Dear Readers,
I’d like to open a good series of blogs about Florida educational woes. I want to first, however, congratulate Mark Rendell for being school superintendent if I’m not mistaken. I can tell you all that Mr. Rendell was a dynamo at THS, and he got stuff done. I’d like to, however, dedicate this post to him. Mark, if you’re reading this, sorry I can’t call you Dr. Rendell because I’m not in your schools anymore, but Mark, I’d like to just let you in on a few secrets. It’s been so long but I dedicate this whole series to you and the Brevard County School Board. I lament the state of education in the state I once called home. I lament that there is just no way anyone will gain the knowledge necessary without taking matters into their own hands. Clayton Jacobs and I plan to homeschool our son, and maybe later, a daughter???? WE don’t know. Homeschool is the way to go for many reasons, but everybody’s pushing so har for Malcolm our son to be infant vaccinated, something we can’t imagine him being out long enough for, but still, we want to let Malcolm find some common ground, but he will also be educated in sciences and that includes health and medicine.
LEt me start this show. I was first enrolled in a Brevard County school facility in about 1990, I was supposedly at Coquina Preschool. I was there for a year or two, then was transferred to Atlantis Elementary for the next phase, followed by Imperial Estates Elementary school, located in my old neighborhood of Oak Trails Meadowridge, about a bike path or walk from a street we lived on called Little Oak Circle. You just walked to this bike path, walked straight up that bike path, and a few turns and stuff later, you were at Imperial Estates Elementary School. Throughout my years at Brevard schools, though there were disciplinary issues, mainly because the teachers in some classrooms were not informed and didn’t seem to care about the issues with my family and all the shit going on, Brevard County’s school curricula was a decent mix of all the subjects needed. In the social studies class in fourth grade at Imperial Estates Elementary school, we learned some stuff. However, my tenure at Brevard schools was rudely abruptly interrupted because David and Patricia Taurasi decided that spending over thousands of bucks for a private school with nobody blind around it was more important than my needs. It was all about Catechism, all about the purity bullshit. So St. Teresa’s School kinda stole all opportunities for me to join strings and chorus at Imperial. After eighth grade graduation in May 2001, I enrolled again at Brevard Schools, Titusville High School, which had only days before my first day there been under the direction of a Dr. Kristy. Then came Mark Rendell. I was at the school from 2001 until my graduation in 2005. The curricula at this period at Titusville High was still a decent mix of all sorts of stuff. At least I was given opportunities to learn about Rosa Parks, but Malala YOusafzai was not in the news just yet, so her book not having been composed was not even banned! Rosa Parks became a name to know when I was at Imperial for fourth grade. For whatever reason, the word “Negro” and other sorts of information began filtering its way into my subconscious level of thinking, and lo and behold, I met Krista Waters in about my third grade summer. I regret I didn’t get along with Krista at first, and I can’t sleep sometimes because I might have some heavy feelings of guilt. Note it’s not anything to do with her being black, but … she was the first black person I even looked at, that I even spoke a word to. Fast forward past eighth grade year, then into about eleventh grade. I can tell you that Brevard County School curricula still mentioned slavery and the Underground Railroad, and contained the full truth. Black history wasn’t separated as “Black History” only. At least some of the teachers taught about Malcolm X. However, it was my Parochial school English and social studies/history teacher, Mrs. Marylou Miller who actually encouraged us to learn about Malcolm X. Malcolm X and his teachings and autobiography became more important as time went on. Fast forward to the present day.
While Mark Rendell, former principal of Titusville High School, is now the County Superintendent of Schools, Florida’s entire population of young people faces a huge crisis. I have a lot of problems with this “Stop Woke” business that Dear old Ronny put into his little law book. For no reason, many young teenagers and prepubescent children at a school now have to put up with the drama that Conservative right wing hooligans have now embedded into the people’s lives. There are right wing pressure groups such as “Moms for Liberty”, and others associated with the belief that a lot of affirmational stories about LGBTQ people contain instructions on “how to have anal sex” among other disparaging bullshit they use to thwart kids from being their authentic selves. The other dogwhistle they love to blow at the faces of Brevard County children is all about how white kids should not be guilty or feel uncomfrotable about anything in the past dealing with race or gender. The broadest dogwhistle attack these numnuts and hooligans frequently use to spur on their actual hellish indoctrination is accusations of “liberal indoctrination” at Florida schools. You could never be more wrong.
