Oh calm down R44, of course, "the arts" would be part of my sentiments @ R34 - My point, while maybe not as soft and sensitive to the things you happen to find important, is that so many kids are literally being brainwashed into this, as someone up-thread called, "epidemic". We're seeing a modern form of American isolationism taking hold. By nature, Americans are already commonly aloof to the world outside our borders. But this is making it worse. Kids are being taught and encouraged to place social and identity politics above any and everything else. Young people aren't commonly being told to learn and understand things like the European economy, or to take an interest in many of the things that make America so diverse and successful like engineering, exploration, and, yes, art. There are no, or few programs commonly available to teach our kids about other countries, their politics, and cultures, or who threatens us and our way of life. But there really is no lack of art when compared to the other things mentioned.
Kids aren't being told that the world can be evil outside of America, that other countries without the best intentions want to best and overcome and dominate Western society and culture. We are no longer having kids truly IMAGINE things to encourage them toward creative ingenuity or curiosity in the planet and cosmos, outside of harping about climate change which we also do nothing about.
Instead, people and parents like the father in OP's link are obsessed with their children's' genitalia. Like. literally obsessed by it. They aren't even giving kids a chance to hit puberty yet. Parents in America want their kids to accept THEM and not the other way around. Many public schools have even begun nixing things like advanced math courses, or literature in favor of cultural offerings we used to only see as college electives. Our kids are obsessed with fame and with being armchair activists. Or, being told that all of them have some malady they must overcome through activism or to "rise up" against. Everyone needs and wants to be a Rosa Parks. Meanwhile, Chinese second graders march to school doing calculus on the way. They're taught about culture, (although a bastardized version of it that the People's Communist Party dictates), they're taught wellness, but there is also an emphasis placed on the important standards that we in this country used to call "reading, writing, and arithmetic".
That's my point. That younger people, especially very young children, have been 'Oprah'ized' by a society that's so fortunate, we've become fat, slovenly and lazy about our future and our place in the world. We'd rather cheer over a little sissy-boy that some white affluent mommy dresses-up and sticks in the middle of the New York Pride Parade while making sure the cameras are rolling than we would the kid who wins a national science competition.
Social justice and politics are a needed part of a dynamic, free, and advancing society. But they're also the "fun" stuff. The low hanging fruit. Where's the encouragement of young children to be bold, brave, and to think outside the box, not for the betterment of their sex or sexual preference, but for their country and their world? I see no signs of it.
