Winnacunnet High School Goes Forth Boldly into the 21st Century

 

Should Have Been In School

"When I think back on all the crap

I learned in high school,

It's a wonder 

I can think at all."

--Paul Simon, Kodachrome

Women's World Record Holder

Speaking recently with a Winnacunnet senior, a very bright lad with a bright future, Mad Dog was struck by what this student did not know, and by the student's lack of curiosity to find out. 

Mad Dog had asked him about the women's track sensation, Caster Semenya, who had broken all the women's track records in her various events, among them the 800 and 400 meters and broken these times by wide margins. Ms. Semenya's astonishing performances were not, however, the reason for her notice--women's track is not going to compete with the NFL or NHL or the Red Sox anytime soon. What catapulted Ms. Semenya into the headlines, on to Twitter feeds and FOX News, is the assertion she is not a woman at all, but a man competing against women.

Of course, track suits are form fitting and revealing enough to show, at a glance, she does not have any of the male external genitalia.

Looking between her legs, one would think she qualified as a woman, but looking at her shoulders and thighs, one might think again. 

What she has, almost certainly, is an incomplete form of androgen insensitivity syndrome, formerly known as "testicular feminization" syndrome.  In this state the individual makes high levels of testosterone (from internal testicles, which have never descended into a scrotal sack) but when testosterone arrives at the muscle cell or brain cell or fat cell, the receptors on that cell, which ordinarily transport the hormone inside where it can initiate all the cellular processes, protein production etc, simply fails to happen.  

XY chromosome Individuals

Individuals with "complete" insensitivity cannot respond at all to the hormone and because--and here is where you need a key concept--because the human organism will develop along "female lines" in the absence of testosterone (or in the absence of being able to respond to testosterone) the individual looks for all the world like a normal woman, with breasts, hips, fat distribution, i.e. the "phenotype" of a woman. In a sense, one might say, despite having testicles inside, these individuals are the most "female" of all human beings because they cannot respond to male hormone.

But biology does not always read the textbook and there are some folks who can respond partially to the hormone, say at muscle cells and bone cells, but not in other cells, say in the pathways which cause testicles to descend into a scrotal sac, and the primordial genital tissue to fuse or not fuse into a vagina and labia. Ms. Semenya is likely here.

Whether a developing fetus travels down the path toward "girl" or "boy" depends on a symphonic sweep of different instruments working in harmony: The X and Y chromosomes are playing; factors which cause the regression of internal female structures (tubes and ovaries); secondary hormones which cause the fusion of tissues into a scrotum and the descent of testicles to that sac all have to chime in, at the right moments, so that when the baby pops out, at a glance, the nurse or doctor can announce, "It's a girl!"

Long ago, in antediluvian times, Mad Dog was so fascinated by all this and by what can go wrong with all this, he was swept away into a career--but he realizes not everyone is so enthralled, and in fact many people find the whole thing disgusting, bizarre, weird and unappetizing. So the fact a Winnacunnet high school student was uninterested is no condemnation of Winnacunnet High School or of this particular student, it simply is an observation.

The trouble arises when discussions about "transgenders" or "gender identity" or "gender fluidity" arise, in the community, or at school, or in the legislature, and people who had no interested in the biology, or even the philosophy of sex, gender and sexual identity now try to offer their uninformed opinions. 

And, in a larger sense, there is the question of how we are preparing our sixteen year olds for the 21st century world.

Another topic for which Mad Dog has been beating the drum is the United States Constitution.  

The Second Amendment is something many people about town wave in your face, but few can actually recite that single sentence which constitutes the 2nd Amendment, and fewer still can comment on the fact that nowhere else in the Constitution do its authors ever stop to explain the "why" of an article or amendment. They don't say, "freedom of speech being the fundamental basis for democracy, Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech." But they do say, "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state..." 

So the authors of the Constitution, curiously, stop to explain WHY Congress should not mess with the right of well regulated militiamen should be allowed to keep their flintlocks above the mantle at home, but that is the only place they do explain the why.

As for the separation of church and state, the framers never pause to give a history of why church and state ought to be separate, they simply say, "This is the wall between the two: Deal with it." 

Of course, people who seek to undermine the 1st Amendment say, "separation of church and state" is a phrase that never appears in the Constitution, and then they grin moronically,  as if they had just won the argument and been appointed to the Supreme Court. 

Justice Robert Jackson SCOTUS

When Mad Dog talks about the Constitution with graduates of, and even teachers at Winnacunnet he wonders what sort of discussions are going on within those walls. 

On March 9, the annual voting for local offices and on warrant articles took place at Winnacunnet. Standing outside the school, in a roped off area for "visibility" was the customary line up of people holding signs with the names of candidates so voters can see those, and possibly remember the names long enough to vote for those candidates for School Board, Zoning Board, Financial Board.  

A cluster of men and women held signs at the far end of this line advocating "Vote Yes" on warrant article such and such, to fund school teachers or teachers' unions or something. Mad Dog walked to the farthest end of the line, separating himself by a few yards and held up his own sign, like one of those crazy people who walk down sidewalks with a sign that say, "Repent! The End is Near." 

On that far end of the line, Mad Dog imagined himself to be like Captain Joshua Chamberlain, anchoring the far end of the Union line at Gettysburg, in place to defend the entire Union battle line, the Union, the nation and its future. 

Mad Dog's sign said, "Congress Shall Make No Law Respecting the Establishment of Religion."  

This was deservedly ignored by passers-by, some of whom looked at Mad Dog out of the corners of their eyes, trying to see if they recognized this mad monk, despite his face mask and hat which left only his eyes and his body posture as clues to his identity.  They deviated ever so slightly, to keep a safe distance between themselves and this Mad Dog, on their way into the polls. 

Eventually, a kindly woman holding a sign on a wooden pole, which could have served as a club if a weapon were needed, stepped over to Mad Dog and asked what was on his sign. He turned it to her so she could read it, which she did. He could hear her reading out loud quietly, behind her face mask, murmuring "Respecting the Establishment" and finally she asked what this was all about. 

"It's the First Amendment," Mad Dog said. "Of the United States Constitution."

"I taught the First Amendment!" the woman cried out.

Mad Dog was not sure whether she meant, "Of course, it's the First Amendment! I know that! Anyone would know that!" or "Oh! You don't say? Is that the First Amendment? Well, isn't that a coincidence! I taught that in class!"

She asked why Mad Dog would stand shivering in the cold to hold up a sign with the First Amendment printed on it.

Mad Dog explained about the warrant article which violated the first amendment by writing a check from the town bank account to the bank account of the Catholic Sacred Heart School.  

He expected her to ask why his sign did not say: "This is the First Amendment. Remember this when you vote on Warrant Article #4!"  Then Mad Dog was prepared to say that he had faith in Hampton voters that they would see the obvious relevance when they came to vote on that warrant article and they needed no more.

"I never liked that warrant article," the lady said.

And Mad Dog thought, to himself, saying nothing, so as to not provoke a fight, but thinking, silently:  "But did you teach your students to recognize when that Amendment was violated and to stand up and oppose such violations?"

Apparently, somewhere along the line, graduates of Winnacunnet were not taught such things.