The time has come where I'm required to teach gender identity...

All this work was done in the 1970s thanks to the earlier waves of feminism. The hard work has been undone over the last 20 years. It’s nothing new to tell girls they can be a plumber or play with cars or boys can wear sparkles or be a hairdresser yada yada….those of us over 45 or so grew up knowing this already.

Why this work needs to be done again will no doubt be the subject for sociologists, feminists, social historians etc in the future. I’d love to know if there’s anyone out there already looking into it. But it’s really disheartening to know that “girls can be scientists too, you know “ is again being pointed out in schools.

Sadly, I think the comment upthread that we will all look back in amazement on this time in decades to come can't necessarily be relied upon. The movement of genderism has gained traction through the education of the young. Older generations need to stand for the right of children not to be miseducated at primary school. The arguments need to be had now - using logic and articulating proper definitions of words.

As Gender Identity can’t actually be defined - because ooh no, it’s not about stereotypes, ok? 🙄 then I’d approach the topic totally factually and focus on gender stereotypes, emphasising that we don’t have to comply with them. For example, boys can have long hair (show some examples), girls can play football, be scientists, like dinosaurs, etc etc.

i think this is critically important because now so many children seem to be boxed in by very rigid stereotypes, and this is causing them to feel they’ve failed at ‘being a girl’ or ‘being a boy’. Such black and white thinking nowadays 😞

So, the message should be that we all have a sex, that sex can’t be changed, but your sex doesn’t define how you should live your life, and there’s no right way to be a girl or a boy. I’d give lots and lots of examples and get the children to think about any assumptions they might have eg assuming a plumber will be male, thinking that boys can’t wear make up, etc etc.

I had endless snide comments about being 'a boy in a skirt' in upper primary and secondary. I wasn't; I was an autistic girl who couldn't get to grips with what was expected of girldom.

Can't you just teach it like a religion? "Some people believe " in front of everything?

Can anyone here remember struggling with ‘gender identity’ as a school kid?

Yes, I was skinny and had a very short hair cut in upper primary so other kids said I was a boy. I knew I wasn't though. I loved my short hair because it saved me from agonies of combing out tangles every morning and it dried in a flash after swimming. And it was quite smart. I've had all different lengths since then.

It’s no coincidence this has all started up the more they’re ‘educated’ about it.

I don't know what I would have made of it if adults started suggesting I could have a male gender identity. Doesn't bear thinking about really.

Yes. It’s always a good idea to ask to see RSE plans and check they’re in line with DofE guidance. Perhaps have a chat with the teacher delivering it and checking he / she isn’t conflating sex with gender.

No. Because it’s made-up BS that has no place in schools. Any teacher worth his or her salt would have the critical thinking skills to question it and to see it for what it is. It makes me wonder about the intellectual calibre of the generation who has entered mainstream school teaching over the last ten or fifteen years.

Anyway - when it was actually taught, the sensible (middle aged) teacher apparently simply said something like ‘there is female sex and male sex and some people believe they are the other sex - these are transgender people - but you can’t actually change sex’ and that was that.

👏👏👏

I love this. It's all pretty simple at the end of the day. I hope this madness will cease soon.

Can anyone here remember struggling with ‘gender identity’ as a school kid? It’s no coincidence this has all started up the more they’re ‘educated’ about it.

Thank you - now DD has just started secondary school so I’m going to send an email to request the RSE lesson plans for Yr 7 - and do the same again! (I am the most quiet, non-assertive middle aged woman and hate confrontation - but on this subject I feel very passionate and feel I need to do my small bit).

I’m going to refer to Suella Braverman’s speech which I thought was very good.

@Francesgumm Well done!

It’s something that appears to concern young children BECAUSE schools and SM ram it down their throats - as we see in the OP.

Late to this, but want to say 'well done @Francesgumm!' It sounds like you really did your homework and so demolished the opposition.

I hope your lesson goes as you would wish OP. And do let us know.

I know how important it is to earn your crust, but I hope you don't decide to just obey orders

As @Ein says.

Don't do what DD's school did in primary and leave her coming home, having never had any inkling she was anything other than a girl, saying "am I a boy because I like ninjas?". FFS. Cue me googling female spies and ninjas for more time than I want to spend on it.

We will look back on this time with wonder and amazement.

Ein makes good points, particularly regarding history.

Can you perhaps also have a student generated discussion with leading questions?

