Scottish schoolkids to be taught to ‘choose their own gender’ in class

I've been worried since I had my first about the logical outcome of the very binary way "girls" and "boys" clothes and toys have been presented in the last few years (I really don't recall this when I was younger). not to mention the disturbing sexualized way teenage girls are being encouraged to dress and behave.

Children are being asked to pick a side. You're correct - the only logical way to read this isn't that either sex can do anything, it's that choosing dolls, dinosaurs, or a watering can, magically means you are respectively girl, boy, or gender neutral.

Of added concern is that the children's commissioner has advocated transitioning for children of 12 or younger and councils are threatening parents with named person powers if they withhold consent.

I think when my DDs school goes back in September I will be asking to chat with the Principal about all of this.

I have great concerns for children with SEN (DD included and attends Special School) and how they might be be at real risk if this is what is going on.

Personally I worry greatly for DD, she's non verbal, physically disabled but mentally advanced. She has a pixie cut as it's easier to maintain her hair that way, she wears t shirts, leggings and shorts (from the boys section as girls short are way too short!). Her voice output device even says that she doesn't like princesses or pink! If someone were to come into her school (from the mythical sea person charity maybe) would they say that she is transgender? I'd argue that that is her personality! Personality seems to have disappeared as word and been replaced by gender!

My brain hurts.....but I am grateful to all of you lovely people (don't want to misgender anyone!) for all of the hard work you put in presenting logical, evidence based responses.

I can't follow that paragraph.
*people start to see us and think about us as a boy or a girl even if they don’t know whether we have a vulva or a penis. This is when being a boy or a girl is called our gender. Some of us will feel very much like we are a boy, some of us will feel very much like we are a girl...'

It says that 'our gender' is how others see us.
Then it says that our gender is how we see ourselves.

Which is it, from the point of view of the writer?

Presumably they mean the first, given they go on to say 'change our gender' - if something is actually innate, it won't change. So I guess what they mean can be changed is the outer clues and signals given to others to convince them of our sex, or at least indicate that a polite enquiry is in order.

These are the questions small children will ask themselves

And the answers is what is being pushed as an ideology that children must be taught.

The school will teach her that? Am I overthinking this?

No you're not. That is exactly what they are saying.

That gender non conformity is something that needs to be addressed with the possibility that someone is trans.

Almost all children will display gender nonconformity at some point. Because most toy preferences are made up by retailers.

A doll isn't a doll if it's called action man. A blue bike isn't for a girl. Play kitchens? For girls. Not only is it ludicrously sexist, it's dismissing male chefs everywhere!

I had a chat with my grandson last week - three years + two weeks.

Are you a boy or a girl? Boy

Is (also just 3) a boy or a girl? Boy

Is (5) a boy or girl? Girl

Is Daddy a boy or a girl? He's DADDY!

Is Mummy a boy or a girl? Girl

Am I a boy or a girl? You're Grandma

Is Grandad a boy or a girl? Boy

Does that makes my son and I GNC? Maybe I should wear a skirt and grow my hair.

But seriously, even toddlers can tell the difference.

I would worry that it stops or reverses progress that is being made in reducing misogeny or homophobia within some minority or religious communities. And issues such as forced marriages, FGM etc.

As in "Western culture is clearly barking, so best stick to our own culture and traditions."

Datun absolutely!

It's telling them thats it's absolutely fine to like stuff associated with the opposite sex. If fact it's encouraging it. The disgraceful damage is done when it then tells them it makes them transgender.

I think it's pretty clear that it's a sop to interest groups. They could have gone with: your sex is whether you are a boy or girl (and not because a doctor "decided" it!) but that doesn't stop you being whoever you want etc. But someone was determined to shoehorn gender in and confuse the hell out of kids (and teachers!). Of course, transgender gets a mention which I'm not sure a 5 year old can process! I don't think a young child can understand that a physical change of sex is not possible and this encourages them to think it may be.

"When a baby is born parents are told what sex their baby is. A doctor looks at the baby’s body and decides - if the baby has a vulva, they say the baby is a female/girl baby or if the baby has a penis and testicles, they say it is a male/boy baby. Mostly this is easy for the doctor to decide, but for some babies it isn’t so clear, and the doctor might decide the baby is intersex."

