They/them pronouns in KS1 book

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Tinypetunia · Today 13:14
Ridiculous of Twinkle

You have spelled that too well. It is “Twinkl”.

If things like this come up with my child, they're used a learning opportunity to help her understand the world around her and people in it. I'd like her to grow up with understanding and compassion for all regardless of how they indentify.
That's my opinion and it clearly isn't shared by many people here

Things like this shouldn't be coming up at all. The vast majority of people, at least those who haven't jumped on the social media bandwagon, don't 'identify' as anything. They're either male or female. I really don't care if that's politically incorrect. Why should the whole world have to adapt, when the number of people involved is minimal?

Ridiculous of Twinkle. There is no need to try to foster adult gender ideas onto children. Most children prefer to know if a character is male or female, they don't have to decide for themselves. The use of 'their' indicates plural, so no wonder it's confusing.

That is entirely in your opinion, in the same way my views are my opinion.

Sounds awfully like performative parenting topped off with a "aren't I better than you, I'm so compassionate"

I'd like my DC to grow up knowing what sex they are and that stereotypes don't limit them, that they don't have to lie about what they see in front of them, without adult ideologies and campaigns being foisted on them, and knowing how to read English, as well as how it's written and spoken.

Crazy stuff eh.

Sorry, my post began “Not teaching..”

Heckythump1 · Today 12:20Oops, pressed post to soon.
If things like this come up with my child, they're used a learning opportunity to help her understand the world around her and people in it. I'd like her to grow up with understanding and compassion for all regardless of how they indentify.
That's my opinion and it clearly isn't shared by many people here.

Not teaching gender identity ideology to a young child has nothing to do with a lack of compassion.

What I’d call a lack of compassion, cruelty in fact, is adults hinting to children that there may be a mismatch between their bodies and the ‘real’ them. Children are fundamentally a girl or a boy whatever the colours or activities they like.

If children are taught to treat other children with respect and kindness even if they seem different in their clothes, hair, skin colour, abilities, what they enjoy, there is no need to worry.

I saw an interview with Twinkl’s founder and CEO and it may be that they act almost as a platform to a huge number of educational resources provided up to age 18, rather than being just a single creator of the resources.

So perhaps the way stories are written with a view to trans and non-binary identity ideology can vary. On the introductory website, for example, they show a normal resource with a girl and a grandmother for Little Red Riding Hood, and a girl Goldilocks for G and the Three Bears.

But I think you cannot really know unless you spend money to join, so it is difficult to be sure what it is like over all.

However they are in a Stonewall partnership, with Stonewall itself producing Stonewall/Twinkl resources too.
I am not sure if Twinkl has also signed up to the Stonewall championship as a filter of all their other resources, in addition to having them as producers of content.

Oops, pressed post to soon.
If things like this come up with my child, they're used a learning opportunity to help her understand the world around her and people in it. I'd like her to grow up with understanding and compassion for all regardless of how they indentify.
That's my opinion and it clearly isn't shared by many people here.

If my child picked up on the use of 'they/them' in the story (which she probably wouldn't and I can't imagine many little kids would) and questioned it, I would simply explain to her some people are female, some are male and some people feel female and male. She'd probably not bat an eyelid, or be remotely bothered.
If things like this come up with my child, they're used as a learning opportunity

AnneGarland444 · Today 09:09
Thank you for the screen shots.

That clears up a lot: their aim is to teach gender identity ideology to very young children.

‘TWINKL’ from an educational materials company is evidence their reading material ought to be avoided.

You should send this example to Safe Schools Alliance, AnneGarland444.

Heckythump1 · Today 08:56
Pretty certain my 7 year old wouldn't notice or be confused and it's perfectly acceptable grammar anyway
Also absolutely nothing wrong with a bit of inclusivity and opportunity to discuss differences in people

What differences in people, are being shown by the child character Robin who is described in the third person as ‘they’ in the story?

What sort of people are being excluded and what sort of people included?

What discussion would you be initiating with the children reading this if you were their teacher?

How would you set about fully explaining the use of pronouns to describe material reality versus the use of pronouns to describe the senses of self of 4-9 year olds?

