More reasons I am anti-school

Is this supposed to be inspiring?? Based on commentary I have seen in various places, it appears that most people think so. Which just goes to show you how brainwashed our society is.
Let me let you in on how MY brain works when I see things like this.
What jumps out at me is that these school children are suffering from three main things:
1. Boredom. Their teacher (and the subject matter) is dull, tedious, monotonous, and a complete waste of their precious time on this earth.
2. Condescension. Due either to the ineptness or disinterest of their teacher, the subject matter being presented to them is far below their capacity, as evidenced by the obvious intelligence shown by the boy in his note. Thus, being forced to sit in rows and listen to this stupefying information is completely condescending.
3. Humiliation. The teacher's use of public humiliation as punishment is wrong and uncalled for. No one should be treated this way. She seems gleeful to have caught someone she can disgrace in front of the class (perhaps she was just glad for the interruption from her own boredom), which is just sickening. Why adults feel they have the right to prey on children this way is beyond me, and it's a TERRIBLE example being set for the rest of the children in class as well. Their reaction of anticipation shows that they already enjoy watching peers being publicly humiliated, and explains why peer activity in schools is so cruel and insensitive.
A potential #4 is that children this age should be enjoying their childhood as children, not playacting at adult romantic relationships, but this falls under the Things-Wrong-With-Mother-Culture category more than the category "Reason-#1094-I'm-Relieved-My-Kids-Aren't-Wasting-Their-Childhoods-In-School," so we'll leave that for another day. ;)

So I finally saw The Business of Being Born last night - I know, old news, but it takes me a while to get to movies, and we just finally joined Netflix. This was the first movie we got through them, actually! I suppose it was a good film for the masses; there was a lot of good information there that people not already involved in this homebirth subculture would benefit from knowing. And it's always a pleasure to see Marsden, Michel, and Ina May impart their wisdom. :)

BUT. REALLY. Did Abby and Ricki not see the irony of ending their women-don't-need-to-be-saved-by-doctors movie with a woman being saved by a doctor? Or did they just not care? Or do they really not get it, or what? Maybe someone (Linda?) better involved with the forum circuit when this actually came out can let me know if they had a comment about that. Sigh.

Personally, this film made me once-again-relieved that I've never had to experience a hospital birth, and also really solidified my belief in unassisted birth. The homebirths were good to watch, but I was frustrated watching Ricki, during her homebirth, ask for PERMISSION to push. Clearly her body was pushing on its own, and still she looked to an authority figure for permission. Argh. There will not be true empowerment until women can understand that this is something they have the power to do themselves! How on earth can someone standing next to you know what's best in your own body? People have lost the ability to hear what their own bodies are telling them (in many more ways than just birthing!)

And I was very uncomfortable seeing the poor dad in one of the homebirths (it might have been a birth center?) totally pushed to the side by the womenfolk, intimidated by these in-charge midwives to even be near his birthing wife, so hesitant to claim his place at her side, or to even touch her or their baby. This is a travesty. Fathers need to be empowered by this experience too! I think this happens a lot, where the women in authority come in and assume this is a women-only event. This should be a COUPLES-only event. . .that father planted this baby-gift and it's his place to receive it along with his partner; I really believe that this practice of negating the importance of fathers at birth is compromising the ability of fathers to attach and bond easily with their families, and it's just a huge sadness for me. I believe this negatively effects our whole society - how can it not? The family unit is the basic building block of everything, and it is diseased. We must bring health, empowerment, confidence, and love back to our homes, and it will radiate from there out into the world.