"After we are born people start to see us and think about us as a boy or a girl even if they don’t know whether we have a vulva or a penis. This is when being a boy or a girl is called our gender. We have been learning that each of us is special and unique, and so each of us will be able to say who we are. Some of us will feel very much like we are a boy, some of us will feel very much like we are a girl, some of us will not be so sure if we are a boy or a girl. It is important that we are happy, no matter what gender we feel we are. When people grow up, sometimes they decide to change their gender so that they are happier with who they are, this is called being transgender."

And there you have it.

The sleight of hand that makes gender equal sex, within one paragraph.

I don't think for single second this is the result of confusion, it's deliberate. Pretending that stepping outside the gender boxes is being encouraged, when in actual fact it's been clamped down so hard it takes your breath away.

The guidelines are completely self-contradictory. There is the positive element: encourage children to be, dress, play whatever and however they wish, tell them any job etc is open to them, tell them boys can be sensitive. However it's completely undermined by the whole "choose your gender" nonsense. It's completely coy about what gender is, but I don't know how else they can define it except using stereotypical behaviour! So: "Johnny, boys can bake cakes and like sparkles! What's that? Today you're going to be a girl because you're wearing a dress and playing with Barbie and Jane is going to be a boy because she's got the monster trucks and had a hair cut. Lovely!"

That would be my criticism. From a pedagogic point of view, the actual teaching points (such as they can be determined) are entirely contradictory.

Mind you, the comments on the Facebook page under the Scotsman article are gold!

The guidelines are completely self-contradictory. There is the positive element: encourage children to be, dress, play whatever and however they wish, tell them any job etc is open to them, tell them boys can be sensitive. However it's completely undermined by the whole "choose your gender" nonsense. It's completely coy about what gender is, but I don't know how else they can define it except using stereotypical behaviour! So: "Johnny, boys can bake cakes and like sparkles! What's that? Today you're going to be a girl because you're wearing a dress and playing with Barbie and Jane is going to be a boy because she's got the monster trucks and had a hair cut. Lovely!"

I think it would be great if there would be a proper tackling of the narrow sex stereotypes that I see here in my rural bit of Scotland. I have been going on about it ever since I have children that I have never come across such narrow confines what boys or girls are allowed to be/like/wear/do as here. I'm not British though and sometimes don't know if it's cultural or generational. My dd's best friend (13, going into S3 next week) has never been to a Christmas party at the High school because all the girls wear dresses, make up and heels and she doesn't want to and she rather doesn't go than face the comments. My ds (10, starting P7) has the most fantastic curls and wears his hair slightly longer (not long, just not a a Nr 2 cut every 4 weeks) and has no interest in football and he gets called a girl frequently. This is the sort of thing I'd like to see challenged but I have no trust at all that this is what this guidance is aiming at.

"assigned at birth"" - FFS, as if it's some random thing like licking your finger and holding it up to see which way the wind is blowing.

This is the link to the source material . Look at 1.4.3 Gender
rshp.scot/first-level/

Dear children there are nasty things called stereotypes. Some people think girls can only wear pink and play with dolls and boys must wear blue and play construction. This is BAD and we do not want to see evidence of this in school. It holds people back and stops people doing what they enjoy. Girls can wear blue, play football, do engineering and boys can play with dolls, be caring and dress up in princess frocks. There are no rules about what girls can play with and what boys can play with.

Now let me tell you about gender...

I mused earlier on how this - and the incidences of various councils in the UK taking on and promoting some rather questionable 'guidance' - came about. Having been present in a number of the types of council meetings where interest groups came to give presentations, I wondered if it went like this:

1. Introduction by parent of TG child, giving the story of how difficult it was until they affirmed and supported their child in its trans journey, etc. No child should have to suffer this and councils/schools must do something.

1. Presentation by interest group, including alarming statistics about rates of attacks, attempted suicides by children and young people, etc. "You don't want that to happen to the kids in your schools, do you?"

1. Presentation of ways in which schools should be encouraged to adopt new policy and practice, including suggested 'guidance' to be sent out to them.

1. Offers of 'support' by interest group, including visits to school leadership teams and governors and presentations/workshops for kids.

1. Council resolves to adopt the guidance. Nobody remembers to think of how it possibly drives a coach and horses through existing safeguarding policies.