Non Binary Teachers

Assuming he's also keeping his belief in gender identity out of the classroom, this is great to hear.

The title of "Mx" for a male or female is interesting. In itself, it doesn't require a belief in gender identity. It simply shows a preference for a title that is not sex-specific. In a similar way that the title "Ms" allows women to avoid differentiating between being married or single. There will be some SEN or other children that aren't able to process this, as per the examples above, but I fully agree that it's no big deal if the teacher doesn't make it so.

It crosses the line in to enforced belief in gender identity when it's accompanied by the pronoun "they". At this point, it's forcing a child in class to declare a belief that they don't necessarily hold. It will be obvious, in the majority of cases, to the children whether the teacher is male or female. If it's not obvious, or the child is confused by the "Mx" title, or scared about what they are "allowed" to say, this is an issue. It should always be OK for a child to be able to refer to a teacher by their sex-based pronouns.

@ArabellaScott if you read my subsequent posts I think I have explained myself pretty clearly
@WotNoUserName i teach in a mainstream secondary, so come across plenty of SEN students. And I don’t beat them with a stick if they get it wrong, but when they write my name on a book etc I remind them it is Ms, not Mrs or Miss, and if they ask why, I explain. Quite amusing I’m getting flamed for that on the feminist board!

My kid has a 'non binary' teacher who gets called Mx. He/they/whatever is excellent at the job and my kid is happy so I don't care. But that wouldn't have made for a very exciting post I guess.

You've reported a parent talking anonymously about what their child's perception of certain anonymous teachers is? To what end?

I really hope you don't teach kids with SEN. My son is 21 and has learning disabilities and still mixes up pronouns - calling people it as well as he or she. Obviously I correct him, but he doesn't do it deliberately and it just doesn't sink in as he does it repeatedly.

Why tf are these teachers sharing details of relationships with their students? Two of my teachers got married when I was at school. The first we knew of their relationship was when Miss A returned after the summer holiday as Mrs B. We didn't need to know anything more, it was none of our business (and I'm quite sure we would have been grossed out at the thought of such old people - actually only in their 20s! - having sex etc)

I guess it means kids will think being non binary is pathetic, which it is. Which can only be a good thing.

(I'm sitting here with my short hair, mens hoody, preparing to do DIY. I am the most non binary ever, look at me everyone, I'm so different and special and Not Like Those Other Women! )

Clearly the suggestion something should be done about this thread was not taken up by MN. It is the censoring of parents sharing points like this which is what some of the trans lobby does in shouting people down, protesting at universities so no one can be heard - it is the usual silencing of women; Yet we will not be silenced and the courts in the 3 cases someone mentioned just above illustrate who often the law now is on the side of women in an employment context where they express perfectly reasonable views but are then sacked.

The tide is turning in favour of fairness and proper equality and I hope this keeps up as we do not want children to suffer

The thing is, this is why I don't think it's about belief. It's not about trans either. These women aren't trans, they don't have clinically treated dysphoria.

It's a victim hood trend that is all about sexist identities and obsessions with categories, sexualities and blurring boundaries.

It has no place in school. Most Children are savvy and recognise these people. Unfortunately some aren't and are vulnerable to being exploited.

The "they" is referring to three specific non-binary teachers that the OP's daughter is talking about, not all non-binary people or even all non binary teachers.
She has used the phrase "they all" because there are three of them. If there had been two she would have said 'They both".

Stop looking for offence where there is none.

This.

And this:

"Children don't go to school to have beliefs pushed on them"

I think transactivism needs to be formally recognised as a religion, or as least as a political movement, and staff reminded that it is not permitted to use class time to attempt to recruit children into their religion/politics.

If conversion therapy does get banmed it’ll be interesting to see whether activists still feel as confident about actively trying to persuade children into their club.

Giving your child the space to think about whether they believe in gender identity (the idea that we all have one) or not is not transphobic.

There are many parents, myself included, whose children don't have the capacity to apply critical thinking to this. My neurotypical daughter year 8 daughter is getting to the point where she sees it as a belief that some of her friends hold but she doesn't. My autistic daughter (her older sister) is nowhere near that point in her thinking. If she hears a teacher talking about gender identity as if it's real, she will believe it. She also believes in God for the same reason, having been at a primary school which is closely affiliated with the school. I want to give my children the space to safely form their own beliefs. There is nothing safe about an environment which pushes gender identity as a truth to autistic children, like my daughter, who may perceive their confusion about their changing body (and any sensory issues associated with breast development and periods) as a sign that they are in the wrong body.
Children don't go to school to have beliefs pushed on them.
As an atheist, it's my choice to accept that the primary school may "indoctrinate" my children in to the Christian faith because I see it as low risk. But I won't accept my children being indoctrinated in to gender identity belief. Thanks to Maya Forstater's tribunal, and latterly Rachel Meade's and Jo Phoenix's, I can express this without it being considered as "transphobia".

