I wrote this so long ago that my biography lists me as having a job. It was before I joined in with Guiding in Torbay too.
But I did write it! From The F-Word about Guiding and being girl only.
EDIT: Health issues and other things stopped me from writing the follow up posts. I'm afraid their is no resolution for this one. We had fun though.
For the next three weeks I’m helping with Brownies. Brown Owl (the woman in charge) is also an assistant at guides with me and she needed a bit of help.
I said I’d come in to do a badge. Being a visitor like this helped me decide on what to do. I like talking about world issues with our girls but the added respect and detachment I get from being just a visitor was a big help in bringing up more difficult problems.
So I have the chance to do the World Issues badge. And – as it’s the centenary year – I’m going to be asking the girls to identify an issue they feel strongly about and have them work to make thing better.
This week we took on children’s rights. Not the easiest of issues to explain. Teaching about hurt and pain and the horrible things people do to each other is difficult for them and me. Add to that children who are being treated like crap by the people who are supposed to protect them the most – parents, teachers, governments – and yeah. Hard.
But we got there. To explain the concept of children’s rights with them we started with a game. They chose the game and started playing. It was All Brownies for those who know it (I didn’t!) and I walked over and announced that the winner would get a prize. They played the game and the winner stepped forwards.
I told her I didn’t much like the idea of giving my prize away, that I was going to keep it and she had no say.
After the complaining settled down I asked them if they thought it was fair? No. I asked them if they thought it was right? No. Then I asked them how it felt to be ignored and treated unfairly.
Then we used an Oxfam produced activity to introduce the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We discussed what we thought was important and why.
I pulled my map out and attacked it with sticky notes. ‘Does anyone know where Sierra Leone is?’ We talked about war, drought, and access to medicine. All with real life examples.
Then we went back to playing games. Right before we finished for the night we held the big vote. What issue do the girls want to work on in the next three weeks? What do they want to change?
All hands went up for stopping Animal Cruelty. Check back next week when we’ll have more of that plus talking about the work of international charities.
You can see the World Issues badge here, sign your daughter up for Brownies here, or become a leader yourself here.I've never took a peek at The Telegraph's style guide. I owned a copy of the Times version and wrote to the Guardian one at university but I haven't seen The Telegraph's.
I wonder though. Does it say, like the others I've seen, that when referring to people that you should always use their preferred gender? Is that rule and it's been broken here or haven't they got a shred of humanity at all?
The headline is 'Boy, 12, is having sex change, school announces' the actual story is that the School called an Assembly to tell the students this girl must be treated like a girl.
Or, as the Telegraph would spin it, that this school is forcing kids to be accepting and understanding without first informing the parents. In their own words now:
'the boy...was immediately taunted by classmates who recognised him from primary school.
'As a result, the 1,000-pupil school in south east England decided to call an emergency assembly ordering children to treat him as a girl and use his new name' [emphasis mine]
Way to go Telegraph. You can't even show the same understanding that we're expecting of twelve year olds.
And let's face it we should be expecting this of them. The question isn't whether these kids are old enough to understand gender identity in the most basic of terms (or, rather, if their parents are) but whether they are old enough to show someone basic common decency.
Whether they are old enough to know that we shouldn't persecute people for not being 100%, certified normal.
To suggest that this girl should put up with - as The Telegraph lightly puts it- taunting because parents think their children might find the concept of her existence a bit difficult is more than a little bigoted. Not to mention completely crap.
So well done to this school and to this girl and her parents and to the kids who, and I'm sure they existed, were more accepting. Screw you Telegraph.
And no, I couldn't bring myself to search for the original Sun coverage. I'm just going to assume that it would anger me.
There is so much I want to rant about today that I'm just going to list them. Three things that I'm not impressed by:
1. This picture in Glamour (US)
It doesn't impress me, it doesn't placate me. One 'normal' woman in one issue of one magazine.
Not even getting into the idea of what is normal I think the ideal we are striving for here is a diverse representation of body shapes, sizes and colours. I want to see people on all parts of the spectrum not just one slightly chubby, naked, white, blond woman as a political statement.
A lot of people are saying she looks happy and healthy but come on! You can not tell how healthy someone is by a picture. You can't see inside some one's body, you can't even see the other side of her body. And happy? Chances are she was told to smile at the camera. She is a model, posing for a photograph.
2. This arsewipe Doctor who thinks loosing weight can cure depression.
I mean come on! I've heard every magic cure for depression there is. What I haven't heard is that you can cure depression by shaming your patients and treating what you perceive are their problems rather than what they are asking for.
And yet I know that there is a problem with people accessing medicine because their doctors are turning them away, or accepting them if only they did the impossible ie. maintain a low weight. And I know people don't take depression seriously even when you fit into that right weight. And I know that people have no idea how people eat but assume they do based on appearances.
Yet I'm shocked and bloody angry when one arse in a white coat can use all these things - all of their unfounded prejudices - to ruin some one's life.
3. It's the time of year again to tear young people apart.
A-level results are in and turns out people did well. This -as it turns out- is not to do with better teaching methods that engage a variety of learning styles, better understanding of learning difficulties or anything else that gives all people a chance at a decent education.
No, it is a result of the exams getting easier. And so the hand wringing starts from people who haven't looked at these exams in years know - like every older generation since time immemorial, or at least the Romans - that kids today are thickos.
And they say this with no regard to the young people. Who, lets face it, only ever get in the news over this and ASBOs. They don't care about someone who is pleased to bits about achieving their A or someone who already thinks they are crap for getting a D.
I'm angry, I'm full of hay fever and god knows the world isn't putting me in a happy place today.
