Texas school's "chivalry" assignment told girls to dress to please men

[Goonie]

If serious and not a prank(the school has not denied so yep it's real) talk about Ill judged. Medieval chivalry? More like the faux chivalry of the confederacy, and the southern states.

 

[cow451]

I'm thinking this guy should take his own advice first before giving any.

Not sure his wife won the love lottery.

 

[cow451]

Nm

 

[Nithavela]

I've read a bit more about the "chilvary story". Apparently that teacher is well-liked and respected in her school and probably just did something a bit misguided in an attempt to creatively teach a subject. No need for an internet hate storm. Back to the drawing board, I think that this teacher is on to something.

 

[rambot]

The assignment asked girls to "demonstrate to the school how the code of chivalry and standards set in the medieval concept of courtly love carries over into the modern day."

News at eleven.

It appears that if you replace the word "chivalry" with "middle aged mindset" there may be fewer complaints.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I think I understand what the assignment was trying to accomplish...sort of an "immersion experiment" to juxtapose how backwards some things were with the progress that's made so that people have an appreciation for the progress.

Texas school scraps assignment that had girls 'obey any reasonable request of a male'

It sounds like the boys had an accompanying assignment.

Colin Tynes Lain, an 18-year-old student in the English class that received the assignment, told NBC's "TODAY" show that the boys had an accompanying assignment.

Boys were to call girls "milady" and "pay all expenses" when taking them out.

"Gentlemen will rise when a lady walks into a room. Gentlemen should bow when greeting a lady," said the assignment, which was also shared by Addison on Twitter.

"I think she was just trying to find a different way to teach us about this topic," Lain said. "So the men in our class honestly could kind of see how it really was to be a woman in the 1300s ... because this is something too important for you to just learn on paper or read from a book."


However, in this day in age, between the hypersensitivity that exists, and the stunning lack of ability to decipher context (often by those who are the most hypersensitive), a project like that is just asking for backlash by the Twitter mob.

For much of the Twitter mob, they probably stopped reading after they saw "Texas" and "ladies must..."

 

[essentialsaltes]

I'm all for role-play in education, but I still think this is a poor idea.

 

[cow451]

I'm all for role-play in education, but I still think this is a poor idea.

Perhaps a role play on a smaller scale with volunteers who then do a video dairy or something.

 

[MehGuy]

At the very least maybe a few students discovered something about themselves.

 

[DaisyDay]

I think I understand what the assignment was trying to accomplish...sort of an "immersion experiment" to juxtapose how backwards some things were with the progress that's made so that people have an appreciation for the progress.

Texas school scraps assignment that had girls 'obey any reasonable request of a male'

It sounds like the boys had an accompanying assignment.

Colin Tynes Lain, an 18-year-old student in the English class that received the assignment, told NBC's "TODAY" show that the boys had an accompanying assignment.

Boys were to call girls "milady" and "pay all expenses" when taking them out.

"Gentlemen will rise when a lady walks into a room. Gentlemen should bow when greeting a lady," said the assignment, which was also shared by Addison on Twitter.

"I think she was just trying to find a different way to teach us about this topic," Lain said. "So the men in our class honestly could kind of see how it really was to be a woman in the 1300s ... because this is something too important for you to just learn on paper or read from a book."


However, in this day in age, between the hypersensitivity that exists, and the stunning lack of ability to decipher context (often by those who are the most hypersensitive), a project like that is just asking for backlash by the Twitter mob.

For much of the Twitter mob, they probably stopped reading after they saw "Texas" and "ladies must..."

Who is a lady? The majority of people in the Middle Ages were neither ladies nor gentlemen (or lords or knights). Also, in some countries at differing times, a lady might have autonomy over her person, lands and money as might shopkeeper.

The feminine equivalent of a knight would be a "dame", not a "lady".

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I got you, fam:

Assignment at Mississippi middle school asks students to ‘pretend like you are a slave’

Even this assignment doesn't sound like there was any hostile intent...maybe some seriously ill-thought out execution, but none the less, no hostile intent.

The wording of the assignment tends to "understate" the atrocity that was American slavery.

As the article put it:
"Without the previous PowerPoint slides, the assignment portrays the evil practice of slavery with an extremely mild view," Bunnell wrote. "A person could read just the assignment and draw a very unrealistic view of the true tragedies that occurred. That was not intended. However, intent does not excuse anything."


But I think that lays out a much bigger question, are issues of race and historical gender roles (or any other sensitive subject) so sensitive, that perhaps there's no way to possibly teach it with any sort of immersion technique in a meaningful way that would be conducive at a Elementary or Jr. High level?

Meaning, are the issues so in-depth, and require a comprehension level as such, that there's no feasible method to teach it in a way that a young kid would understand and truly absorb, without bringing it down to such a level of simplicity that it comes across as "trivializing the issue"?

