Can you please help me articulate the issues with this? Jigsaw

ahag your point reminds me of a (secondary) school assembly we had this week which divided people into 'binary' and 'non-binary'. Who wants to be a boring old 'binary' person?!?

What sharks said! All of it, but especially the point I was also going to call out that Billy and Bella end up being defined mostly by "being a boy" or "being a girl" whereas only B gets to just enjoy "being B". NONE of us walks around "being a woman" or whatever all day, we all have individual personalities and yet this suggests only B is a fully-rounded person in their own right.

Yes. If B is happy being B, that means B is not presented as being happy being a boy or a girl - and if that's the case, that's because of how B's preferences and behaviours have been treated and how B has been made to feel for not fitting boy or girl stereotype.

The materials should not talk about boy's and girls' toys as if we all know what that is - that should be challenged. And the lesson should be that B can be happy being a boy or girl whatever they like to play with.

B (or anyone) may be unhappy with their sexed body and have dysphoria and ultimately may identify as trans - but that should have nothing to do with B's cultural preferences and behaviour.

Great thread

Isn't it amazing how this ideology is pushing children back to the regressive ideas of the 1940s and 50s?

Appalling. Makes me wonder what my kids are being taught. Makes me worry that my gender non conforming daughter might start to think she doesn’t like unicorns and pink stuff because she’s a boy

The response often heard here from adult women: 'do not fucking call me 'cis' ' because they do not conform to performing stereotypes of femininity, nor change that they do not conform while proudly calling themselves women. Adult human females. The only thing that makes a woman is to be living in a biologically adult human female body, that's it. That's all. The rest is personality and choices.

This also reminds me of the twit who came on FWR years ago now and tried to explain that all the women here were TM in denial, because real women would be embracing their feminine role of nurturing male people, putting them first, and not doing any unladylike arguing, swearing and standing up for their rights.

No. I am fully tolerant of adults holding these diverse personal beliefs, it's a free country, I'm all for religious tolerance. But this is like demanding "are you saved?" It is not ok to enforce your beliefs on others, nor teach it to children as if it's the One Truth.

The blurb also allows/ suggestion of Segway into discussion of trans if a child in the class or family member is 'identifying as trans.'

So attempts to look at gender stereotypes via a concept of gender diversity, and thus rubber stamps the concept of trans, born in wrong body, changing sex.

As that's the next logical step.

1. The entire thing is based on the premise that there are "boys' toys" and "girls' toys"
2. What sex is B? B must have an actual sex, if B is a human. To small children, this might lead to confusion. Does B not have a sex? Or is B some sort of third sex? All materials need to be scientific, so this implied sexless/third-sex child contravenes guidelines
3. The fact that B is the only one who likes playing with both sorts of toys is extremely problematic, especially as B is suggested to be sexless. Why not have 4 characters: Billy and Bella, plus Bonnie - a girl who likes boy toys, and Ben - a boy who likes girl toys. That would telll children that it's okay for anyone to like any toy. The current materials - with a boy, a girl and a sexless child - imply that playing with the "wrong" toys makes you the opposite sex. That's against the guidance.
4. Why are Bella and Billy both being unkind? All the gender-conforming children are unkind to the sexless child. Only the sexless child is kind.
5. "Billy likes being a boy; Bella likes being a girl; B likes being B". Does Billy not like being Billy? Does Bella not like being Bella? How have these two children come to define themselves entirely in terms of their sex? What about B? Does B not like being a boy/girl (whichever one he/she is)? Why not? Is it not possible to like playing with both boy and girl toys, whilst also being happy with your own sex?

Eg

You could recommend My Body is Me by Rachel Rooney.

It's perfect.

www.rachelrooneypoet.com/books

Why can’t Bella be happy being a girl, and also happy being Bella?

This is almost as bad as that Brownies activity sheet I saw a few years ago that asked leaders to teach this lesson by first teaching the children a select number of boy things and girl things and then to teach them that some other boy things and girl things can actually be enjoyed by both boys and girls.

No, the real lesson should have been that there are no boy things and girl things outside of easily identified biological facts and that anything can be liked and used and played with and worn by anyone, regardless of sex.

