Teacher suspended for mis-pronouning child

Transgender Trend article:
'The New Fundamentalism in the Classroom, by Mike Goodman (a pseudonym) is a music teacher who makes his living by teaching, playing and writing and arranging music. He has thirty years’ experience teaching in schools and is married with three grown-up children. He is interested in the link between depth psychology and spirituality and has recently become increasingly concerned about the teaching of gender identity in the classroom'

(extract)
"In the staff canteen I brought the issue up, asking several teachers what their feelings were about the subject and if there had been much discussion in the staff room about the issues concerned. Not really it seemed, other than instructions coming down from senior management. I confessed to them that I felt slightly uncomfortable. Not by anything in particular, but just a sense that I needed to keep my mouth shut; that just by discussing these issues I was committing a crime. One teacher said to me, “think what you like but be careful of the pronouns you use.”

So what did I think? After some thought, I decided that it wasn’t any particular thing about transgender in itself that was bothering me. There have always been girl boys and boy girls. Or gender dysphoria as it is called. So why was I still having the uncomfortable feeling that something wasn’t quite right?

I then began to get an inkling of what the problem was.

In any healthy educational environment, students, guided by staff, need to be free to discuss things openly – to be able to argue, debate, agree, disagree and whatever. And of course they should be educated on subjects such as racism, sexism, etc. But it is very difficult to establish forums of discussion on topics such as LGBT once the ‘ideology’ of political correctness has been embraced by the institution. This is because the linguistic territory and the terms of the debate have already been defined and set in stone. That is, there ‘is’ no debate.

The 2010 Equality Act protects transgender, non binary etc people from discrimination, but at the same time puts them in a position where they can potentially hold the rest of the population over a barrel. And this seems to be what is happening.

Edgar Friedenberg defines ideology thus:

“Ideology is the system of beliefs by which members of a social group – it may, but need not, be a social class – develop a way of seeing, and interpreting what they see, congruent with what they have come to define as their interests; while denying, or providing no validation – perhaps even no language – for sensations that, if allowed to become perceptions and then ideas, would threaten those interests. Ideology is a powerful force; more powerful usually, than any evidence or even any experience that might oppose it. Argument does not prevail against ideology.”

Friedenberg’s lines are effective in bringing into focus the cultic and sinister nature of ideology. Anyone who has tried to argue with a Jehovah’s Witness will know that it is a complete waste of time. They are never going to say something like: “Now that’s an interesting point – I need to go away and think about it.” But to be told that “there is no debate” feels like a complete shutdown. A punch in the face from an iron fist.

Friedenberg goes on to say that censorship and propaganda are the methods used to protect and further the cause." (continues)

www.transgendertrend.com/new-fundamentalism-classroom/

No one should place that much emphasis on how others address them...it’s just not healthy

The trans-ideology rhetoric that to 'misgender /mispronoun' someone is 'literal violence' is powerful, especially to vulnerable young people.

No one should place that much emphasis on how others address them...it’s just not healthy

A French teacher at West Point High School, Peter Vlaming, is currently on paid administrative leave for not using a student's preferred identity pronoun.

Students told 8News that Vlaming won't use male pronouns for a student who now identifies as a boy.

An online petition supporting Mr. Vlaming, which is titled "Don't terminate Mr. Vlaming," has over 1,000 signatures. The petition quotes Vlaming on his thoughts on the incident

"I won't use male pronouns with a female student that now identifies as a male though I did agree to use the new masculine name but avoid female pronouns. Administration is requiring that I use masculine pronouns in any and every context at school. I was informed that any further instances of using female pronouns would be grounds for termination."

As others have said, this is seems to be clearly not about 'preferred pronouns' but 'compelled pronouns'

Similarly, this is not about 'misgendering' but refusing to affirm the pupil's assumed gender identity as opposed to their sex.

Words matter.

"The first time I changed the world was when I told my mates to call me she rather than he. I literally constructed a new world where its possible to understand myself as a genderqueer woman, despite being asigned male at birth simply by changing the language to describe myself. This is why language and pronouns are so important. Its about creating a world in which trans people are allowed to exist"

Jess Bradley 'To My Trans Sisters'
edited by Charlie Craggs (publ Oct 2017)

He isn't worried he will forget. That's not the issue here.

Also, as adults navigating the world, we can chose to respect pronouns if we want to. (Most transwomen seem to dress in overly feminine attire, long hair etc, so easy to spot.) in a school, many kids can look slightly androgynous.....just how are teachers meant to know each kids preferred pronouns? We have a shortage of teachers & this kind of crap will not encourage more people into the profession. They are meant to educate, not pander to children’s inner feelings.

Of course it’s different Miscible, because you have to look at someone, know the pronouns etc that go with someone of that sex, and then say the opposite to what you know.
I think we should do this to be polite, but that isn’t the same as believing that black is suddenly white.

We've regarded it as legal and indeed desirable to compel speech at least since the Race Relations Act 1965, and indeed considerably before that in relation to the laws of slander etc.

Have we? Surely that's to do with what you're not allowed to say rather than what you have to.

