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

I'm surprised children at junior school are calling teachers Sir anyway, we didn't at my Essex primary school 40 years ago and my children didn't at their primary school either - it was Mr Whoever. But maybe its more common than I think and those two schools are outliers, is it? (we didn't do Sir/Miss at secondary school either, but I know my kids do).

I'd complain.

Why the hell are we teaching young kids this? Going against scientific facts.

If a child argued that sperm and egg didn't make a baby, they would get told that scientifically yes, a sperm and egg make a foetus.
But if a child argued that the sex we are born IS our sex, they'd be told for that too because now apparently we can deviate from science.

Appalling.

I disagree with this. Words are words. They're all ultimately meaningless. Biological sex I understand. Think of how many times on here people complain about parents in law addressing cards to Mrs X when they're not married or worse Mrs Brian Coleman. Thats a long established protocol. Doesn't mean we stick with it. I'm certainly not Mrs Brian Coleman despite my father and grandparents insistence. (Not my name BTW!)

It’s literally the title of the thread then OP confirms that the child said the teacher was ‘very cross’

Friend’s DS felt bad and can’t recall exactly what was said to them but said the teacher was ‘very cross’.

Even if a ‘telling off’ didn’t happen to pps standard, it’s still not ok to require a child to use the illiterate nonsense of a harmful ideology.

My DC wouldn’t be going back to that school.

I meant it’s very common for children to accidentally call their teachers Mum or Dad. And still not a big deal.

Children should not be co-opted into the fetishes of adults.

The teacher should get a formal written warning for his behaviour.

How about the teacher gets a fucking grip and that's the end of it!

Your friend just needs to speak to the head teacher of her son’s school if she hasn’t already. Personally I would suggest that the teacher concerned reiterates how they wish to be addressed to the class. Children are very accepting, it’s the parents that turn them into bigots there’s no need for them to be told of for using Sir, unless they were being intentionally provocative, which from what you have said wasn’t the case.

@Nowherecitizen - frankly in my experience on this forum you are going to have a very skewed response towards agreeing with you mainly because it speaks of trans issues as this forum is from what I observed not friendly towards this subject. Having said that, I agree that regardless of the topic trans a 9 year old should be spoken to in a gentle manner, assuming that it was an honest mistake.

I got told off at primary school loads of times for not putting my hands together and closing my eyes for the morning prayer, and for refusing to say grace before dinner.

Even at that young age I knew I didn't believe any of that.

Sad to see that the same is happening now to kids who don't believe in the gender identity religion.

Poor kid! I would go nuclear on the school and the stupid teacher.

Exactly. Don’t bring your indulgences into the school or any other workplace. It’s your hobby, not your right.

You need to contact the Daily Mail asap

I think you’ll find it gives a good legal basis for OPs friend to point out that a male teacher is a man and he can’t compel students to not call him a man. Non binary is not a protected characteristic in any case.

Then the school have their responsibilities under PSED to balance equality for all the protected characteristics which is not achieved by prioritising that teachers wishes over facts for the children.

This isn't about individual names however, it's about naming conventions.

Calling a male teacher 'sir' in a school environment is a long established protocol, which no child should be told off for.

How is it abusive someone asked?

It is abusive for someone who holds clear power over another person (a child) to enforce their ideological belief system on that child.

Would you be happy with a religious teacher punishing a child for not complying with their religious practices?

If I am gender critical, then my child is gender critical until they choose otherwise and therefore cannot be forced into acting out another belief system.

This fringe ideology has been forced into schools, and must be forced out.

It's Mx X, stop mis-gendering meeeeeeeee

Well this teacher is actually a "Sir".

If he says he isn't then he is being deceitful. Children shouldn't be lied to about this, and certainly should not be punished for recognising the deceit.

I'm sure the child would be able to learn to say Mr Johnson and not Mr Smith if that's how they were introduced? I bet he knows he sits next to Jamie and not Henry? I don't care about your ideology but at 9 with no additional needs I think the child knows how to address the person by the name they've requested? I've been called nana (in my 20s), mum and daddy. Genuine accidents are fairly easily to spot.

If they had innocently called the teacher 'sir' (either because they didn't know he didn't like it or it was a simple slip of the tongue), I would be very unimpressed with the school for telling him off.

If he was deliberately calling him a name he doesn't like (despite how silly I might find his preference), I would support school. My mum hates being called 'miss'. She isn't married but feels it makes her sound like a young girl rather than a woman. It would be wrong for someone to tease her by insisting on calling her 'miss', despite it being an accurate label. This feels similar.

This.

Not because I am not clear on what constitutes as ‘telling off’ but because everyone has no idea if ‘telling off’ even happened.

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