Parents evening - pronouns

[Chillyboots]

To put this into context a little, I work in secondary school and generally we have a good idea of the students who prefer to use the pronouns 'they/them' and their preferred pronouns are on their file. I don't actually work directly with any of our students who prefer these pronouns but I do know there are a few students in school who use them.

I went to my daughter's parents evening tonight (another school) and one of the teachers started talking to me and kept saying 'they'. I was pretty tired after work and assumed he was talking about my daughter and her friends but then as it carried on realised he was referring to her as 'they/them'. He was actually a trainee teacher who'd been teaching her for a few months (so he does know her).
All the other teachers referred to her as 'she/her'.

I know this might sound petty but just as students who prefer being called 'they/them' like to be addressed accordingly, I feel that her/she/he/his should also be used for those who choose it.

I wonder if all students will, in the near future, be referred to as 'they/them' if teachers become afraid to use gendered pronouns.

I'm not fuming about this by any means but wondered what other people's thoughts were. I am also interested to know if this is what is being advised in TT nowadays.

I wouldn’t give this another thought.

...but here's thing.

If I didn't give any thought to students who prefer the pronouns 'they/them', I would be in big trouble.

He's probably terrified of being accused of being transphobic, you should've just said she's female and she's comfortable with that you don't need to refer to her in the plural

You're overthinking this and dramatising it. Of course he/she pronouns will continue to exist and people will still use them.

Don't be daft

I would have politely corrected him.

I found another thread on here about it.

He wasn't using them, and that's a problem for op. Nothing dramatic about it.

Why would you be in big trouble?

Dearie me: they/them/we/I/he/him/she/her/who/me/mine/yours/theirs/I'm a Martian/you're a Clanger......."

To sum up, life is too damn short for all this malarkey and anyone who feels the need to start a conversation with "and my pronouns are...." really is taking narcissism to a laughable level.

And it's cringeworthy.

We've got someone at work who does this, I hate it. She's quite a bit younger than me and a bit alternative.

I can understand why people might use they/them if its a gender neutral name or an unfamiliar name, and she may not know whether they are male or female if shes not met them in person (she deals with new starts a lot). However even when using obviously sex-specific names, she still refers to everyone as "they". Also does it after she's met them and following correspondence in which I've referred to them as He or She.

I'm desperate to tell her I find it really offensive that she's "mispronouning" everyone, but I'd probably be sacked as my workplace is totally captured 😏

Of course it's dramatised. It's a non event and yet the OP has deduced that people won't use gendered pronouns in the future. Of course the majority will but people seem to enjoy stirring the pot of hate with anything resembling trans stuff.

...because that means I haven't done my homework and if I refer to a child at parent's evening with the wrong pronouns when they have specifically asked me to use them on any forms they have filled in regarding preferences, it could go down very badly.

I am not stirring hate. I just don't feel it's right to call my child who clearly identifies as a girl and has stated this on all her school forms to be referred to as 'they'. You know as well as I do if I did this to a student (who has explicitly asked to be referred to as 'they', it would be an issue).

Hopefully the Cass Report will be the catalyst to stop all this utter loony tunes bullshit.

Yep

Actually the vast majority of people would just politely correct someone if they got it wrong. They wouldn't need to post it on an international forum which inevitably stirs things up. It's just a pronoun so politely correct if it's wrong and move on.

...and this is the whole problem. We're not allowed to discuss it. Why?

We cannot be compelled to use the wrong pronouns, that’s the law😂

Teacher here. I am hoping i am out of education before this hits my school. Have not got enough headspace gor this. Yoo much else whizzing around

You're a teacher and you don't know that this is a normal part of grammar?

It's all just too exhausting , I'm not complying

Bollocks.

Because the TRAs and the reality deniers want us to ‘be polite’ - they want us to stfu and know our place. Don’t forget this whole ideology is just old fashioned ugly misogyny and they like to burn women who get too chippy or like to point out inconvenient truths.

"I saw my friend I. Town - they were heading into Primark"

Perfectly normal.