Oh my god what a load of sexist shite! Boys toys and girls toys? And 'B' being of ambiguous gender because B likes all toys? That's just awful stereotyping right there - how is this crap progressive?

This is teaching that these stereotypes are natural instead of challenging them. It also teaches that "normal" boys and girls only play with toys stereotypically coded by society for their sex. And that only a select few, special, children do not.

Which flies in the face of real life where gender-non-conforming children exist in considerable numbers and outside of the trans umbrella too.

Also, because the believers in the doctrine of gender identity are once again equating long hair with a girl and short hair with a boy, there's even more stereotypes to pick at. And I honestly don't know why they think giving B a Justin Bieber style fringe is enough to make B neither boy nor girl. In this picture, in the way they have chosen to differentiate sex by length of hair (not a biological attribute of sex), I read B as a second boy. Which means the lesson makes no sense at all.

Wtf?! Unsexiest= unsexed !

B is an unnecessary addition to this lesson, and thus the motives for introducing B need to be questioned. At first glance, you might assume a third unsexiest child (B) is being introduced to test sexist assumptions around toys. I think that is the obvious assumption, but the final bit about ‘B just happy being B’ makes the intent very clear.

Jigsaw is hiding the gender ideology under what seems a reasonable lesson. Therefore the point of the lesson is secondary to promoting a political ideology. That’s not on.

The whole lesson could be taught without using B, and I would suggest the school does so.

Labels aren't helpful to children.

They'll know that from other types of discussions eg "the naughty child" etc.

Boy and girl aren't labels; that's biology.

Toys are toys. Freedom to choose and have their own interests is all that needs to be tackled.

Send them to let toys be toys.

What a horrible resource. It stereotypes Billy and Bella, and that then creates a mental model where B is victimised. And only B has full personhood at the end, “happy being B” while the other two are confined to their role as “boy” and “girl”. It is a clear example of gender bias as it reinforces stereotypes. Back in the day, organisations like UNESCO were opposed to gender stereotypes being reinforced in education: www.lsc.vu.lt/dokumentai/renginiai/BlumbergThe_invisible_obstacle_to_educational_equality_2008.pdf.

I would say to the school “I am really unhappy about this resource because it reinforces gender stereotypes, which goes against all the good work the school has done and that we do at home to foster kindness and have our kids treat everyone equally. Could the school please find some anti-bullying resources that do NOT reinforce that girls or boys only play with one sort of toy?”

I bet this spirals up to the labels of identity, cis, trans, non binary.

(Ofsted want) Schemes of work now have to have threads of progression so that you can see how prior knowledge is built upon.

So I can see how that's how they introduce the concept at an early level

It's rubbish. Quite apart from the fact that it keeps referring to 'boys' toys' and 'girls' toys', it would be far better to see Billy playing with toys usually associated with girls, not a child of supposedly indeterminate gender. That's what would challenge the children's views based on their experience.

Because let's face it, the source of the problem which causes comments or bullying is not girls playing with balls, or issues with gender-qustioning 7 year-olds, it's the devaluing of anything considered girly or feminine, the insistence that girls can only like that stuff because they are quiet and gentle 'by nature', and the idea that a boy liking non-active, non-boisterous play is somehow weak or feminine. The concept of what toys a mythical child of no apparent sex might choose is not going to challenge the stereotypes children actually see in action.

Agree with everyone else, lots of great points - yep this just reinforces that some toys/things are just for boys or girls in the first place, it’s actually doing the opposite of what it’s suggesting!

No child needs to be trans/non binary or anything else to play with any toys because all toys are for everyone, this whole thing is a really badly conceived idea.

Tell school that toys are for children.

Any toys designed for genital use are strictly for adults, not for children, and should not be in school.

Any toys designed for children and in school are for all and any children. Any teachers policing children's use of toys by sex or storing toys in pink and blue boxes, for example, or limiting children's access, need to attend training of some sort.

You could ask if this sort of segregation of toys by sex is happening in school and whether it is approved practice. It won't be

Then you can just ask why the whole concept of categorising toys by the sex of children who are permitted to play with them is being introduced through this strangely old-fashioned presentation, and explain that you don't approve of children in 2021 being taught that there are such things as "boys' toys" and "girls' toys."

Ask to see where school diversity and inclusion policies mention and recommend this.

Job done