4 year old assembly “girls can be boys”

[AnotherNameChanged1234]

Is this the norm? My childrens school had an assembly (via zoom of course) on boys can be girls and girls can be boys. The whole school attended - rising 3 year olds through to 11 year olds (nursery is part of schools here -devolved U.K. nation)

I’m so angry, this doesn’t feel age appropriate at all. I’m so angry, my 6 year old was sobbing over it and it completely took me off guard.

I’m not an anti-trans person, I have some good friends who are trans, I’ve seen the pain they’ve gone through, and I’ll always encourage sympathy and no judgement, but this seems like madness. 3 and 4 year olds barely even know what boy and girl are. These poor kids have had two year’s socialisation stolen away from them, can’t we just let them be kids for a few years?

AIBU to be cross, or is this the norm in every school?

YABU- it’s the norm
YANBU- it’s not the norm for this age group

Email the school and ask them what definitions they are using and when they come back unable to do so without using circular definitions and stereotypes, ask them why they ate teaching stuff they cant explain or define as fact to impressional children.

We need to be able to ask.who benefits from children confused about their sex and gender and ot being normalised ti have no boundaries. It's not the kidd fir sure.

I would gather more information and then formally complain to the school.

Encouraging children to conform to gender stereotypes is harmful in itself. But suggesting they can change sex is incredibly dangerous, given what we know about how taking cross sex hormones is likely to dramatically shorten lifespans.

I'd also make it clear to the school that the vast majority of children who feel confused about their gender desist from these feelings of confusion. Mermaids used to state very clearly on the front page of their website that around 85% of gender confused kids become happy with their natal sex after they go through puberty.

Do not let it go OP.
The DfE guide is very clear. Schools should not be:
Promoting harmful stereotypes
Equating gender or stereotypical toy and clothes choices with being transgender
Implying that you can be born in the wrong body
Adopting extreme political stances.

They've definitely broken the guidelines and you need to take it further. There will be children who watched the assembly that don't have parents that can reassure them/ address misconceptions.

Follow the schools complaints procedure and do not stop it until you have reassurance that the issues will be addressed and you've seen the sex and relationships and pshe curriculum content.
If you post in the feminism sex and gender area parents who have done similar can guide you through it.

@Whatwouldscullydo

Email the school and ask them what definitions they are using and when they come back unable to do so without using circular definitions and stereotypes, ask them why they ate teaching stuff they cant explain or define as fact to impressional children.

We need to be able to ask.who benefits from children confused about their sex and gender and ot being normalised ti have no boundaries. It's not the kidd fir sure.

So you mean how do they define what is a girl and what is a boy?

Wow that’s batshit. YANBU.

I was an anxious young child and this would have terrified me, especially coupled with today’s gender stereotypes around games and toys. I can imagine some children are going to worry that they will literally change sex

I get really angry about this shit.
a) it indoctrinates impressionable children to young to know the difference between sex & gender to think they can change their intrinsic biological sex (they can't).
b) it confuses children who have far fewer embedded stereotypes about either gender. The current crop of 5 year olds luckily know that you dont need to possess a penis to play football or two xx chromosomes to wear a dress, so its utter madness to actually impose our adult hang ups around gender stereotypes on them

Yes another

Most of us define girls as juvenile human.female.

Boy- juvenile human male

No one can seem to define what a girl or boy is behind " anyone who identifies as a girl/boy"

There are no definitions as to what they are identifying as though.

No criteria as to what constitutes a girl/boy identity.

If they can't define their terms they should not be teaching it

Girls/boys/men/women as descriptions of identity just do not work. Not unless men and women stop being men or women when they end up in a coma or die.

As if graveyards are full of sexless bodies of something.

Is pop an email to the school and ask for clarification on this assembly before you decide what action to take.
From the little you know it sounds very concerning, and the fact your child has come away worrying they might be a boy tells me that whatever was said, it wasn't clear to the children if it managed to get some of them confused and upset.

I'd be seeking clarification from the school on the exact content of this assembly and let them know that it left your daughter upset and confused. It's clearly had the opposite effect than was intended and she might not be the only one.

