9 yr old told off for calling non-binary teacher Sir

What's a "gender absent" person? Am I a "gender absent" person because I don't identify as female, I just am a woman? Or does a gender absent person have to stop doing everything that is associated with one sex or the other?

In any case, everyone has a sex, so this person who is male can be called Sir, or Him.
Also - high heels in a primary school? Surely that's a health and safety risk?

Would you rather an excellent teacher who doesn’t wish to be called Sir or a manly male Sir of a teacher that replaces them but is a bad teacher?

So no Ms, then. Right-oh.

https://x.com/rhemanewsplus/status/1921258371442675904/video/1

For comparison, this is how a non-binary barrister conducts himself at work.

Its ridiculous that this man's preference to being referred to as ? Goodness knows what trumps a child telling the truth. I've also been referred to as Mum on occasion by a student. I didn't tell them off.

Yes. And funnily enough Mx was started by women who didn’t want to be associated with a marital status. It has evolved to also include gender assumptions but I suppose “it’s just another thing men have taken away from women” 🙄

It’s not me that being obtuse.

It is perfectly correct for students to call a male teacher Sir.

No teacher should be pretending they are something other than male or female. He certainly shouldn’t be compelling his students to use such nonsense language to support his belief in a highly contested and harmful ideology.

Also, why is he wearing skirts and heels sometimes if he is gender neutral... surely that would be gender confused. In which case you could just call him 'sir and/or miss'.

Theres nothing at all respectful about asking a child to ignore the evidence of their own senses.

I'd be furious if my child were reprimanded for such a stupid reason. People need to recognise that their self-obsessed, navel-gazing special pronouns and titles are not actually that important. The energy some people waste on whether or not people are going along with their little fantasies!

@juanad096 I can't report that for egregious trans ideology AI use but I can, and will, report it for spam.

We still don't know what your actually meant to call a gender absent person in this situation.

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion.

But we still come up against the same issue. How does the school insist that this man, who would be required to use the gents in school, is somehow 'not a man'?

Maybe in the future Mx will be accepted as Ms is now.
I remember that its use did spark some debate and criticism in the 1970s when it gained popularity

Maybe the teacher tells his children to call him Parent. I wonder what the diminutive version of that is. Mummy, Daddy, and Parey?

Do they get told off for accidentally calling the teacher mum or dad? Everyone used to do that occasionally!

Thank you, but as well as being my opinion it is also the convention of hundreds of years of language which reflect the settled fact that everyone is either male or female (even people with birth anomalies) so it doesn’t become any less of a fact because a certain group of Queer Theory/trans activists wish it to be so.

I don't necessarily think the kid is wrong. Like I say, I've had 11 year olds come to me and say "mum, can I borrow a pencil?" (Then look mortified!) These things happen. I got called louise by half my colleagues when I first started! These things happen. It may have been an accident and and overreaction. It may have been a rude little act of 9 year old naughtiness and the teacher may have been within their rights to tell the child off. Who knows, we weren't there and have no idea of the context of what else was going on in the classroom. Fwiw, I never let my children go home feeling upset if they have been told off. Maybe the thing that needs to change is the way the teacher concluded the telling off and ending on a positive at the end of the day.

I’m happy to go into it in more detail when I am not feeding the baby but that is a very simplistic understanding of the judgment.

And I get called Miss, or Daddy, or Sir...

@Nowherecitizen that's ridiculous to be told off. If they're insisting on being referred to as Mx, then they just need to correct the child if they make a mistake.

Same when teachers mis-gender a child. It's not like it's done maliciously. You just correct them.

I often get "mum" or "sir" when I do the register. I find it quite funny, especially when they call me mum!

I really struggle with the whole non binary thing. As someone who worked in a male dominated environment for years and has fought for equal rights for male and female, then this whole going back to insisting everything has a label is just such a regression. I just don't see why it matters. Male/female who cares?!? People should just be able to wear what they want and not be judged. What's important is that people are kind.

Utterly ridiculous and a huge overreaction.

My dad used to be a teacher and he would get called "Mum" pretty much every day 🤣

I went to a convent school, taught by both nuns and female teachers.

Lost count of the amount of times myself and fellow pupils referred to one or other by the “wrong” name, ie Sister instead or Miss or vice versa.

As I said. He is using children to validate himself. Adults should not use children to prop up their own fantasies of self. This is very basic.

Ridiculous that these attention seekers are being allowed to brainwash or bully children into ignoring reality.