A Teacher Blogs

It was inevitable.  Following the airing of the Bruce Jenner interview on ABC News , the atmosphere was ripe a backlash of ugly, reactive commentary. And I suspected it would be used to buttress the non-fact-based campaign against  Ontario Health and Physical Education curriculum . What I had not expected was the ammunition would be would be the horrendous tragedy of David Reimer . Gender Identity and John Money  tells the story of David Reimer , born 1965, whose penis was irrevocably damaged in a botched circumcision, setting the stage for a life of torment and indignity, culminating with his suicide. The author of the blog post is Lou Iacobelli, a devout Catholic, parents rights advocate, and a retired teacher. In fact I took eleventh grade English with him nearly forty years ago. On the essential facts of the case, I don't dispute what Mr Iacobelli posted: Psychologist and sexologist John Money told young David's parents that he could give their chi...

This blog continues an interesting dialogue that has begun with my eleventh-grade English teacher. Lou Iacobelli is a retired teacher, also a blogger and advocate for Catholic education and parents' rights. The discussion began when I posted, on March 15th, a response to two entries on his blog Everyday for Life Canada regarding a TDSB equity document focused on LGBTQ issues. I took umbrage with some of his assertions, posted, and linked my response to the comments section of his blog. An email exchange began. And here were are. Lou summarizes: In this post, I would like to respond to a recent entry by a teacher and a former student from my teaching days at De La Salle College here in Toronto. He says it was forty years ago. Where have all those years gone? But I digress. The entry is at "A Teacher Blogs" and tilted "The Sin of Omission." The author refers two of my posts: "The bottom line in the 'new' sex education curriculum:...

A particular Catholic blog that has caught my eye over the last couple of years is Everyday for Life Canada , written by veteran educator  Lou Iacobelli . There are two reasons I read it: Unlike many blogs in this arena, which simply link out other materials with a bit pithy commentary, Mr Iacobelli's entries are original essays. These range from personal reflections on faith to thoughtful explanations of the inner workings of the vast complex that is the Roman Catholic Church. The other reason I read it is that Mr Iacobelli was my eleventh-grade English teacher in 1976, just shy of forty years ago, at De La Salle College in Toronto. Mr Iacobelli was among a handful of teachers who provided me with an arena in which I could thrive. Having little interest in hockey or football in a school that excelled in both; being among the very few non-Catholics in the all-boys collegiate; and showing absolutely no talent for maths or sciences, to which the school's curricular scale...