Jenny’s Pennies

Why do this debate always seem to pop up around this time of the year? (For non-Swedish readers: the subject is whether the end-of-the-school-year celebration for our public schools should take place in a church or not. And not just any church, it’s always the Church of Sweden. Which was separated from the state eight years ago, but still holds a special position and has all kinds of influence, even though it legally should be considered as any other religious association.)

I’m too tired to even repeat the obvious arguments as to why compulsory school activities should not take place in a religious context. Study visits and such is totally ok of course, but anything resembling worship is out. Many people seem to think that it is so important that their children go to church on their last day of school, even if they themselves probably haven’t set foot in a church since their aunt’s funeral or the mandatory once-a-year Christmas visit. If church attendance is so important to them, well then they should take their kids themselves and not expect the school to provide them with hymns and prayer. And then there are those who say that it isn’t about the religious message (if there is any); that it is the atmosphere and feeling that matters. Do you know what I, a pretty convinced atheist, think about using other people’s sacred rooms to get some kind of atmosphere and feeling and tell them to please keep that being in the sky out of it? I think that’s pretty damn disrespectful! Either you use the church with the priest and blessing and the whole deal and then you have overstepped the boundaries of the non-denominational and freedom of religion-adhering public school. Or you tell the minister to please skip the God-references and just use the church as a cosy little gathering place because “it is supposed to be that way” and then you disrespect the people for whom the church isn’t just any other building. Both is wrong. (Kind of like getting married in a church when you’re not religious, just because it’s “such a beautiful place”. One of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever been in is the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem - a Muslim mosque. I wouldn’t dream about getting married there, and ask the imam to “please keep the Allah references to a minimum”. But I’ve heard people asking that of the Church of Sweden-minister officiating their wedding. Geez, how selfish is that?! But I digress.)

So for the ones who think that going to church is really important for their kids: take them yourself! I’m sure it’s open when the non-religious, inclusive school celebration is over. And for the ones saying that a church is just like any other room, then moving the celebration elsewhere can’t be a big deal, right?

PS. I don’t know where this so-called “tradition” of having the end of the school year ceremonies in church comes from - I went to school in the 80s and early 90s and we never went to a church for ours. Neither did my parents, born in the early 40s and 50s, I think. Actually I don’t think my grandmother did either. So it can’t be that all-encompassing and ancient as some “traditionalists” are making it out to be.

The Christian fundamentalist* church Maranata has illegally been homeschooling children for years, reports Existens, a Swedish public service TV program. Homeschooling in Sweden is only allowed if the child is very ill, or lives in a remote location far from a school. Homeschooling for religious reasons is not allowed, and yet Maranata has been able to do this for years. Apparently they were given a permit in the 1970s and since then it has just continued, even though the law says that the permit needs to be renewed yearly. Evidently, neither the Stockholm municipality or the National Agency for Education (Skolverket) has been doing their job properly.

Many churches start their own schools, but Maranata doesn’t want to do that, since then they would have to follow the national law on education, which wouldn’t allow them to spank children and teach the Bible as the Truth^TM. Home schooling should, as the name suggests, take place in the home, not in some defacto “school”, but this is what Maranata has been doing: the home schooled children has been educated together in something called “Pilgrimsskolan” (”the Pilgrim school”). A “school” which is under no control from the school authorities and does not follow the Swedish law. Fortunately Lotta Edholm, politician with responsibility for schools in Stockholm, has promised to make sure that the homeschooling is discontinued after this semester. The reply from Maranata is that if that is the case, they will break the law and continue to brainwash their kids**.

A while ago, the liberal party Folkpartiet proposed that the police should be allowed to pick up truant students. But I haven’t heard anybody propose that these children, whose parents/educators are breaking the law both when it comes to homeschooling, compulsory school attendance, and spanking, should be picked up by the police and the parents prosecuted. I’m not proposing that either, but it’s an interesting observation.

And what about when these children enter high school (or do they home school in those levels also?) - according to the law, you need grades to enter high school, but are the grades given in this “school” valid? What about university attendance? Are these children given education in all subjects needed to enter college? Do they have chemistry labs where they can do experiments? Certified language teachers? Well-rounded education about other religions? Certified biology teachers who teach sex ed the way it is outlined in the curriculum?

Seriously, I don’t understand why religious schools are allowed - religion is a private matter and if parents want to install a certain faith in their children, they can do so off school hours. And it is the responsibility of the state to make sure that all kids are in school - we have compulsory school attendance and being of a certain faith does not give you a free pass to break the law. Maranata and other such churches may want to shun society, but they are still members of this society and citizens of this country, and their responsibilities and duties does not end just because they believe in God (or Allah, the Earth Goddess or the Pink unicorn in the sky).

*Don’t jump on me for calling them fundamentalist, that’s what the leader of Maranata’s Stockholm parish, Tage Johansson, is calling himself.
**Again, not my wording: read the article in The Local where Tage Johansson says that the children are brainwashed in order to free them “from the degrading effects of society”.