Would you bother with teaching them the grammar of when to use ‘they’ instead of ‘she’, ‘he’ and ‘it’?

It is good your 7 year old understands the general meaning.

I had the same with Twinkl, the reply k finally got from someone senior was showed it was clear they have taken an ideological stance within their company so every resource has to be checked for traces of this non-scientific nonsense if you're going to use them. I just stopped using them.

But it’s not just about your child, is it? The OP said HER child was confused.

OP: well done for contacting Twinkl. I remember threads from several years ago about Twinkl having an “interesting” background. I don’t have time to check now and don’t want to derail the thread, but what I learned at the time was enough for me to avoid these resources like the plague.

Pretty certain my 7 year old wouldn't notice or be confused and it's perfectly acceptable grammar anyway. Also absolutely nothing wrong with a bit of inclusivity and opportunity to discuss differences in people.

But if you spoke to the headteacher, you know who they are- they aren't a general, theoretical person.
So it would be perfectly correct and natural to have a conversation with someone else, who doesn't know your headteacher:

"I spoke to the headteacher on Monday."
"What did they say about [x issue]?"
"She said she would look into it."

But you would never say:
"I spoke to Mr Smith, the headteacher. They said they would look into it."

And in the Twinkle book, Robin is a known, named character.

(This still wouldn't induce rage in me, but I would think it very unhelpful to have incorrect language in a resource which is supposed to help young children to learn to read said language.)

xxyzz · Today 07:57
OP, it's not clear from the reply you received who Twinkl are trying to be inclusive of. They don't mention trans or non-binary in their reply. It's also perfectly possible that they may be trying to be inclusive of both girls and boys by using a name and pronoun that mean both boys and girls could identify with it.

fozwomble · Yesterday 23:56
Or maybe they've left the gender undetermined so all children reading the story can see themselves in the character because they don't have to think of them in a specific gender.

The OP said this about the reply
If anyone is interested - I finally received a reply this week, saying inclusivity is more important than grammar!

I can see what you both mean, and you may be right, but I think Twinkl would have put this a little differently if they had wanted to suggest the use of ‘they’ was to make it so the character Robin could be either a boy or a girl depending on what the child reading it wanted. Also, given the evident concern of the OP in her letter, they might have assured her that ‘they’ used in the story is not intended to mean a child identified as non-binary or transgender.

Apart from anything else, I don’t think they would have said ‘being inclusive was more important than grammar’, as they could have explained the grammar was correct given this context.

Maybe Twinkl are trying to be inclusive of trans and non-binary folk. We exist so why is it an issue to use appropriate pronouns?

5 year olds exist. Their learning of one of the hardest languages there is to learn, should not and never be a vehicle for ideology. They have a right to education, they're not for grabs or for indoctrination.

Maybe Twinkl are trying to be inclusive of trans and non-binary folk. We exist so why is it an issue to use appropriate pronouns? Or maybe they've left the gender undetermined so all children reading the story can see themselves in the character because they don't have to think of them in a specific gender*.

This is excluding boys and girls. A child is a boy or a girl, human life produces boys and girls, whatever clothes or activities they like.

The children may also read a nature book about lions, for example, or any other animals and plants and how they live. If they are made to ‘they’ them they’ll make nonsense of it.

At school children are not supposed to be indoctrinated with ideologies.

OP, it's not clear from the reply you received who Twinkl are trying to be inclusive of. They don't mention trans or non-binary in their reply. It's also perfectly possible that they may be trying to be inclusive of both girls and boys by using a name and pronoun that mean both boys and girls could identify with it.

'Their' is not incorrect grammar in English when we either don't know or don't wish to stress the sex of the person we're talking about. It's standard English usage. Nothing wrong with introducing a child to it. All adults use it naturally.

Given Twinkl haven't mentioned trans/non-binary, I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill. Save your energy to protest the actual issues. This isn't one.

I don't go purple. I just reach for red pen when children get pronouns wrong.

Another moot point. Being fluent in 20 or however many languages before learning to read would still mean that the pronouns used in those languages until that point are familiar and meaningful because they’ve been heard and spoken countless times within context.

@fozwomble yes, we all agree. This entire thread is about making sure Twinkl is using the correct pronouns.