Born in the wrong body

Stupidly, I didn't think they would introduce the subject so young
You weren’t stupid. Sounds like the school is being stupid if anything.

That's an awful story about the girl who had her legs stretched. It sounds like she made her legs dangerously fragile. I suppose it was about more than the job though - there was something about other children being cruel.

Ask what such a phrase might imply for someone born with disabilities or a condition that coukd leas to disability? Appalling as if you can’t fix your ‘wrong body’ then you are doubly stuffed.

I've actually just changed my username and prepared to actually post in this forum (long term lurker) for the first time to ask advice on almost exactly the same issue. DS is also in Yr 4 and has come home from school telling me that he has learned about gender identity and biological sex today. He is hazy on the details so I have no idea what he's actually been taught but he said the teacher told him there are different genders and it's fine to change them. Stupidly, I didn't think they would introduce the subject so young. I was preparing for this to be a high school issue.

The curriculum overview sent out at the beginning of the year had a whole section on PHSRE and said we could withdraw our child if we were uncomfortable with any of the aspects mentioned. Gender identity was not one of them. Right now, I feel very much like I've given parental consent under false pretences, but have no idea how to broach this with the school or even other parents.

Is the Safe Schools Alliance stuff the best place to start?

This must be it, I thought it was longer ago...
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1147874.stm

I remember a few decades ago there was a teenager who's dream it was to be an air hostess, but she wasn't tall enough. So she had surgery where her leg bones were cut and the surrounding tissue gradually stretched. It involved a lot of metal pins.
Wrong body? No! Wrong job! Sometimes people just need to be told they can't have everything they want.......

Until 24 September 2020, the trans activist line was that children are born in the wrong body. But then Mermaids did this screeching U-turn:

twitter.com/Mermaids_Gender/status/1309192315467116547

mermaidsuk.org.uk/news/do-you-still-use-the-phrase-born-in-the-wrong-body/

The reason was that shortly beforehand the DoE had released guidance expressly prohibiting teaching materials stating these kinds of concepts:

www.gov.uk/guidance/plan-your-relationships-sex-and-health-curriculum

We are aware that topics involving gender and biological sex can be complex and sensitive matters to navigate. You should not reinforce harmful stereotypes, for instance by suggesting that children might be a different gender based on their personality and interests or the clothes they prefer to wear. Resources used in teaching about this topic must always be age-appropriate and evidence based. Materials which suggest that non-conformity to gender stereotypes should be seen as synonymous with having a different gender identity should not be used and you should not work with external agencies or organisations that produce such material. While teachers should not suggest to a child that their non-compliance with gender stereotypes means that either their personality or their body is wrong and in need of changing, teachers should always seek to treat individual students with sympathy and support.

I should have been born in the body of a supermodel and I want all the plastic surgery available to make this happen. Being facetious aside, we should be teaching kids to accept and love their healthy bodies, not seek to change them through drugs or surgery. Peddling the idea that your body isn't good enough is harmful to impressionable kids (and adults, for that matter).

Year 4 you say?

Holy shit

1. It's saying trans people's bodies are "wrong". It's incredibly offensive.
2. It assumes that every soul/ personality etc has some "correct" body that should be matched to it, which is obviously untrue. It implies that people with disabilities etc are in the "right" body, which to me brings to mind the story of vile comments Glen Hoddle made back in the day.

It's just based on a load of wacky or false assumptions.