How in the world is it okay to compel speech in this way?

We've regarded it as legal and indeed desirable to compel speech at least since the Race Relations Act 1965, and indeed considerably before that in relation to the laws of slander etc.

I don't speak French, but if it is anything like Spanish, then adjectives are gendered, too, so he doesn't have to just use the preferred pronouns, but also male gendered adjectives when talking directly TO the child, and it is no wonder that'd drive him crazy.

Why? Surely it's no different from having to change the form of adjectives according to whether you're talking to a male or female, and indeed whether you are talking to a number of people?

I meant officially in the sense of being actually requested by the parents or guardians of the child, rather than just requested (possibly on a whim) by the child himself/herself.

But would I deliberately 'misgender' a child if the school had been officially informed they were trans/non-binary etc?
How can a schoolchild be misgendered or officially recognised as trans if UK law says that you cannot apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate until you are an adult. There is no 'official' for minors.

The trouble with teachers like this is that they make the child the subject of the battle. I understand the issue about compelled speech but schools should not be the battle ground for this.

Indeed, they shouldn't, but I see the teacher's point of view.

I don't know how large classes are at this school, but at my school, we were so many children in my class one teacher forgot my face and asked me who I was when she met me outside the classroom.
She certainly wouldn't have remembered my gender identity.

There will, inevitably, come a time when a teacher will not be able to remember everyone's gender identity anymore, and it is only prudent to put one's foot down before that happens.

After all, it wouldn't be fair to decide that the tenth transgender child in the class has no right to their chosen pronouns when transgender children one to nine get their chosen pronouns.

A few years ago when I was still teaching I had a student who changed what they wanted to be called 3 or 4 times between y10 and y13 first when they went boy to boy identifying themselves as a girl and then within that there were two name changes and the whole issue with what pronoun to use on reports etc. New teachers each year were not necessarily updated on it, and only saw what was on the register, and one thought the boy/girl were pulling their leg by giving a well, unusual name instead of lets say Billy, which was on the register.

It can be confusing and upsetting, and on all official documentation like exams they had to put down their legal name despite not wanting, and yes, people would get it wrong when quickly reading the register. I think a bit of a leeway is needed on both sides, as sometimes it is a genuine slip of tongue that gets blown out of proportions.

I'm gender critical and a teacher. But would I deliberately 'misgender' a child if the school had been officially informed they were trans/non-binary etc? Not a chance. I might well do it by accident if I'd previoysly known the child as their original gender though.

Surely those same people wouldn't find it hard to understand that this child will feel offended/ upset/ hurt if female pronouns are used to describe them?

Did you read what WombOfOnesOwn wrote? Cis is a slur, and remains a slur, no matter whom it is directed at.

People evolved to see and react to sex. We didn't evolve to see and react to gender identity.

This child's gender identity is additional information the teacher has to keep in his head at all times.

It is simply not fair to pretend he has used a slur when he in fact used words that almost all other female-sexed children would be perfectly okay with.

This sums up what Jordan Peterson talks about very eloquently....no other ideology demands other people to address them using certain words, that we can identify to ourselves as blatant lies.

Is someone has a title of Lord or Lady, thats very different to a girl demanding to be referred to as 'he'.

At the end of the day, we have a name, as long as that is used courteously I don't see how people can demand specific pronouns as well.

No, Mumsnet doesn't compel us to say certain things. On here there are certain things we can't say but we are able to find a way round consistent with conscience, like avoiding pronouns altogether.

There's a difference between occasionally forgetting, (like in CBB that time where the 80YO woman occasionally misgendered the angry transwoman with broad shoulders and long hair while calling the transwoman by her chosen name), and deliberately doing it to upset the child (as happened in the earlier teacher case whether the far right Christian teacher was pretty horrid to all the non-mainstream kids if I remember correctly).
Fortunately the powers that be don't usually sack people for error (in spite of what the rights activists would wish) but are rightly robust with those 'making a stand' at the cost of the children's comfort.

The trouble with teachers like this is that they make the child the subject of the battle. I understand the issue about compelled speech but schools should not be the battle ground for this. At the centre is a child (likely with mental health problems) and we should all aim to protect children from being at the centre of these battles.
I loathe how trans organisations exploit children to further their aims and feel strongly that nobody should be doing this - even if it means that on occasions people have to use language that they disagree with - just as we all do on Mumsnet.

I'm sure they did this in full knowledge of what the consequences would be.

I'm not sure I get why people would be so bothered about this. There are plenty of people on here who feel offended/ upset/ hurt if the term cis is used to describe them. Surely those same people wouldn't find it hard to understand that this child will feel offended/ upset/ hurt if female pronouns are used to describe them?

How in the world is it okay to compel speech in this way?

Yes, you can say to someone that they can't use a slur, but a slur is a slur no matter who it's directed to -- there's no okay person to call a racial slur, for instance.

How in the world is it legal to demand that people speak certain words?

Oops!

I, CuriousaboutSamphire, do solemnly promise to read inks properly before commenting!