct are stuck in reactionary thinking and so cannot transcend mind in a healith way.

  • hopkins

    What is so bizarre is that this thinking actually entrenches gender bias by making gender a focus. The term “you guys” referrs to men and women alike. I don’t see the problem. Also it reveals that they take this world oh so seriously and when they try to change it they reinforce the reality they want to change. If you have an ounce of spiritual understanding you don’t take this world so seriously and so you understand all is temporary, and if all is temporary why fight it in this way? We are a temporary manifestation so why not use boy and girl terminology? If you don’t identify with the body or this temporary world you don’t have to be so reactionary. That is they are revealing their insanity in that that buy into everything and therefore have to change it rather than transcend it. They make things worse.

    • I_Am_Me

      They’re trying to prep for 5-year old trannies in Kindergarten to go with my two mommies. It is a complete rejection of reality and tradition.

    • tagalog

      Take away their gender identification and you deprive them of yet another social role they fill. Once they have lost all of the references that give them a sense of identity and self, they’re fair game for whatever you want to fill them with.

      That’s exactly how military basic training and boot camp work. Take away your identity, immerse you in the chosen environment, fill you with the environment’s values, and you’re theirs forever. Remember the saw, “once a Marine, always a Marine?” It’s true. The Red Chinese accomplished something similar with their post-Civil War re-education of the population.

      • hopkins

        You know so much of life works in exactly this way. Especially religion. The sermon on the mount of Jesus did not infer any of the organized insanty that has followed. I respect the fact that a part of this culture’s tradition is democracy and christianity; I still think it has been a positive influence. But this tendency for people to say things to fill your head with as though any of it is reality is a regular feature of all facets of life. Anyone looking(pretending) as though they know something is slavishly entertained by the unthinking mind. The most dangerous people are those that are convinced they know. It does seem that the military breeds as much hostility as it solves; and yet we need it.

  • mobuyus

    The left and their diversity.This is stuff cooked up by upper-middle class white folk.I guess they chose purple to demonstrate their inclusiveness.But the truth is it is indoctrination of the nations young to keep a steady pool of grinders and filchers for future considerations.I really wish they would go to mesapotamea to field test their theories and stop harming the Boys and Girls.

  • Biff_Maliboo

    12 years later:

    LOOK ON MY WORKS, YE MIGHTY, AND DESPAIR!
    http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m49g114DfS1qgyk59o1_500.jpg

    • tagalog

      From the pop music of 1964:

      “Are you a boy
      Or are you a girl?
      With your long blond hair
      You look like a girl
      You may be a boy but
      Hey!
      You look like a girl!”

      • johninohio1

        Now I know why lyrics to pop music are never sung intelligibly–their stupid, trite and empty of meaning. So why should any singer bother?

        • tagalog

          They made some money from that particular tune, though.

          The Barbarians.

          There’s meaning in the lyrics of the tune I wrote out, though. It may not be palatable, but it’s there.

    • I_Am_Me

      That’s what they want. A race of androgynes.

  • disqus_smWiOrvPtd

    “moral neutrality equals moral impotence” In his farewell address, George Washington said those who looked with indifference toward attempts to shake our nation’s religious moral foundations were not sincere friends of FREE GOVERNMENT.

    While I’m on the subject, I would like to ask frontpagemag, why they have to run all these ads with half-naked women below their articles?

    • Richard Gearon

      Would you prefer half-naked MEN?

  • laura r

    so now we are birds? best to sue when your child dresses up as bigbird & wont dress anyother way. if i was a parent i would work this thing into making some $$.

  • troy

    Ok, maybe 1 out of the 500 kids in the school will be gender confused, so lets make everyone else look stupid. wow what Idiotic logic. Thanks Liberal America!
    So glad I got out of public education 5 years ago

  • De Doc

    Newspeak is such a wonderful addition to our culture.

  • DB1954

    We sit back and take this abuse year after year after year. And no one seems even remotely interested in holding the government school systems of the 50 states to account. The ONLY way to do that is to stage massive boycotts of public schools until the 50 state legislatures repeal the compulsory school attendance laws and any other so-called “progressive” legislation which FORCES us to support the government’s education monopoly.

    • hopkins

      Neighborhoods need to establish private schools and be unapologetic that they are homogeneous.

  • s;vbkr0boc,klos;

    Here in St. Louis at one of those ‘Ferguson Demonstrations’ a white teacher from a community college brought her class and they set up a table with little toy animals and they would ask the demonstrators to play with and hold the toys to help express their ‘feelings’ through play. I am talking about adults. Her explanation to a reporter who was trying to figure out what she was DOING there was such incoherent gibberish he was speechless. WELCOME TO THE NUTHOUSE.

  • tagalog

    I have the perfect suggestion: call them “comrades.”

    “OK, comrade pupils, today we’re going to learn about what’s called the American System and Individualism.”

    Or they could be called “recruits.” As in “OK, Recruit Smith, what’s 5 times 4?”

  • Joe

    Over forty years ago, Stanislav Andreski observed that, “In France the recent collapse of the educational system has been preceded by a rapid increase in the number of sociologists and psychologists; while in a number of other countries there seems to be a positive though rough parallel between the rise in the number of family counselors and child psychologists and in the rates of divorce and drug addiction. True, apart from the possibility that all this might be mere coincidence, the connection may be that the aggravation of the social evils has stimulated the demand for the services of experts, thus fostering a growth in their number. One conclusion, however, is inescapable: that these experts have not been able to help; and that it cannot be ruled out that they may be making things even worse by misguided therapies. If we saw that whenever a fire brigade comes the flames become even fiercer, we might well begin to wonder what it is that they are squirting, and whether they are not by any chance pouring oil on to the fire.” (Stanislav Andreski, SOCIAL SCIENCES AS SORCERY [1972; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1973], ch.2, p. 28)

  • Tina Trenner

    This is straight from UNESCO….The United Nation educational branch that has vowed to “turn half the population gay by the year 2050″. I read the whole thing a couple years ago…but now it seems they have scrubbed that little tid-bit.

  • Capitalist_Dad

    Just when you think the mindless BS can’t get any deeper, some statist drone opens its mouth! I think genetics is pretty binary — male and female is coded and how you “feel” about it is irrelevant. As Lincoln asked in a speech, “How many legs does a dog have if you call its tail a leg?” His answer: “Four. Just because you call it a leg doesn’t make it one.”

  • ArentIpretty

    When a society’s morality is determined by a 2% degenerate minority, that society is no longer moral. This is what political correctness has lead us to.

  • nomoretraitors

    “Speaking of tolerance, the training materials instruct teachers to be intolerant of anyone who references gender “in a binary manner”
    Typical leftists

    • Joe

      This is the perennial problem of a minority trying to impose their metaphysical beliefs on the general public.