Friday, November 06, 2015



Sorry girls, you CAN'T have it all

Top UK headmistress warns that women still need to decide between career or family because of their 'biological calendar'

A retiring headmistress claims that young girls need to choose between a career and a family in early life.  Vivienne Durham, head of Francis Holland Regent's Park expressed her opinion to the Telegraph ahead of her retirement in January.

Vivienne, who was awarded Tatler's Best Headteacher of a Public School last year, said she supports women who choose not to 'combine' motherhood and a career.

In the interview with Absolutely Education magazine she also said: 'I'm sorry, I'm not a feminist. I believe there is a glass ceiling – if we tell them there isn’t one, we are telling them a lie.'

She said: 'Young girls have massive options these days and some of them will make a decision that they don't want to combine everything and that is as valid as making the decision that you do want to combine everything.'

The headteacher of the £13,000-a-year school, which counts Cara Delevingne, Jackie Collins and Jemima Khan among its star-studded alumni, added that she believes that such a decision should be made as soon as possible for young women.

She continued: 'We all have a biological calendar and you have to make decisions about your entire working life, which probably goes up to about 77 now, but you have to make decisions about 40 per cent of your life early on.'

Vivienne added that the right career can be, for some women, as satisfying as starting a family.

'If you're lucky enough to find yourself in a job that you love, it could be very emotionally fulfilling. I am not saying it is as emotionally fulfilling as having children but [that love for a career] sometimes that means that the decision ends up being right.'

Her comments, which are bound to upset women who believe that they can be mothers and career women at the same time, come after one of Britain’s top NHS fertility specialists wrote to education secretary Nicky Morgan demanding that girls of school age are taught about the dangers of delaying motherhood.

In the letter, seen by The Mail on Sunday, consultant gynaecologist Professor Geeta Nargund wrote: ‘I have witnessed all too often the shock and agony on the faces of women who realise they have left it too late to start a family.

‘For so many, this news comes as a genuine surprise and the sense of devastation and regret can be overwhelming.  ‘And so often the cry will be “Why did no one warn me about this?”’

Fertility issues placed a ‘costly and largely unnecessary burden on the NHS’, she said, warning that the IVF bill ‘looks set only to increase’. Hundreds of millions is already spent on IVF, with each treatment ‘cycle’ costing around £5,000.

Arguing passionately for fertility lessons, she urged Mrs Morgan: ‘Information is power and the best way to empower people to take control of their fertility is through education.’

Prof Nargund said: ‘Ideally, if a woman is ready for a child, she should start trying by the time she is 30. She should consider having a child early because as a woman gets older, her fertility declines sharply.’

At the time a Department for Education spokesman said: ‘Sex and relationship education is compulsory in all maintained secondary schools.  ‘We also expect academies and free schools to deliver relationship education.

‘We trust schools to ensure the education they provide meets the needs of particular students. As such, they are free to talk about fertility or any other relevant issues.’

SOURCE






UK: Schoolgirl's satchel left behind in class in 1930 is found by teachers clearing out cupboards and its contents are a fascinating insight into a bygone age



Staff clearing out cupboards at a school were stunned when they stumbled across a dusty satchel containing exercise books from a pupil - dating back nearly 90 years.

The battered leather bag, which has the name Mona Stonyer written on the inside flap, had been untouched ever since it was left behind in 1930.

Inside were Mona's exercise books for history of arts, biology, religious studies, and geology, revealing a fascinating insight into how the subjects were taught almost a century ago.

The college was originally called Hereford High School for Girls and records show Mona was a pupil there from 1927 to 1930.

The 'beautifully presented' books contain pages of painstakingly neat notes and several detailed drawings of plants and wildlife.

Assistant head teacher Cal Hendry, 44 - who has taught at the school for 15 years - said: 'Other than the books, there was nothing in the satchel except her name and address. 'Nobody knows why it was left behind. It's a mystery.

'We've found out that Mona was born in November 1913. Her dad was an engineer and she joined the school in 1927 when she was 13.

'In 1926 her dad was killed in a motorbike accident. She had an older sister but there is nothing in our records about her mother.

'She worked as a personal secretary for a local land security company.

'Mona died in 1990 and apparently she was very reclusive in her old age.

'We held a school assembly about the bag two weeks ago where I gave a slideshow presentation, comparing Mona's work to that of our current pupils.

'The old books are in amazing condition and the presentation hasn't faded.

'All of her work is neatly handwritten. She took great pride in it and it is beautifully presented.

'By showing it to the children, I was trying to emphasise the value of focus and encourage them to take pride in their work like she did.

'Our science teachers also used them in lessons to show how different their teaching methods are now, compared to those in the 1920s.  'This whole experience has been a revelation for me.'

Mona's fourth cousin David Dewick, 66, from Stourbridge, Worcestershire, visited the school after a friend told him about the discovery.

He said: 'I've been researching my family history for 12 years.  'My great, great, great, great, great grandmother was also Mona's grandmother and my grandmother was a Stonyer.

'The family were originally millers by trade and came from Scotland.

'From what I've found out, Mona lived in the same house all her life. She never married and she was childless.

'When she was 13 she was travelling in a motorbike side-car with her older sister Ruby. Her mother, Ellen, was riding as a pillion passenger and her dad, William, was driving.

'They were just minutes from home when William had to swerve to avoid a cyclist and there was an accident with another car which was overtaking.

'He suffered severe head injuries and died and Mona suffered severe head and leg injuries but survived.

'It's remarkable that she was able to produce the quality of work she did so soon after being so badly injured and losing her father.