(Read more: Svenska Dagbladet here and here, DN here, Dagen here, or the Local in English here)

Edit: As pointed out in comments, I had gotten the name of the leader of Maranata’s Stockholm parish wrong: it’s Tage, not Ture. Sorry for the mix-up.

Landskrona in southern Sweden will be the the first municipality to randomly drug test 8th and 9th graders. 20 percent of the students will be randomly selected for the testing. The tests will be administered by the school nurse, and the student’s parents or guardian has too consent as well before the test is administered. The student is allowed to say no, but then a letter will be sent home to the parents. That’s how “voluntary” this is. Of course students who say no will be pointed out as potential drug users and/or troublemakers, disrespectful of authority and refusing to buy the “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to be afraid of”-rhetoric.

Many people are critical, including the Swedish National Agency for Education. Although they are saying that the tests are not against the law, one of their lawyers asks whether it is really the school who should administer these kinds of tests, and also questions how the tests results will be handled with regards to confidentiality.

You know, drugs are definitely a societal problem which should be taken seriously. But blanket testing, disguised under some false voluntariness, is not the solution. I don’t think treating everyone as potential drug users, cheaters (not the sexual kind), criminals etc. are the way of creating a just, equal and thriving society. But what do I know, I’m just a bleeding-heart, terrorist-loving, Sweden-hating, tree-hugging communist.

Due to budgetary cuts, many schools nowadays do not have school nurses or counselors, or only have them very few hours weekly. In total, the number of adults in schools per student has gone down. And now the school nurse’s time will be clogged up from administering and following up and and filing drug tests. Is this wise use of seriously constrained budgets? I ask, wouldn’t it be better to spend the money on real preventive measures instead? (And by that I don’t mean the ridiculous scare-mongering propaganda that I was subjected to in school, the “if you smoke pot once you will end up a heroin-injecting homeless criminal”-kind, which was so easily debunked.)

I haven’t heard a single word about what kind of support would be given to the student who have given a positive drug test - it’s like this that I wrote about screening for partner violence among pregnant women: when you get the results, exactly what are you going to do with it? Report the student to the police? Kick them out of school? Offer them counseling? Enforce mandatory counseling? No-one has said anything about that. Probably they don’t know.

This is another of those measures which sounds good (making sure kids don’t get caught up in drugs, I’m all for that), but which merely paints over the real problems and doesn’t solve anything in the long run. It seems the preferred way of conducting politics nowadays, and I guess anything else would require quite a revolutionary remake of society. And we can’t have that. But now at least the politicians can pat each others backs and say that they are “tough on drugs”.

(Read more in Swedish: SvD; HD)

Oh sweet Blind Io and all minor deities!
In today’s Dagens Nyheter, there is a letter to the editor signed Jakob E:son Söderbaum. Now for some reason DN doesn’t publish their readers’ letters on their website, but fortunately Jakob E:son Söderbaum has a blog (that I don’t want to link to, but if you read Swedish you can google his name and go on an adventure in a parallel universe). Jakob E:son Söderbaum is a “progress friendly conservative” (by “progress” he means returning to some unknown decade when we honored the king, kept our hands above the covers and our women in the kitchen), in his upper twenties or lower thirties. If you thought that Sweden was free of the “sex is gross, ewww icky icky icky”-crowd, think again.

Some background: a few days ago, Folkpartiet (the Liberal Party of Sweden) suggested repealing the law that makes it legal for parents to take their children out of certain lessons at school, such as sex ed or PE, due to religious or cultural reasons, and to force all children to take all classes. There has been some discussion on whether the Liberal Party’s idea is the best way to address the problem that some children aren’t allowed to learn about their bodies or to be seen in a bathing suit. I’m not sure how I feel about their proposal, but let’s leave that aside and focus on Jakob E:son Söderbaum.

He does not agree with the Liberal Party’s idea. No, he wants to excuse all children from sex ed. And he’s not even in with the abstinence only-crowd. He’s in the no mention of gross icky sex in school ever-crowd. Some of his arguments, put forth in the letter and in the ensuing discussion on his blog, are (with extra-craziness in bold, and my snarky responses in brackets):

- Sex ed teaches girls that they need to spread their legs for anyone, otherwise they are abnormal. (Because telling girls that they are not sluts or hoes if they like sex automatically means that you encourage them to do it anywhere with anyone. There can be no balance.)
- Sex should be taught by parents, only then can the serious nature of sexuality be properly conveyed to the rising generation. (And the parental version of sex ed should go “sex is gross and disgusting so you must save it for someone you love”.)
- Sex is for procreation only and sex ed teaches how to avoid procreation (Yes, let’s conveniently forget about reality: that the majority of adults will have sex a number of times without wanting to get pregnant. And that it could be a good thing to learn how to avoid STDs. And that not all people are heterosexual. But to base education on reality is such a bad idea.)
- Sex ed teachers are raping our children because talking to young girls about sex if you’re not their parent is akin to raping them. (He trivializes rape. What a surprise.)
- Sex ed teachers must be perverts, how else can they stand there talking about the subject day in and day out. (Yes, just like language teachers constantly mumble verb declinations and home ec teachers are unable to have a conversation that doesn’t revolve around pie crusts and cleaning products. Ohmigod, imagine what it must be like for OB/Gyns. They must be the most perverted people out there ever, staring at women’s icky parts all day and talking about stuff related to teh sex!!!!11!!!!eleven!)
- There’s too much sex in today’s society, it was better when it was a shameful secret. (So why are you discussing it? Doesn’t that add to the sexual fixation too?)
- Girls enjoying sex are almost whores. (And there he throws in some slut shaming to. Lovely.)
- Sexual pleasure is the lowest form of human feeling, and to acknowledge and seek sexual pleasure will lead you to become a sex addict who constantly think about and seek sex. (Oh, me thinks someone doth protest too much. Söderbaum says he’s in a “steady relationship”, but he doesn’t say he’s married, so he must be a virgin. For someone who’s not married, he seems awfully focused on sex. Doesn’t he know that subject is reserved for married people? Oh, I see, it’s only unmarried girls who aren’t allowed to think about sex. If you’re an unmarried conservative man - then it’s a-okay!)

Thank heavens that people like Söderbaum are a minority here and that he is sure to get some serious counter-arguments against him - it has already started on his blog. Now I need to go read some deviant and sex positive stuff before my head explodes.

Hoe-looking man writes too, and titles her piece “hardcore porn pussy anus lesbian sex dicks huge cock fuck ass pictures”, so that Söderbaum will find it when he goes on nightly internet adventures. LOL!

(Update: Here you can read more about the proposal from the liberal party, and reactions to it, in English)

What are you going be when you grow up? Who hasn’t been asked that question. As young children, we answer that we want to be fire-fighters, rock stars, football players, ballet dancers, fighter pilots (that was me). And that answer is seen as cute and filled with innocent hopes and dreams. It may even be encouraged, with ballet lessons, soccer practice, and a child sized fire-fighter costume for playing dress-up.

Then we enter the school system. Here, we are expected to sit down and be quiet, until it’s time for P.E. class, when we are instead expected to jump and cartwheel on command. We are supposed to be children, to be innocent and playful and curious. “Kids are growing up too fast these days” complain the adults and point to 12 year old girls in short skirts and eye shadow. “What are their parents thinking, they look like sluts!”, they say, while bemoaning that the 12 year old girls are being called “bitch” by their class mates. No, we are not supposed to grow up too fast. Not when it comes to clothes and make up and sex and drinking. But at 15, we are expected to make choices that, say the adults with very serious voices, are determinant for our future. And you need to know long division to pass this course, if you don’t pass it that is going in your grades, and your future employer will want to look at those grades, so you better learn long division, otherwise you may be doomed, doomed I tell you!

Now, when being asked what we are going to be when we grow up, answering football player or rock star or ballet dancer isn’t cute and innocently hopeful any longer. By now we need to have realized that life isn’t fair and that those were just silly dreams (not having realized this is usually the fault of lax parenting and a school system that puts to much time into drawing and singing and talking about feelings instead of teaching life-necessary skills such as long division and sitting down and shutting up).

The “perfect girls” in this age are now dreaming of becoming lawyers and doctors and international aid workers. They are striving for perfection, for getting those good grades that everyone tells them are so important, and they know that it’s never too early to have a good CV and make yourself employable, so they do volunteer work and start projects and write blogs. (I say girls, because it largely seems to be girls who are striving for this kind of perfection). But somehow that is wrong too, they are being told. Don’t they realize that perfection is impossible? Don’t they realize that there is more to life than getting a high status “exciting” job? Don’t they realize that you need time to relax and “just be”?

When we’re out of school, we are given some leeway. When you’re 20, it’s kind of okay to work in a café, save money and then go off to Laos for three months. Sitting around playing guitar hoping to land a record contract is frowned upon, but can be looked by if it is “only a phase”. But then you pretty much have two choices - either get a job and then it’s pretty much expected that you “settle down” (oh how I loathe that phrase!) and start a family, or you go to university and further your education, thereby putting off the “settling down” thing a few years (but not too many!). And then you really need to think about what you are going to be when you grow up (because even if you have moved away from home, travelled alone in Turkmenistan, held 10 different jobs and live with your long time partner, you still haven’t “grown up”).

(Here, I diverge from the story a little to dwell on the fact that today in society, we lack rites of passage of becoming an adult. Before, you we’re an adult when you had gone through confirmation in church. At a certain age, you we’re expected to lay off your children’s clothes and were given the superficial attributes of adulthood - a woman’s coat and gloves, a man’s costume and hat. Nowadays, we have nothing like that, and transferring into adulthood is a process which takes years. I’m 28, married, have two university degrees, have worked a number of jobs, have all kinds of life experiences, but according to some people I’m still not really an adult, since I have no children or a permanent job - the ultimate signs of having “settled down” and thus being a true, productive member of society - an adult.)

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