Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/05/kindergarten-principal-fired-a.html
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If I were a parent at that school I would be upset. Not so much because seeing a pole-dancer (who I am going to assume was actually clothed) would do my kid harm, but because any principal who thinks – out of all the possible things one might show a group of kindergartners – that pole dancing is the best choice is clearly a moron. And who wants a moron running your kid’s school?
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Considering it’s China, perhaps pole dancing doesn’t have the same stigma there than it does in other parts of the world.
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“Here, hold my cigarette and beer.” - Eddie Van Halen
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They are grooming kids to be ok with methods and machines made to efficiently murder people and the pole dancer part is what everyone gets excited about?
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It’s funny, such little pole dancing as I’ve seen, I’ve found to be - impressive, athletic, enjoyable - but not especially salacious or sexy. Not notably more or less sexy than belly dance, jazz dance, lindy hop, etc. etc.
I’d certainly rather have my kindergarten child watch pole dancing than a bunch of military glorification.
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There doesn’t have to be anything inherently sexual about pole dancing, it’s a context thing. (Or projection, depends on the person and the situation, I suppose) This seems like a very strange choice to me, but I’m not familiar enough with Chinese social norms to know if it seems as outrageous to Chinese people as it does to most Americans.
I seriously doubt any children were actually harmed by the incident, I’m way more concerned about the blatant efforts to enthrall children with murder tools.
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But I’ve been assured by what I assume were posters with only the purist intent that DeVos couldn’t possibly want to destroy public schools because the president put her in charge of them and that’s just totally ridiculous. 
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In Vietnam I watched a fully clothed pole dancer perform in a bar. She was really good at it so the girls in the audience were clapping and taking pictures. I was a bit bothered as I didn’t like the idea of being spotted in sleazy venue, but I had a hard time explaining to the locals who had brought me there that pole dancing had sexual connotations in the west.
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I’m not sure why we are using a white Ivy League educated expat writer as the moral barometer for this…
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I don’t have an opinion either way, but the clip here made me think of Olympic skaters, as far as the costume and the athleticism, so I looked up pole dancing as a sport. Apparently it may be considered for inclusion in the Olympics.
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Hm, full disclosure, I’m not a parent.
The question that I have is; can kindergarten students be welcomed back?
Apparently, yes.
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To quote Bart Simpson, “she makes learning fun.”
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Pole dancing is both athletic and beautiful. It could definitely be an Olympic sport except for the fact that it is extremely hard for some people to take it seriously due to its sleazy history. Scoring would be done similar to figure skating with a degree of difficulty assigned to each move and a panel of judges grading the execution of each move.
Personally I don’t think this should be a problem for a Kindergarten class, but it was still dumb to do it because you know people are going to make assumptions and be outraged.
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Could have been worse…
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I think the principal got a bum rap.
Vertical pole, sometimes referred to as Chinese pole (go on, laugh it up), aerial silks, and lyra are all commonly taught in circus arts programs. All three require tremendous strength and flexibility and would be at home in any gymnastics gym. The strict orthodoxy that surrounds gymnastic competition has relegated them to second tier acrobatic pursuits, which is too bad.
Pole dancing has never seemed sexy to me, in fact, it looks downright painful. But if people can sex up fruit (NSFW, sort of, for suggestive fruit and more explicit drawings), I guess pole acrobatics isn’t such a stretch.
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Yeah, that’s rather inappropriate. I mean you can make a routine that isn’t “sexy” but more artful, but that get up and movement isn’t appropriate for a school setting.
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Wow, the teachers are going after them younger and younger
I keed, I keed.
