Two 14yo girls write to Gillian Keegan

So you really think education has gone backwards since the 18th century? I am concerned at how keen posters are to discredit teenagers.
I am not sure exactly how having a deceased child affects literary ability.

Not all 14 year old girls are average, Malala wasn't, Thunberg wasn't. They might be highly intelligent. They might, like Mary Shelley, be raised in homes that are intellectual and encourage debate and clarity of thought.

Mary Shelley had had a child that died and had been living with Shelley - she eloped with him. Also she had been extremely well-educated for an eighteenth century young woman. I think she was probably more mature (though not much) than two girls of 14 now.

Me neither. Is that grammar?

In Joanna Russ's brilliant feminist textbook "How To Suppress Women's Writing" on how the patriarchy discredits women writers, tactic number 3 is: Deny she wrote it.
Alive and kicking on this thread.
Interesting to see that a textbook I read in the 1980s is STILL fucking relevant today.

No-one is here is trying to discredit the source. I personally believe that it was written in the way @stillherenow describes. Thinking that the girls had help or the text was ghostwritten doesn't mean that I doubt the contents of the letter. Obviously.

Smart move to publish as an open letter - Gillian Keegan will have a bit of difficulty pretending she doesn't know anything about it.

I’m pretty convinced this WAS written by 2 fourteen year olds. It doesn’t read like adult text, but very well done to them, it is clear and coherent. I hope it’s read widely. I think lots of people who don’t have kids in state high schools will be horrified by the contents. I don’t think many adults would think it was a good idea to make teenage girls & boys change together or be forced play certain sports against each other. The girls highlight how this is being embedded in their education, and make a convincing argument that all sides of the argument should be heard without any appearance of being anti-trans. I really hope GK and also Kemi Badenoch see it

That I can believe.

I have no problem with the idea that this was written by two14 year old girls. I know mine would have been capable of this at that age.

As an aside, we have been pumping stuff down children's throats in the guise of fact when really opinions and beliefs are being discussed - and that is in the sphere of religion. Teachers do not preface their statements with "Christians believe" - they simply present it as fact. So there is a precedent for this sort of dishonesty.

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein at 18.

So how does a 14 year old write? Answer, the way they have been taught. I think you underestimate quite how mature 14 year-olds can be

Likewise. It's not the vocabulary, it's the tone and style that doesn't sound right for 14.

Brilliant letter, I can hear the frustration and massive unease.

I would hate to be a girl at school these days, it sounds like an awful awful place to be. I thought school was tough for girls in the 80s. But that sounds so shit. I don’t think I’d realised how awful things had become.

I absolutely believe that some 14 year olds could write like this. My 12 year old showed me a practice essay he wrote when revising for his end of year 8 exams last week. He bashed it out in 30 mins. It was way better than anything that I wrote for my GCSE English and I was a grade A student - back when A was the highest grade!

Tallisker · Today 17:35
I wonder if these sort of letters ever get to be seen by the actual minister. In my experience ministers' private offices are staffed by young, woke, ambitious, pronoun-bearing people who might be tempted not to pass on all correspondence as they have to weed out the 'nutters'

I wish a newspaper would publish it.

Glitterfarts Today 21:14
We had a couple get pregnant in the local school here who were insistent that they couldn't get pregnant as they were lesbians. One was a biological boy. They were so convinced that he'd become a girl, they didn't understand that biological function doesn't change

One would this this would be impossible, but another poster who is a science teacher has said she increasingly has really has found herself needing to teach secondary school children that you absolutely can never change sex.

Their letter is impressive and I hope Gillian Keegan takes it very seriously.

This. Regardless of topic I am sick of adults minimising the ability of teenagers.

The ability of engaged teenagers puts most adults to shame.

My 14yr old DD could absolutely write like this.

How sad that the voice of reason here is a couple of young teenagers and those who should be providing guidance (such as teachers), are so brainwashed that they cannot respect other points of view nor biological reality....

Children are being brainwashed in a cult like fashion all over the country to believe people can change sex.
We had a couple get pregnant in the local school here who were insistent that they couldn't get pregnant as they were lesbians. One was a biological boy. They were so convinced that he'd become a girl, they didn't understand that biological function doesn't change.

I've taught a lot of girls who could write like that at that age. Maybe not on their own as a first draft, but two smart girls working on it together, and polishing it over a few drafts? Definitely.

I hope it's read, and taken seriously, by a wide range of people.

@OldCrone you may be right and the hearsay wrong, I don't see any more recent survey than ten years ago (and you'd hope literacy would be better not worse now).

In any case, well done those girls, who are clearly very capable of critical thinking as well as writing!

It is a good letter that addresses real issues.

QUICK, QUICK, discredit the authors!

Yes, absolutely this could have been written by two 14 year old girls.

I have read stuff, just as articulate and passionate, by teenagers from the opposite viewpoint too, it's terrifying.

Veey clever teenagers get completely sucked in by this kind of rhetoric because it's what they have to stimulate their minds. No responsibilities, careers, unlimited research resources and hours and hours of free time. Just be glad that so many of them think this is so ridiculous!!!

That's a good letter but I don't believe for a second that it was written by two 14-year old girls.

I have taught quite a few 14yo girls who could write like that.

From Twitter Mam:

And to those of you saying a pair of 14-year-olds couldn't have written it, thanks - I'll pass on the compliment. There's hope for our education system after all!

😄