'I am always interested to find out more about the Stonyers so when I heard the school had found the satchel I was eager to see it for myself.

'What struck me was how precise and neat her work is. She was clearly a very intelligent girl.'

The historic books are now being kept in a display cabinet in the school reception.

SOURCE






Obama Demands School Let Boy Shower With Girls

In this liberal utopia we call America, Rachel Dolezal is black but Clarence Thomas is not (at least not an “authentic” black man); Bruce Jenner is a woman despite having male genitals; and gender is determined by feelings rather than by DNA. This has led to such bizarre developments as Bruce “Call Me Caitlyn” Jenner holding the title of Glamour Magazine’s “Woman of the Year” while simultaneously being one of the most decorated male Olympians of all time.

It’s one thing to watch such circus sideshows play out in popular culture, but it’s another thing entirely to have mental illnesses not only indulged by government but protected under the law. Yet that is exactly what is occurring under Barack Obama.

Earlier this week, the Obama administration issued an administrative ruling involving a dispute between Illinois' Township High School District 211 and a transgendered student, demanding the male student (born a male but “identifying” as a female) be allowed to use the girls' locker room to shower and change clothes, alongside actual female students. Failure to comply with this directive, the Obama administration threatened, will result in federal civil rights lawsuits and the loss of Title IX funding for the district.

Consider the insanity of this position. On one hand, government demands the anatomically accurate sex of each child born be shown on birth certificates, a characteristic that is genetically determined and easily identifiable to anyone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of human anatomy. On the other, it demands schools ignore these anatomical realities in the treatment of certain mentally ill students. Even the American Psychiatric Association acknowledges this truth in its own Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Speaking of gender dysphoria (previously “gender identity disorder”), commonly known as “transgenderism,” the APA states that it is a mental disorder in which a person is extremely uncomfortable with their anatomical sex, and strongly identifies with, and desires to be, the opposite sex.

By definition, the disorder acknowledges that sex is a distinct, natural characteristic, and that extreme discomfort with this reality is a mental disorder. Yet rather than do the compassionate thing and get these distraught, confused individuals the professional help they clearly need, Obama demands we indulge the disorder and pretend it’s natural.

The New York Times, reporting on the story (and erroneously and repeatedly referring to the mentally ill male student as a girl), notes that the student is taking hormone therapy, which begs the question. If the student is a girl, hormone therapy wouldn’t be needed. And if the student is not a girl, his delusions shouldn’t be indulged.

This mentally ill student has already been granted incredible accommodations by being allowed to play sports on the girls' athletic teams, called by his preferred feminine pseudonym and referred to as “she” by teachers and staff. Indeed, he is already allowed to use the girls' locker room. The school has asked only that the student change clothes behind a privacy curtain so as not to expose the female students to his naked body, or theirs to him. Changing clothes in front of members of the same sex can be daunting enough in high school, but no student should have to undress in front of the opposite sex, or be forced to be present when opposite sex students undress.

The absurdity is hard to understate. If a male student walked into the girls' locker room and stripped naked, then that student would likely be suspended or expelled, and possibly brought up on charges of indecent exposure, sexual harassment, etc. Yet if that same male student claims to “identify” as a female, he receives the full weight and power of the federal government crushing any dissent. But what of the rights of the far more numerous female students who don’t want to undress in front of a male student?

When personal feelings and “identity” are the standard by which to decide sex, how can we possibly keep dishonest, opportunistic and libidinous teenage boys from claiming they “identify” as female in order to be able to shower with young women with the protection of a federal mandate?

This lunacy of indulging a mental illness is not just asinine, it is dangerous. A young man can “identify” as a young woman all he wants, but that changes not one iota the fact that, as a male, he has denser bones and more muscle mass, significantly increasing the potential for serious injury to the smaller, lighter young women he plays against on the basketball court or the soccer or lacrosse field.

This type of danger was on full display when “transgendered” MMA fighter Fallon Fox in June incapacitated his female opponent with a TKO just over two minutes into the fight. Fox’s female opponent, Tamikka Brents, suffered a broken eye socket and a concussion. Brents would later state, “I’ve never felt so overpowered ever in my life, and I am an abnormally strong female in my own right.”

This followed Fox’s quick victory (just 39 seconds) in 2013 over Ericka Newsome, with the male Fox taking down his female opponent with a vicious knee to the head.

The threatening directive, issued by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, continues a long history of the Obama administration’s agenda of normalizing sexual deviance and mental disorders, as with its past efforts to expand “rights” for transgendered inmates and employees, including a push for taxpayer-funded “sex reassignment” surgery, hormone therapy and so forth.

This same push is occurring at the state and local level as well, as in Houston, where the lesbian mayor tried to force local churches and businesses to allow men to use women’s restrooms. After some backlash, voters had their say and handily rejected and repealed the measure.

It’s hard to imagine the Obama administration pushing in other directions for such “rights” based on identity. For tens of millions of Americans, their Christianity is an inseparable component of their personal identity, yet Obama actively persecutes and prosecutes those Christians who act upon that identity when it comes into opposition with his pro-LGBT or pro-abortion agenda. Yet we can’t recall a single instance of his using the bully pulpit to call out Muslims for their actual anti-LGBT bigotry, or pointing to the regular practice in many Muslim countries of torture and death for homosexuals.

For Obama, his administration seems to not only embrace the philosophy of Humpty Dumpty, but that of the power-hungry pigs in the George Orwell classic, “Animal Farm,” who condescendingly explained to the less worthy animals, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

Clearly, Obama and his comrades are pigs.

SOURCE





No comments: