Sorry but it's all about Zayn!!

I hope it's further discussed too! Basically any person who repeatedly contacts you, in any way, after you've said "do not contact me any more" is worthy of at least a call to the cops to start a paper trail towards a restraining order. The problem, though, is that sometimes the contact has to include violent threats…

My teacher training was at a midwestern state college that's not known for being super progressive, so I think that might have influenced it a bit too. I totally hear you on the charter school issue too. That bad ratio of POC staff to POC students is just not a good thing, and it can be kind of widespread. I feel like…

This is a lot of why I like him! I think he's a really important person for queer and sex-positive advocacy, especially for young people, and I feel like writing him off completely is a mistake. Being angry at him and expressing why what he's saying is problematic is very necessary, but I think he's a person who has…

Prudie has some real issues around sexual assault sometimes, too. I don't agree with them always. I think Dan Savage gets kind of an unfair hassling about the transgender issues because I feel that he works to educate himself and apologizes, but I know he has said some really hurtful stuff.

I agree! I'm always a bit surprised by how often his answer is "yes" too, although I can usually agree with the logic behind it (even though I'd be pissed). He seems to have a good understanding of how monogamy doesn't work for everyone and the cultural pressure to not be honest about that.

Update: Ask Polly is now a fave too. That was amazing. Letting go of that control and need to be very, very sane and rational and never make waves is hard. I was really not in control in any way in high school/early college and thought swinging the other way 100% would fix everything.

I love advice columns too! Dear Prudence, Friend Zone and Savage Love are my favorite. The first two because it seems like so many entitled assholes write in, and the second because of its topic alone! I tried to think of an asshole/entitled pun and couldn't.

I'm guessing Friday boredom internet arguing has something to do with that too... Bah. Well I'm glad you brought this up! Jezebel needs more convos about race in general, and talking about racism in education is a really important topic.

What did your classmates in the ed courses think about that? I found most of mine thought all the multicultural education and other social justice/progressive ed stuff was 100% bullshit. It's really encouraging. :/ Teaching is a super conservative profession and I find it's really hard to actually implement or even…

I apologize - I realized pretty much too late how my comment reads especially given the whole tone of everything. You're not detracting from it, especially with a lot of your follow-up comments that make your point really clear. It's just your original comment is really unclear and I feel like people have jumped on…

Oh yes, they do. To use justice system terms, the recidivism is high and it is always worse. The only kids that this kind of stuff works on are the ones who would probably stop on their own anyway. It doesn't address any underlying issue.

Everything you're saying is valid about white women/white feminism. It's often racist and exclusive and overly-defensive and I think it's a point that should be made more often in white feminist spaces. Your correction doesn't make sense in context because to replace that specific phrase with "white women" implies…

I bet these are the teachers who get really irritated about having to incorporate multicultural education and use a lot of air-quotes whenever using "culturally inclusive" as a phrase. "Why should I have to teach children of criminals?!" is probably often heard in the teacher's lounge, too (usually referring to…

I am very impressed that just the sheer volume of texts got him that much jail time (even if most is suspended), a fine and mandatory psychiatric care. Depressingly sometimes it seems like former partner stalkers have to cross a pretty deranged line before it stops being excused as just "heartbreak".

Shame/humiliation-based behavior management techniques are really ineffective, in general. It might work in the very short term but it doesn't create any intrinsic motivation to follow the rules. It's more about maintaining a power imbalance than encouraging positive learning environments and behavior.…

It sounds very similar to an area I worked and lived in, although in the South-East. It seems like increasing cuts to social services and really blatant classism is definitely a contributing factor in all the problems.

It was definitely a real relief to not be on that invite list, I can tell you that. I'm more concerned about why I wasn't consulted at all knowing how valuable my opinion re: humming is!

:( :( :( :( I guess I won't be able to announce the details of my (imaginary) wedding via Jezebel!

This is a good point. I would most definitely rather only attend weddings from this point forward with humming than attend even one with hip-folk music (the kind where they yell "hey!" a lot) at any point in the evening. That's what I imagine would be the alternative to humming if one were looking for a unique-but-hip…