I'm all for trans rights and inclusion, but shoving politically correct, woke arguments adown 4 year olds throats' without context or parents' involvement is totally counter-productive, confusing and potentially damaging. Smacks of indoctrination

Can't vote as even if it is the norm it should be stopped, fucking disgraceful indoctrinating children to a destructive ideology.

Why can't we just treat children as children? They should be allowed to do what they want without being treated specifically as 'boys' or 'girls'. It really shouldn't matter at that age.

@SafferUpNorth

I'd be seeking clarification from the school on the exact content of this assembly and let them know that it left your daughter upset and confused. It's clearly had the opposite effect than was intended and she might not be the only one.

I'm all for trans rights and inclusion, but shoving politically correct, woke arguments adown 4 year olds throats' without context or parents' involvement is totally counter-productive, confusing and potentially damaging. Smacks of indoctrination

Yes I’ve calmly emailed the school asking for notes and resources used, and will judge my next step from there.

You are right it’s indoctrination. I’m very pro inclusion, but this is insane. It makes as much sense as asking young kids to hat political party they support. They don’t need to worry about these things yet.

I think you need to ask school what the assembly was about.

Email explaining that your child was upset following the assembly yesterday, so you would like to know the content of the assembly to discuss with her

I voted YANBU to answer your poll the way you wanted it, but YABU to be so mad, you don’t even have all the info. And why was your 6 year old sobbing? Sounds over dramatic as an instant response.

I meant your response is over dramatic, not your 6 year old, crying seems a bit odd but I wasn’t meaning it to sound like I was name calling a child sorry

@WorriedGiraffe DD has been very over dramatic since the pandemic started. We get a lot of floods of tears, usually because something has upset her but she can’t explain it.

If I’m being over dramatic apologies. I had some bad news last night totally unrelated and I barely slept. I’m still really angry about this being pushed on children so young.

@dementedpixie

Surely boys can do 'girl' things and girls can do 'boy' things without a boy or girl having to transition to the opposite sex. Something may have been lost in translation

It should be this rather than forcing trans ideology and that sex can be swapped

You’re right to follow it up

Ignore worriedgiraffe you have every right to be upset someone has distressed your child with harmful content which is in complete opposition to the national curriculum, British values and teacher values that all UK schools should be following.

They shouldn't be saying things like this to young children . Their brains are not sufficiently developed to be able to process this. They are very suggestible and could possibly think that the teacher said I'm a boy so I must be. I fear for my grandchildren having to deal with this.
Teachers should be teaching the three R's ( do they still call it that?) Rather than filling young developing minds with this nonsense

Like I say YANBU in thinking they shouldn’t push that on kids, I agree, I just thought your response what OTT which makes sense if you have other stuff going on.

I don’t hide trans stuff from my own kids, I’ve explained it in an age appropriate way but from what you’ve said it sounds like they implied it’s really common, which dismisses it as being an easy process in my opinion. I wouldn’t be happy with it being presented in that way as it’s confusing for people who are still developing their personalities. Hopefully the school can give you some clarification on what was presented incase your DD has misunderstood what was said.

@dementedpixie

Surely boys can do 'girl' things and girls can do 'boy' things without a boy or girl having to transition to the opposite sex. Something may have been lost in translation

You would think so, but that’s not how many people see it now. Anyone liking pink sparkles and long hair is a girl, anyone liking football and trucks is a boy, regardless of their sex.

My ds would have been very confused about this, he loves pink, shopping, typically “girl” activities, and tends to reject typical boy things. Does that mean he’s a girl?

@WorriedMumsDontSleep

Ignore worriedgiraffe you have every right to be upset someone has distressed your child with harmful content which is in complete opposition to the national curriculum, British values and teacher values that all UK schools should be following.

I didn’t say she shouldn’t be annoyed, i said I thought that response being so angry was OTT, I actually agreed with her point. Also it’s a discussion forum, no need to ‘ignore’ when we are discussing it. OP wouldn’t have posted if she didn’t want opinions.

Agree @Georgeskitchen and most schools will be avoiding confusing children and pushing extreme ideology.
On a side note, yes we are still meant to teach the three rs, but they've all had multiple identities in the last twenty years: literacy, numeracy, maths, English...
Funny enough I think reading has managed to always stay reading