Identity politics in secondary school

[OrchidCarer]

Please be gentle because I’m trying to work out how I feel about this issue.

I have 3 boys at secondary school. A new Head started in September. Since then I’ve noticed the school has increased the amount of teaching time given over to identity politics.

For example:

• Students have special science lessons on LGBTQ+ Scientists. Surely they shouldn’t be recognised for their sexuality but for their achievements? Why is their sexuality even relevant to their job?
• Every subject studies load of ‘Black History’ type subjects – so far my Y9 kid has studied slavery, the slave trade, the Windrush generation this year. This is in history, geography, English. These are presented in a way that makes all black people victims and all white people oppressors. The kids pick up on this and their friendship groups form around race (school is about 30% black, 65% white, 5% other ethnicities).
• Assemblies all the time about how women are downtrodden, oppressed, victims and men are the aggressors, perpetrators. Female dominated classes with a female teacher discussing the patriarchy and similar themes.

I am uncomfortable about all of this division. We are all just human. There is a big difference between educating about past prejudice and forcing stereotypes on kids now.

Concerns

• White straight boys are never in the oppressed group, so are constantly told they are the bad guys. My sons have given up trying to prove everyone wrong – the narrative against them is too strong. My eldest rails at home about the unfairness of it all, how he’s depressed, he can’t do right because he’s a straight white guy, he just wants to go and fight in Ukraine where he’ll be allowed to be a man, doesn’t care if he dies. It’s exhausting to deal with.
• Push towards the far right. If you watch slightly right-wing content, algorithms recommend more. There is a danger that disenchanted boys will turn for comfort to online creators who exploit their anger and encourage sexist, racist and homophobic attitudes.
• Where is the evidence that these interventions make the ‘oppressed’ groups feel supported?
• Women, queer people, and people of colour need allies. We are all on the same side, in the end, and this divisive approach is having the opposite effect to the one intended.

There is a real taboo about saying these things. I raised the LGBTQ+ scientists question and got a dramatically long and patronising lecture in an email back again as though I was the bad guy.

Maybe I am being unreasonable?

Is there anything that I can do or do I just have to watch it all unfold?

I think a lot of schools are going through this ‘re-branding’ of trying to be more diverse and inclusive despite this oppressed history always focus on the negatives.I believe that schools should be more inclusive and diverse with the curriculum and they don’t teach POC or Queer history with positive aspects so therefore it always paints the Poc and queer community to always be victims in history never shedding lights on the positive past.

Teachering about queer scientists I think is a bit iffy to say the least I think kids should just get their education done without having to included people’s backgrounds although when studying at school you majority only focus on white men.I think it’s necessary to show diversity.

In regards to your son,I’m not 100% sure, cancel culture and media at the moment does place the ‘white heterosexual man’ as the evil one in situation when it’s not always the case can be damaging to young boys making them believe they are at fault for others actions.

exactly, some people are privileged and need to be shown and told they are,if they are upset by that then it’s their own problem to solve

Because they are scientists. Talking about science. Why must everything revolve around sexuality?

@montysma1

Because they are scientists. Talking about science. Why must everything revolve around sexuality?

To show more diversity I’m sure the whole lesson wasn’t based of the sexuality of the scientist but at school all you learn about is white male writers and scientist.

Oh just get into the spirit and send them into school wearing cilices instead of their school shirts.

I’m a teacher and we have gone in the last two years from behaving as if we are a school whose primary responsibility is to students’ academic education to full on id politics. Every wall is either a rainbow or something connected with BLM. We’re not alone as the OP shows. I personally believe that we are in breach of our legal responsibility to be politically neutral in consequence and we are certainly building up a hell of a lot of resentment amongst the kids. Most of them dare not admit it publicly of course. Yet. This ridiculous attitude you see on MN and amongst some people at my school that “kids who are privileged just need to suck it up” is silly. This privilege discourse simply does not work on an individual level and if you haven’t come across straight kids, white kids and boys who are being bullied and having their lives made miserable by all this, well, I have, and it doesn’t look like privilege to me.

[quote parietal]I think it is challenging to teach a mixed group of kids about the history of race / oppression without it becoming a case of 'white=bad'. The lessons ought to focus on the common humanity that connects everyone, as well as giving the historical facts. Everyone has some struggles and everyone wants to do better.

