Really?

The purpose of this blog is not to argue with anonymous naysayers possessing no depth of reasoning, so unless someone has a real question or valid argument, I will not be responding to your comments in the future. However, since the (self-proclaimed) "Anonymous Coward" (I use that title to differentiate him/her from the bazillion other anonymous commentators on the internet) specifically asked for me to post their comment and respond, I will oblige them this one last time.

Anonymous said (and I quote exactly as they typed):

I see that you failed to post my last comment. Kindof validates what I wrote, you are a little too interested in the socio-sexual development of adolescent girls, hmmmm?

For anyone else who suffers similar confusion, a comment automatically posts when you post it. That's why it is called "posting a comment." When you post it, it is there for the world to see. The reason there were a bunch of responses to Anon.'s comment on "A Quick Rebuttal" is because the comment was posted.  I didn't have to do anything, other than not delete it, in order for it to be posted. If anyone is really anxious to see their comments posted in an actual blog entry, they may start their own blog. The only reason I post the comments when I talk about them is to save the reader the time of navigating to a different part of the blog. I don't have to do that in order for a comment to be "posted", though.  If you doubt, click on the "comments" link under my last post, and...whoa, look at that! A bunch of comments!

Second, the reason that I didn't blog about the second comment is because it was basically the same as the first. But since Anonymous insists, let me break it down for you all, one line at a time:

Dear Saint Pervious,

In their attempt to be clever, Anon. failed to realize, or is just ignorant (surprise, surprise) that pervious is not a play on the word pervert, but is actually a real word, which means that an object can be permeated or affected by something. For example, if something is pervious to water, water can get through it, or it can be ruined by water. The more common usage of the word is impervious, which means the opposite, as in, "My waterproof watch is impervious to the rain." But maybe Anon. knew that, and I just failed to grasp the incredibly clever meaning of the salutation.

My apologies if my rancid breath doth tarnish thy halo or spook thy snowy steed, but I had a few more comments.

Well, that's interesting, since I usually take the phrase 'a few more comments' to mean new comments addressing some aspect of a situation that hasn't been addressed.

Someone who, with no apparent credentials or qualifications, has taken it upon themselves to write a book about the sexual relationships of young women, set themselves up as the savior of soiled doves whose judgement is not up his standard and then use those experiences to promote his scarlet letter crusade.  Add to that the fact that these young women are high school students under your position of authority.

I admit, my credentials are not apparent, but least I've shown that my qualifications include the ability to write in complete sentences. I'm also at a loss of how Anon.'s credentials are any more apparent. I didn't know one had to have credentials to write a blog.  If I were selling advice - such as charging for therapy sessions - then I could see why credentials were important.  But for a blog?  As I stated in my first post, I'm just writing what I think, and people can take it or leave it.  If they like what I say, fine.  If they don't, fine.  I don't think there is a law requiring credentials to voice one's opinion.

Also, can we assume from the above statement that Anon. has read my book? I really doubt it. But Anon. can prove me wrong by telling me what my adage is for evaluating the wisdom of a decision. Anyone who has read my book knows that it is not about the sexual relationships of young women. Anon.'s critical reading skills, however, are below par, as we will see in a second, so maybe they have read my book, and just didn't understand what they were reading.

Anyway, the general gist of the paragraph is that I'm not qualified to give girls advice about relationships, so I am bad for trying to do so.

So the fact that you "care" is not in question, you have shown that you care maybe more than is appropriate. What is at issue is why you care. Now only you can know your motives, but from an outside observer, the red flags are starting to fly.

The second-to-last paragraph of "A Quick Rebuttal" explained in detail why I care. That's what I meant by Anon.'s lack of critical reading skills. Other than that, this paragraph is just more of the same - I am creepy and bad for trying to help my students.

I mean really, publish a book, create a website, start a blog(that details professional behavior that is questionable)? That is not an insignificant allocation of resources and taken together it is not unreasonable for one to question the motivation behind all this work.

I get it. Anon. thinks that I care more than is appropriate. The entire comment consists of (1) saying I have no apparent credentials, while failing to provide any of their own, and (2) saying that I show an inappropriate interest in my students. Since I don't care if people approve of my credentials, then this whole thing boils down to the idea that my level of caring is questionable. That happens to be the exact same idea of the first comment by Anon. Since I already gave a lengthy response to that accusation, I don't think I need to respond to it again.

On the other hand, Anon. didn't answer any of my questions. When I asked, "Why is that inappropriate?", Anon. just repeated the fact that they found it inappropriate. What a stellar argument. I could have saved a lot of writing if I were capable of such clever come-backs.

If, however, Anon. would like to write an actual response to the questions and accusations I posed in either of these rebuttals, they may feel free to do so, though their comment will probably remain in the comment section.

The anonymous coward

I think we can all agree with that.

Before I finish, I have one more question, and this is for anyone reading my blog: When did I talk about the sexual relationships of my female students? I twice mention that I have students that are pregnant, but if stating that someone is pregnant is an inappropriate reference to their sex life, then my wife would have been very offended every time someone asked when she was due. So I'm curious, what is the exact statement about my student's sexual activity that crosses the line? Again, I think Anon. is reading too much into stuff, probably because of their own perverted mind. But I leave it open for Anon. (or anyone else) to prove me wrong.