But it has to be the right type of EDI. Otherwise its an ism or a phobic.

Its funny that you have reported this for stereotyping these teachers when the of the new trans ideology is about stereotypes.
When I started teaching one of the main areas was to breakdown stereotypes.
Girls can play football
Girls can be Engineers
Girls can do math, science, DT etc.
And boys can do textiles, food tech, child care etc.

But this has been sidelined into if a girl likes X then she must be a he.
These teachers should not be promoting a trans lifestyle over facts, a teacher is there to teach their subject not preach a doctrine.

My children have not had any 'non-binary' teachers, and with a bit of luck they never will!

I would be complaining to the school about the type of inappropriate behaviour described by the OP. Absolutely unacceptable.

Not wanting your kids to know all about your teacher’s relationships- transphobic?

Not wanting your kids to get mixed up with pronouns, titles - transphobic

Safeguarding children so they are not part of conversation that’s inappropriate for their age - transphobic

Its just transphobic isn’t it. Just BE KIND ladies. After all, the role of a woman (cis of course), is to put aside our fears and concerns, let everyone get on with what they want. We must be kind.

I was called transphobic once, for commenting on instagram “I love this page and it’s celebration of women”. I wasn’t inclusive apparently, even though the page is about women, birth, feminism, periods… it’s just a word that’s bandied about so often, no one can take it seriously.

@MimiGC I feel you are deliberately misinterpreting what I have said. If the OP had said “I’m concerned about the behaviour of this particular teacher because it sounds like they are over sharing their personal life/ expressing their political views” that would be one thing. The OP deliberately asked her DD her “observations” of these teachers based on this one shared characteristic and then repeated them using phrases like “they all do this”. Some of the accusations are concerning and I suggested the OP report them. Some are quite personal and offensive “they dress like this/ they act like this”. All of it smacks of over-generalisation, stereotyping and prejudice. Imagine if she had written “My DD has 3 teachers who come from France, she said they all act like this”

I am a feminist and am sympathetic to many of the views expressed on these boards, though I don’t necessarily agree with all of them. I don’t think posts like this are helpful to the debate.

Make a complaint about them. Totally inappropriate and brainwashing

@Coffee473 for a teacher, you seem curiously intolerant of diverse viewpoints. You do know that the 'D' in EDI stands for diversity? We all have different opinions, yours aren't always right and you don't need to report everyone to the authorities just because you disagree with them.

Our experience is with a male NB teacher*. He was a good, engaging teacher, and the kids liked him. He wasn't militant about the pronouns or if kids called him sir, but was generally referred to as "Mix". When he switched pronouns he also grew his hair and started wearing skirts. Nothing inappropriate for a school but kind of amusing when the female teachers are almost always in trousers.

DS didn't report any inappropriate conversations tho teacher wasn't his form tutor or anything so it's hard to see where it would come up. There were flags. And an inappropriate Allsorts assembly, but I don't know if that was his idea or the head's.

Perhaps the lesson is that good child-centred teachers can continue to be good child-centred teachers regardless of their own belief systems. Whereas teachers who are inclined to be egotistical or controlling can manifest this through gender beliefs too.

I do think this teacher may have contributed to DS and his friends (quietly and politely) thinking gender stuff is daft nonsense. It's not cool any more when your teacher is doing it. And while kids can be kind of androgynous, an adult male in a skirt is obviously an adult male in a skirt.

*I'm going to stick with he on sex based pronouns basis for clarity. "They" sounds like over-generalising. He actually changed pronouns again later so "they" wouldn't be approved by the pronoun police either.

Encouraging your child to question an ideology is a bad thing?

You do know that you can disagree with an ideology without hating the people who believe in it, don’t you? Or you can even say that some of the practices carried out in the name of that ideology are bad without hating everyone who believes in it.

Encouraging children to be critical and enquiring is a very valuable gift.
The accusations of " transphobia" have long lost their impact. Phobias are fears. Questioning an ideology ( a whole set of ideas about how the world works) is not 'phobic'. It is actually quite startling how many young people now mindlessly imbibe, without critical evaluation, such ideas wholesale. University campuses are now keen to assert they are " safe spaces" - rather than spaces of enquiry and challenge.

Gosh, we really do have a a sacred caste around the sect of non binary

Querying over sharing of sexual information and personal information about relationships is transphobic?

If this was a religious teacher who had posters and badges and wanted to talk about their religion all the time, would you have a problem with it?