You could tell the school that your kids are struggling with isolation / feeling useless and that the current curriculum isn't helping. Approaches like this might be better

[/quote] That's lovely.

I kind of agree with you op I have a teen dd in high school and it is the same at her school.

Iggly, only a minuscule number of white benefited from the slave trade. You should study how things were for poor English people from the time of the enclosure and right through the industrial revolution. Children working 16 hour days, for example. I'm Irish and know that the average English person had nothing to do with the oppression that resulted in the potato famine

Your son is depressed, railing and threatening to do and fight in a war- not to protect people, but to prove he is a 'man.'

And you would like to blame this on a few science lessons at school.

Your son has serious emotional problems and you need to address them as his mother, not look for a scapegoat in the form of a Harriet Tubbman tutorial at school.

@cuno

I feel we are in a society which is now saying that if you are white and male then you are wrong and it is not in my view the way that schools should be operating.

We must live in completely different societies, perhaps on different planets even. Because where I live, society is ran by (predominantly white) men, and women have never been so hated in my lifetime.

Yes, I agree @cuno. OP @OrchidCarer these days women are so hated that we are having all our rights removed, all our facilities taken from us, men are infiltrating women's rape survivor groups and grinning while listening to women recount their trauma, and if that trauma doesn't consider men who want to be women, we are told to 'reframe' our trauma if we don't want men in women's spaces. Women receive death threats and rape threats by trans women and trans allies if we dare say sex-based safe spaces and facilities should remain women only.

These days women are arrested for merely posting leaflets on power poles that simply talk about Domestic Violence and the rate of deaths of women due to Domestic Violence. Not even a mention or even a hint about trans issues, mind you, just a 'one in three women are victims of Domestic Violence.' That's all. That's all it said, and a disabled women trying to raise awareness of Domestic Violence was arrested for hate crimes against trans women (men). Even talking or handing out leaflets about Domestic Violence is now banned because it is deemed anti-man, misandrist and anti-trans. Go figure that one out.

Women's toilets have been removed. One area has a MEN'S toilets and a unisex toilets.

That's right. Men have their own toilets, women don't. Isn't it strange how instead of two unisex toilets, there is a men's toilet but no women's? Like, why do men get to keep their own toilet but women have to share with men? Do you see now what I mean?

Men hold the cards, never at any point in history have women been so HATED and so marginalised and so abused and restricted as we are right now. Never. We have less rights than we did in the 1950s.

So if your son is playing the victim, you better set him straight because I can see him growing up to hate and abuse women if there isn't an intervention of some kind with him. He is in the privileged group, he holds all the power, he is told continuously how wonderful and right men are. And yet he still seems to hate women. You have some parenting work to do because the fact that he feels he is the victim when he is continuously told how wonderful it is to be a man is just bizarre. You need to step up and be a mother and sit him down, and explain to him how lucky he is to be a male, how privileged he is. And explain just how vulnerable women are, especially today when we have no facility to turn to, no safe spaces anywhere.

Gender ideology is 100% a form of identity politics. It's the same problem, the same worldview produces it.

Twelly, I don't agree that Alan Turing's sexuality was inappropriate or unnecessary for Year 9 - even when it's in a maths or computing lesson. In fact, I think it's a good opportunity to look at how bad things were for gay people in the past that, despite his colossal achievements, he was treated so disgustingly. I would argue that those learning opportunities should be seized as they arise - naturally and in context.

I'm not all that comfortable with the use of 'queer' in place of gay a few times in this thread. I know it's supposed to be a reclaimed word, but it jars with me.

I think, in essence, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the content described in the OP. My only question would be about the 'how' rather than the 'what'. If white boys are feeling attacked for their privilege then something is being done badly. It shouldn't be anywhere near that personal. It is worth exploring the politics of power and recognising the structures that oppress some minorities and groups in society. I would have no issues with that, but it does have to be sensitively handled. It sounds like it might not be in this case.

-Students have special science lessons on LGBTQ+ Scientists. Surely they shouldn’t be recognised for their sexuality but for their achievements? Why is their sexuality even relevant to their job?

