Teaching Moment

When the shit hits the fan and the rest of us panic, good teachers tell us that life is full of teaching moments.

I live in Texas. When I travel and someone asks me where I am from, I usually say "Texas". So it is with love and wonder that I read the state's new GOP platform. I presented my kids with the text of this one sentence. My six year old picked up the missing apostrophe issue. My nine year old couldn't put her finger on the solution but she realized that there was a problem - an ambiguity that left one wondering which part of the sentence went with what.

Here is the sentence with corrections by NPR's copy editor.

Here is one possible explanation from a gay friendly website, towleroad.com:

But Texas GOP leaders adhere to a pinched form of literalism in law and life, so they deserve to be taken strictly at their word: “Homosexuality is a chosen behavior that . . . has been . . . shared by the majority of Texans.” 

To be fair, the new platform language does not actually assert that most Texans are gay. It claims only that they “share” homosexuality. But what can this possibly mean? Perhaps it means that there is a certain amount of homosexuality that most Texans pass around to each other. If someone doesn’t seem to have enough, one Texan may loan or even give another Texan some of his. Or it could refer to a trait that most Texans have in common, like good taste in barbecue. Of course, it should be emphasized that a majority but not all Texans share homosexuality. There may be some who hoard it.

Ahem. Most national and several international news agencies carried a headline the next day that expressed a similar sentiment.

Everyoen maks tyops. But when you make a grammatically incorrect statement, my kids can learn something from it. Like - don't be so fucking narrow minded.