For example - what does transgender mean? What changes if you say you are transgender? Do you need to medically/surgically transition? How many people do/don’t medically transition? What does it feel like to be transgender? What is the difference between that and a stereotype? Why are stereotypes wrong?

I agree. It would be highly unprofessional to teach children complete nonsense as a fact. It goes against basic professional ethics, surely? In Eastern Ukraine, the part occupied by the Russians in 2014, the schools were sent some additions to the curriculum. The pupils had to listen to their teachers (the ones they'd always had) teaching them as a fact that Putin was a godlike leader and that Ukrainians were and always had been Russian.

Teach it like you’d teach comparative religion, in historical context and with other similar and opposing ideas to compare:

• brief history of sex and gender politics, incl involuntary FGM of children in Africa, breaking girls toes in China, eunuchs etc
• emergence of feminism and sex discrimination laws as reaction to perceived oppression
• struggles of homosexual people eg when was illegal and was banned in some jobs etc
• emergence of Stonewall etc as reaction to oppression
• emergence of Western transgender ideologies (Helen Joyce’s book would be very useful here as it recaps the history of how transexuals became a thing in the West)
• Rewriting of history to claim some feminist/lesbian heroines were transmen
• Aggressive (and illegal; verbal assault and death threats are criminal offences) hounding of female academics and authors
• emergence of gender critical thought as a reaction to oppression
• emergence of detransitioners, not just Kiera Bell but also in Thailand where a lot of ‘ladyboys’ sued those who castrated them as children
• current confusion re law being different in different countries, eg in Canada I think it’s a crime not to use preferred pronouns, whereas in Texas I think children can be removed from their parents if the parents encourage medical transition
• questioning of idea “what does it mean to be male / female, and when does it matter?” In sport, in medical care, etc etc.
• Importance of free speech and whether some issues should be exempt.
• Teach them to question their sources: why does this lobby group want me to join their club? Why does this webpage exist? Etc

You’re a teacher. If you were required to give a lesson on Islam you wouldn’t tell your students they must all pray five times a day. Teach facts. “Some people believe this… Some people behave like this…”

You have a real opportunity here to educate. Let them walk out of your class having learned about physical differences, gender stereotypes, the lifechanging consequences of surgery/drugs, and the politics of it all.

Suggest you get the lesson approved by the school before you give it, as whatever you say someone will be unhappy, but if you stick to facts you should be ok.

Brava!

Had to teach this in year 10 to my class in PHSE. Tbh I planned the main lesson to be delivered during a cover lesson but even then when I returned there was more.
Just stick to facts of some believe this, some believe that and we have to be kind and respectful.

They taught this in Yr 6 in my DD’s primary school - last year.
I requested the lesson plans and details of all the RSE lessons . Then I wrote a huge 3 page email to the headteacher expressing my concerns about the lesson plans and teaching gender identity as fact etc etc using DfE guidelines - and I included some choice photos of trans women in sport including Hannah Mouncey (Australian rugby ) and Laurel Hubbard (weightlifting) suggesting maybe the kids could discuss whether this seemed fair .
I went in and had an animated chat with the deputy head and she said there were going to have a meeting to discuss my concerns and issues I’d raised. I’m the sort of parent who never normally goes in to talk to teachers but I felt they actually did pore through the points I’d made. (I used lots of info from these threads).
The lesson plan originally said something like ‘if a boy feels like a girl’ and vice versa but I asked what an earth that means? How can he feel like a girl? You can’t give examples of that without promoting gender stereotypes which you’re not allowed to do etc.
Anyway - when it was actually taught, the sensible (middle aged) teacher apparently simply said something like ‘there is female sex and male sex and some people believe they are the other sex - these are transgender people - but you can’t actually change sex’ and that was that.

I would also throw in a few ‘famous trans people’ photos. Just to give them an idea of what it’s all about. Eddie Izzard springs to mind. There’s no way trans will be ‘fashionable’ to them if their first impression of it is Izzard.

Gender Identity is filling the subculture void that was created when emo left and nothing took its place. That’s all. Like any other subculture, it will fizzle out with just a couple of hardcores clinging to the upturned hull.

Primary school 😱

Well. Guidance has been published by the government saying children should not be taught that they can be ‘born in the wrong body’, nor should they be taught that gender identity is anything to do with clothes and toys etc. It even says at much on the Mermaids website fakers

I would challenge it that way. Just email the person who created it to say you’re concerned it contravenes government advice (or Mermaids advice if you’re that concerned about being outed as GC). Please don’t ring in sick, see it as your moment to shine here!