After the Public School Zero Guidance Counselor reached out to parents about the damaging effects of Toxic Positivity, PTA upstart Randy Myway launched an initiative to redesign PTA holiday gift promotions.
In previous years the PTA has sold mugs, t-shirts and greeting cards with the admonition “BE JOYFUL!.” But Randy Myway pointed out that the slogan is emotionally coercive. He told the student newspaper, “No one should be told how to feel or when to feel a certain way. Lots of kids do not feel joyful, especially in the pandemic.”
In a “Reply All” email to the PTA, Randy Myway also made the argument that “older people telling younger people to be joyful in the midst of a pandemic is an act of generational violence.” In the lengthy reply chain he went on to say that “Lucky boomers want the younger generations to accept the devastation they have done to the planet, the drop in wages and quality of life young people face, and just make it fun and cheerful for the old folks.”
While declining to enter into the generational conflict brimming on campus, the Guidance Counselor pointed out to the student reporter that, “Studies show that, as a matter of scientific fact, forced cheer and false merriment can actually be bad for your health.” She explained that “Suppression of your true feelings actually leads to depressive emotions.” Emotional coercion can also make people feel worse, not better: one study showed that ‘When people perceive that others think they should feel happy, and not sad, this leads them to feel sad more frequently and intensely.”
Self-professed boomer shop teacher Mr. Crotchet, who describes himself as an Anarchist, objected in the staff room that the new PTA t-shirts, which feature the slogan “JOYLESS” are also examples of emotional coercion. Mr. Crotchet argued that the idea that we all have to be angsty and emo over the holidays, and pander to “Commie anti-commercialism,” is worse for kids’ mental health than false cheer. “Why are we even celebrating the holidays?” Mr. Crotchet asked his friend the water deliveryman. “The color scheme of these PTA t-shirts is not non-denominational. This is just more Christmas BS.”
After a heated exchange in the Public School Zero parking lot between Randy Myway and Mr. Crotchet on Monday, Mr. Crotchet set up his own booth in the parking lot on Tuesday. In what he claimed was a “totally safe and carbon-neutral manner,” Mr. Crotchet charged $20 to anyone who would give him a “JOYLESS” PTA shirt to burn in a barrel filled with old newspapers and other neglected recycling from the abandoned Go Green! Program.
When the PTA confronted Mr.Crotchet about undermining the fundraiser which raises money to provide meal money for needy kids over school vacations, he replied that his Burn Booth had actually increased sales of PTA t-shirts, which people bought specifically to burn in his barrel. Mr.Crotchet also accused the PTA of suppressing his feelings of anger and rage which always crop up around the holidays since his upbringing in an abusive foster care placement.
As for the significant amount of money Mr. Crotchet’s Burn Booth raised, he is planning a New Year’s celebration where he will ceremonially burn the dollars he collected. Mr. Crotchet told the school newspaper that tickets to the money Burn Booth will be $20 a person.
Also Read:Parents’ Toxic Positivity Driving Kids Crazy