If so, then perhaps they should steer clear of those topics until kids are in the grades and age levels where the critical thinking and comprehension levels have developed to the point where the issues can be explained in a meaningful way.


It's one of those situations where society is going to have to make up their minds...if they insist that social justice themes are going to be taught at young ages in schools, then material is going to need to be catered to what your average 8-14 year old can understand and conceptualize.

That comes in the form of simplistic concepts like "pretend you're in this group" and "if you were in this group of people that bad things happened to, and you had to write a letter, what would it say?"

It's not pragmatic to expect elementary school kids to understand the types of concepts (with the gravity and complexity those topics deserve) that we'd expect from a much older person.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Who is a lady? The majority of people in the Middle Ages were neither ladies nor gentlemen (or lords or knights). Also, in some countries at differing times, a lady might have autonomy over her person, lands and money as might shopkeeper.

The feminine equivalent of a knight would be a "dame", not a "lady".

I suspect any sort of "historical role playing" assignment of this nature (historically accurate or not) would likely be met with outrage for a number of reasons.


As I touched on in my previous reply to someone else...with sensitive subjects, it's hard to cater material to your average kid's understanding capabilities (and ability to conceptualize), without making it so simplistic that it comes across as distasteful trivialization of a serious issue.

I think there's a strong case to be made for the notion that perhaps issues as in-depth as social justice causes should be avoided until the target audience is old enough to truly understand the complexity of the subject matter.

For the topic of "Historical Gender Roles in Society", I can't have the same conversation with my 11 year old nephew that I'd have with an adult in discussing that matter. And there's not really a good way to delve into that subject with an 11 year old (as to keep it at a level where they can comprehend it) without simplifying it to the point where it comes across as trivializing the issue.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Pastor tells women to look pretty or husbands will stray in sermon to Missouri church

The 55-year-old pastor's church told KCTV, a local CBS affiliate, that he was now on leave and in professional counselling.

His wife might need some therapy time as well.

 

[loveofourlord]

There is a reason why the other name for the medieval times was The Dark Ages!

The pretend you are a slave at first (and still) isn't as bad as the title brought to mind after being setup by the chivalry idiocy. But upon thinking about it there is a huge problem. Pretending to be a slave in the United States and being able to write are pretty much mutually exclusive.

By an interesting coincidence I've jsut finished reading 'The Dragon on the Border' by Gordon Dickson. It is part of a series where the hero has been transported to a medieval world where magic works and where he starts out as a dragon. He later learns how to change back. Anyway a major part of teh story revolves around hygiene at the time, or rather the lack of it! So should the girls refrain from bathing and cover things up with perfume? Inquiring minds want to know.

BTW as a guy I'd rather insulted by the chivilary assignment. I at least like to think guys are better than what that assignment implies.

man I loved that series :> hehe I remember one of the earlier books...think it was dragon knight, where someone was giving birth and he had made soap and expected them to use it and then had to tell them to clean under their nails, and they were confused by it heh. Really goes into a lot of things like chivalry the ability to write and other things you wouldn't normally think about. Like why they drank so much wine hehe.

 

[cow451]

His wife might need some therapy time as well.

Perhaps a Therapist can help her develop better taste in men.

 

[Trogdor the Burninator]

Hard to believe that any school would actually put up an assignment like this, no matter how well-intentioned. However, the upside would be that any student with more than a passing knowledge of Monty Python could have a field day with this.

 

[rjs330]

In the first example we are told of an amusing way of teaching what a woman's role was in an earlier, less enlightened time. In the second we learn that some of us are apparently still living in a less enlightened time.

And you noticed the preacher was so ruggedly handsome and looked like a model too right? Demand the women to try and look beautiful. Did he demand the men look handsome and fit? I doubt it. Just stooooopid!

 

[keith99]

And you noticed the preacher was so ruggedly handsome and looked like a model too right? Demand the women to try and look beautiful. Did he demand the men look handsome and fit? I doubt it. Just stooooopid!

But a good knight does not need to be handsome, just to own a good set of armor.

Since Ivanhoe is one of my favorite books outside of Science Fiction and Fantasy I have to wonder if the good Christian boys can talk to the Jewish girls under the code?

 

[iluvatar5150]

The pretend you are a slave at first (and still) isn't as bad as the title brought to mind after being setup by the chivalry idiocy. But upon thinking about it there is a huge problem. Pretending to be a slave in the United States and being able to write are pretty much mutually exclusive.

That was my first thought, too. In fact, a precocious student could hand in a blank piece of paper and hit the trifecta of getting an A+ for being lazy and making wisecracks.

 

[trunks2k]

I'm all for role-play in education, but I still think this is a poor idea.

I don't think it's that bad of an idea. Role play for a while so kids get an idea of what it was like back then and get an idea of how it differs to now. Although you should also do role reversal so that the people that had (or think they had) the privileged role experiences the other side of it. You just have to be careful of kids being jerks and using their roles to abuse others.