Diversity week-do my dc need to know they're teachers ' sexuality?

Maybe holding up signs is a bit forced but I remember it being fairly normal when I was at school for some teachers to talk about their families etc...not all did but definitely the more 'chatty' teachers did.

I think there's a line somewhere between teachers seeming human and approachable and not ruining their ability to be an authority figure (which would be totally necessary in my DS's school, which had issues with gangs of boys for a while) a little bit of mystery and stand offishness can be needed for that.

I dont think teachers should be made to tell pupils. And I feel a bit uncomfortable about a video where they hold up signs with their sexuality, like mr jones, geography, gay, mrs smith, maths, straight. But if a teacher wants to tell students and is comfortable with that then its not a problem, I dont have any issue with children knowing the sexuality of their teachers but a sort of list of teachers and their sexualities seems strange - its almost making into too big of a deal

Lots of my teachers would mention their wives/husbands - we had teachers say my wife/female name if they were lesbian, or husband/male name if they were gay. A big deal wasnt made of it and I think that normalises a bit more.

When I was at school in the 00’s the thought of ANY teacher’s personal/sex life made me feel a bit bleurgh.

I just thought of them as totally non sexual beings, who didn’t exist outside school.

But I was a straight kid. I’d rather a student questioning their sexuality felt comfortable going to a trusted adult that they knew in real life than one of those twitter weirdos who offer to be “surrogate parents” to LGBT who don’t want to talk to their own mum or dad.

And if you mind your children know Mr Brown has a husband then I assume you dont want Mrs Johnson to ever mention hers... Or are you ok with teachers talking about their hetero marriages?

No I actually I wouldn't be ok with teachers talking about their hetero marriages. What the hell has that got to with teaching maths, history, English etc?

I can't see anything wrong with this, my teachers always mentioned their wives and husbands

Apart from a history teacher and a maths teacher who were married to each other and a modern languages teacher and a physics teacher who were married to each other none of my teachers discussed their private lives.

The 2 couples didn't mention their spouses- why would they?

I would be equally unimpressed to see a teacher holding up a sign saying "I am straight".

At DDs Secondary school the dc know who is gay/straight etc both amongst the staff and kids. They don’t care and find it very uninteresting
Making signs about it would be unnecessary and pretty cringey
As part of a generation where a Gay teacher/pupil would not have been accepted by most of the staff and dc I think that sometimes we can make a big deal about something that to our dc is just completely normal and not even worth commenting on.

That's lovely, but sadly that's not yet so in all schools. Hopefully in time it will be, but there's a fair bit of homophobic bullying in a few schools in this area. I know from a friend who teaches in a large London comprehensive, though, that the attitude there is exactly as you say. Progress can happen, thankfully.

I cannot believe there are still people out there who think like this. Fuck's sake.

A million times this ^

Never heard of ‘School Diversity Week’ so I looked it up:

School Diversity Week is a national celebration of LGBT equality in schools run by the charity Just Like Us.

Now I am cross. Why does diversity always have to come down to, or be dominated by LGBT? Sexuality is ultimately a private matter. When you are interacting with people on an individual basis it shouldn’t even be apparent. So why is this the great achievement of diversity? Where is the celebration of the diversity individuals carry with them in every interaction - race, language, disability, nationality or the more nebulous belief and outlook on life?

How old are the kids? Secondary, and yeah I think this is probably appropriate. There's still a lot of homophobia, so a happily gay teacher is a role model, potentially. Kids are interested in sex, after all. And we are in a world where the overwhelming majority of film, tv, books, etc etc shows straight people. So allowing a kid to feel that if they might be gay or bi, then that's okay, has value.

Primary, and it would be a lot more appropriate to have teachers with a range of family types maybe show a photo and say, "This is my lovely wife/husband and/or our kids/son/cat.." you can show a range of family types, all valid and worthwhile, without getting into anyone's sexuality, whatever that sexuality might be. Because younger kids don't need to know anything at all about adult sexuality. Love and families being of all manner of configurations, yes. Sexual adult life, no.

It's a tricky one re. biplar, because representation matters, but so do boundaries. And kids really don't need to know adults have huge issues, in my view, until they're A level age. Before that, they need to have a sense that someone's in charge who knows what they're doing - an illusion, of course, but important for security.

And to think that all we were interested in was finding our teachers' first names. Those were the days!

No issue with this at all - why wouldn’t they share their sexuality if they want?

I’d only have an issue if teachers were being pressured to share their sexuality if they didn’t want to so the school could say “look how diverse we are”

I cannot believe there are still people out there who think like this. Fuck's sake.

They AREN'T *

Jesus.

The 'sex' in sexuality referers to the sex of the person you are attracted to. Their biology. Nothing to do with having sex!

They are holding up a board saying they like 'long massages and slow fucks'

And if you mind your children know Mr Brown has a husband then I assume you dont want Mrs Johnson to ever mention hers... Or are you ok with teachers talking about their hetero marriages?

just that his husband was a part of his life

This is it to me. The normal sharing of aspects of teachers' lives is one thing, self-applied labels so that the teachers can be categorised into the relevant box/identity is another.

If it's gay today, it's gender identity tomorrow.

At DDs Secondary school the dc know who is gay/straight etc both amongst the staff and kids. They don’t care and find it very uninteresting
Making signs about it would be unnecessary and pretty cringey
As part of a generation where a Gay teacher/pupil would not have been accepted by most of the staff and dc I think that sometimes we can make a big deal about something that to our dc is just completely normal and not even worth commenting on.

It's all stuff that is harmless to know, but strange to make a point of it.

Teachers should teach. Their private lives should not be part of the lesson content.

It’s a bit cringy, when I was at secondary school 25 years ago it was well known that one of the teachers was gay because we’d seen him in a gay bar when we were underage drinking, but I think if it had been declared as in ‘look how special I am’ it would have been a bit weird, and I’m not sure having curly hair really counts as being diverse, I assume that was the white heterosexual member of staffs best contribution?

It’s a bit OTT - but I think that’s the holding signs up bit rather than the gay bit. Saying that my kids had a gay teacher last year who told them about his wedding and his husband and I was very comfortable with that as it wasn’t presented as the school’s Token Gay, just that his husband was a part of his life IYSWIM.

I wonder if some of these 'diversity week' initiatives are mainly driven by people of an older generation who grew up with overt racism and homophobia... whereas to the kids it may simply not be an issue, and making a thing of it is more likely to be 'othering' than helpful?

I've noticed over the years that DD has simply never thought it worth commenting on the skin colour or sexuality of people.

I would find it a bit cringey, but I don't see a problem with students knowing that they have gay teachers. My students will know that I had to have had sex with a man in order to be humongously pregnant last term.

Usual default might be mr Smith has a wife and 2 children but what if mr smith has a husband and 2 children it is absolutely fine for kids to know this. They are not telling children about Mr Smith's sex dungeon are they ?

They don't 'need to know' - but neither do they need to not know, as if it was still something taboo.

IMO it's better if it's something that arises (or not) naturally than being pointed to as a specific 'diversity' issue.

I can't see anything wrong with this, my teachers always mentioned their wives and husbands.

It's cringy as fuck though and I suspect the children are laughing at it.