GTA 5 removed from Target Australia

[Valthazar]

I'm alsojust going to leave this here as words can't really do it justice.

"Engage students in the writing, revision and feedback process so that the letters are high quality and able to be published and sent to the video companies."

That line definitely surprised me, but lesson plans like this tend to be par for the course - with debatable facts often being used as assumptions.  For example, courses which teach "women earn 77 cents on the dollar" as fact, rather than a statement to be debated due to its controversial nature.

[consortium11]

Getting "school kids" (I use the inverted commas because its made clear the teacher can rewrite the letters) to do an advocacy campaign for you... and them having to do it as part of their class... doesn't strike other people as being pretty inherently wrong?

[Kythia]

Getting "school kids" (I use the inverted commas because its made clear the teacher can rewrite the letters) to do an advocacy campaign for you... and them having to do it as part of their class... doesn't strike other people as being pretty inherently wrong?

Inherently wrong or no, it's actually pretty common. Cafod do it quite a lot for example.

[Valthazar]

It's definitely wrong, but it's also the ADL behind that lesson plan - and they have a track record of doing this sort of thing.  Take for example this lesson plan on "Gender Segregation and Pay Inequity in the Workplace" :

Tell students that an organization called the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) created Equal Pay Day in 1996 to create awareness about the gap between men’s and women’s wages.  Share the following:

Equal Pay Day

Equal Pay Day is held each April to symbolize how far into the year a woman must work, on average, to earn as much as a man earned the previous year. To match men’s earnings for 2007, for example, women will have to work from January 2007 to April 2008—an extra four months.  The day is held on a Tuesday, which is the day on which women’s wages catch up to men's wages from the previous week.  In other words, while the average male works five days per week for twelve months, the average female has to work seven days per week for sixteen months to earn equal pay.

Suggest that students can organize an Equal Pay Day (in April or any time of the year) in their school or community and implement one or more of the ideas they generated in step #6 above.  Have students get back into small groups and ask each small group to identify one action that they want to take.

Or this high school lesson plan on immigration:

Have students collect newspaper and Internet articles that reflect current attitudes about immigrants and immigration reform. Discuss the articles in class and help students to identify changes they would like to see in this country regarding the treatment of immigrants. Work with students to identify strategies for achieving these changes (e.g., letter writing, participating in marches/protests, etc.) and help them to follow through on one or more of these change strategies.

Hopefully good teachers will have the common sense to not introduce biased materials like this into the classroom (regardless of their personal stance on the issues).

[Oniya]

You thought GTAV was the limit?

Oh no...

Minecraft... yep, Minecraft... is currently under investigation in Turkey by the Family and Social Policies Ministry on the basis that it encourages violence, especially against women.

Clearly no-one wants to take video games away and this is nothing like the 90's and early 2000's...

Y'know, other than player skins, the only character in Minecraft that is even nominally female is the Witch.  PvP is never required (neither is multi-player, for that matter).  The 'higher levels' in the standard game are the Nether (must acquire obsidian to access) and the End (must acquire Eyes of Ender to access).  You don't even need to encounter a Witch or another player to reach the 'end credits'.  So I don't know where they're getting the 'especially against women' angle.

[Kythia]

They're not. Per the article, it's an investigation in to whether it's there or not. Given what you've said, they'll find its not. Alarmist news article alarms people.

[Sethala]

Getting "school kids" (I use the inverted commas because its made clear the teacher can rewrite the letters) to do an advocacy campaign for you... and them having to do it as part of their class... doesn't strike other people as being pretty inherently wrong?

Ok, I had skimmed it before and missed that part.  I also noticed now that literally every source of outside information and "research" in the project comes from Sarkeesian.  That... is definitely scummy, considering how many legitimate complaints there can be about her work.  But yeah, if this turns into actual class material, I'm going to get very worried about what might happen to gaming.

[Oniya]

Sorry - the 'they' in my statement refers to whoever submitted the claim to the Ministry.  Obviously someone had to have come up with the theory that the game encouraged violence 'especially towards women'.

Violence against slimes, now - that's another thing entirely.  *goes back to her mob-grinder*