The so called liberal indoctrination dogwhistles that are blown loud and clear by these evil groups, Moms for Liberty among them, has led Florida schools and the board of education to ban so many titles, including Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984, all of which are classics that foretell futures that are almost happening before our eyes. It gets worse. The governor has also been trying to twist and abolish truth and change the narrative to show respect to hateful white supremacists. I’ve never seen anything so horrible in my life happening to my state’s school systems.
My darling niece, sadly in some age to be doing Early Head Start, maybe she’ll be in a preschool program, but Leah would have a catch 22 between the public schools where they teach insipid and bland and untrue things, and the literature is so bland you don’t know who Malcolm X is, and the Parochial school system, which contains inaccurate and glossed over information about sexual infections, STI’s, and promotes a heterosexual normative about marriage, setting up my niece for a life in which she is considered “an abomination” if she even speaks one word about who she loves, even worse, if that one she loves is a girl! Leah will be at super high risk of suicide or bullycide, especially on social media platform as she grows and develops in Florida, but … our son Malcolm, safely in Denver, Colorado will have a different path to take. More on that in a future posting.
Leah’s lifespan in Brevard County schools could be much shorter, and so could her mortal life itself. Leah can look forward to either being told that “girls wear dresses” and “boys wear pants” in a public school setting, or she could be forced to wear ugly plaid uniforms and walk with her hands folded in prayer position in front of her along with a single file line of other children dressed exactly the same way, on her way to a Roman Catholic mass. At Roman Catholic masses each Friday morning at St. Teresa’s, Leah could look forward to boring homilies, or if they’re any good, indoctrinating slabs of the Purity Myth could permeate every word written or spoken. In her middle school years, Leah will be indoctrinated to believe that being bisexual, gay or lesbian is “a sin” and that her existence as any but female is “an abomination before God.” If she wishes to become male, or she feels that her soul is male, Leah could be at grave risk of being attacked, assaulted, or being pushed to commit suicide because of the bullies and their desire to “kill all the trannies”. They could flood her social media and other pages with all manner of hate speech, tear into her like one does with bread while devouring it, all of this being done at her peril. With Florida homeless shelters not willing to take LGBTQ teens, it will be up to Leah to find her way to safety. And where is safety? Leah, sweetheart, if you really need a safe spot to just recuperate from anything, anything at all, and if you want to be yourself, if you wanna laugh and just hang out, if you wanna learn things your peers are now banned from learning, come over to Denver, Colorado. I’m here, and as your aunt, and the mother of your dear cousin Malcolm, I will welcome you with wide open arms, and I promise you will always have a shoulder to cry on and a couple or more ears to bounce things off of. I will listen, and that’s because one person who understands can save your life in a heartbeat. Leah, if you don’t like boys, I’m fine with that. Bring on that girlfriend, and just bring her to me and Uncle Clayton. Btw, that dude is pretty dashing, but don’t worry he won’t bite. ANd if it so happens that your father wants to axe you from the family tree, no worries. I will do some type of adoption plan for you so that you may dispose of your last name, and all the vestiges of the family that might bother you. Your cousin will have a beautiful life, and I wish I could give you the same. As your aunt, and … as a scared mother, I just want you to know that you are always in my thoughts and prayers. You are always just a heartbeat away. When comes the time for you to read a large book, I want to give you a Kindle copy of Margaret Atwood’s the Handmaid’s Tale. Open the book, my child, just read it. It may be a bit jarring, but just read the darn thing. I love you, and we all do.
I’d like to apologize to my reading audience. Leah Taurasi will need all of us to help her fill in the gaps where the public or parochial schools will leave holes in her knowledge base. IF you live in the Titusville or Orlando area of Florida, I want you to send the brother, his name is Danny Taurasi, a few notes that pretty much say that Leah needs a full and truthful education. As Leah’s aunt and my son Malcolm’s devoted mother, I will fight daily so that both of the kids, not just Malcolm because of homeschooling and living apart from Florida, should be able to receive a proper education complete with classic and modern literature, math, science with empirical data included about all things, health and medicine, accurate and timely information about sexual matters and consent, all of it. I want the little ones to live peaceful and happy lives but as they become adults, Leah and Malcolm need to be responsible and carry the torch of leadership into the next decades.
I hope that all of you find this post and realize that we have a serious education gaps issue and we must stop it.
Beth
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