Because a) LGBTQ+ people have been oppressed for all time and they still face barriers to success that straight people don’t, so we should celebrate their achievements; and b) lessons about LGBTQ+ people helps to normalise different sexualities and may help LGBTQ+ kids to accept themselves for who they are rather than spiralling into depression.

It was illegal to be gay at all until the 60s. It was illegal to have any material ‘promoting’ homosexuality in schools until the early 00s (a piece of legislation that likely cost many lives, but that’s a different discussion). And they still face significant prejudice.

-Every subject studies load of ‘Black History’ type subjects – so far my Y9 kid has studied slavery, the slave trade, the Windrush generation this year. This is in history, geography, English. These are presented in a way that makes all black people victims and all white people oppressors. The kids pick up on this and their friendship groups form around race (school is about 30% black, 65% white, 5% other ethnicities).

I’m not really sure how it’s possible to discuss black history - and specifically the slave trade and Windrush - without acknowledging that white people were oppressors and black people were oppressed. It’s just fact.

-Assemblies all the time about how women are downtrodden, oppressed, victims and men are the aggressors, perpetrators. Female dominated classes with a female teacher discussing the patriarchy and similar themes.

When you say ‘female dominated classes’ what do you mean - more girls than boys in the room, or classes about girls and women? Anyway, I see another poster has posted some stats about sexual assault and violence against women - and specifically the problems of sexual assault in secondary schools. The facts are what they are. When women and girls can walk home without any risk that a man will decide to kill them for fun just because they’re female, I’ll accept that they aren’t oppressed.

I’ve got two (white) boys and I’d be thrilled if their school was teaching them this. I want them to be aware they’re part of the most privileged - and historically oppressive - group in society. It doesn’t mean they personally have done anything wrong.

Ah, this would be the white fragility that people talk about. No talking about past oppression and how it leads to ongoing discrimination today because it makes white people uncomfortable.

Do you know this is what they are teaching or is this what your son has told you? This could be his perception and I'd be worried about how these perceptions have formed (and they won't have formed overnight either!), seems like your concerns have projected to him. As a PP said, it's a good thing feeling uncomfortable, the continued privilege provided to white straight males definitely sets them apart - this in itself has been a discrimination against others, to put it simply, truth hurts...

Came back to check and saw all the replies. Thank you so much everyone, reading a range of views and opinions is helpful.

There's a lot to think about here, and I probably need longer to digest it.

Firstly, I don't have a problem with all my sons, just one. I've posted about him on here under another name. He probably is a bit depressed. Depressed people are often horrible to the people closest to them and I suspect he says extreme things to me to vent his emotions. I don't think he really wants to go and fight in Ukraine (!) its just that he wants to shock me.
I took him out for a long dog walk, and he admitted that he often says things to me that he doesn't believe just does it to push back against the system. I do think he's vulnerable to hearing online hate speech though and it is very difficult to challenge. He's 17 so its not like I can just take his phone away.
Out of school he does much better - has a good job, decent mates, nice girlfriend etc. He's currently reading Andrea Levy's 'Small Island' and says it's really good - when they're not teaching it. Maybe he just needs to leave school.

On the identity politics, it does concern me that a one-sided view is pushed. However, reading comments by posters who say that in their schools no books are by non-white authors and only white male scientists are taught about makes me realise that perhaps we're luckier than I realised with our school: their efforts are clumsy but at least they're trying.

Sorry if I've used the wrong language in my OP. I have a couple of friends who describes themselves as 'queer' so I've picked that term up from them thinking it's OK. If it's outdated then I'll have to learn a better term. The acronym LGBTQ+ is a bit unwieldy.

@parietal Thank you for sharing that video... that's what I'm trying to say, not that we don't have to address or understand differences but that we also need to find out what we have in common.

@MangyInseam thank you for the recommendation I will check out John McWhorter.

I went to a lecture by the renowned historian Dr Onyeka Nubia, who spoke about other aspects of black history. He was brilliant, inspirational. Wish he'd come and teach at our school! And the people at the event afterwards were fab, so positive and determined to work together.
www.edgehill.ac.uk/englishhistorycreativewriting/staff/dr-onyeka-nubia/

PS whoever rolled their eyes a 'mother of sons', I also have a daughter - just not at this school.

thank you again everyone for taking the time to reply.

YABU, if this is real your whole post is an exaggeration, based on your own racist, sexist goady perceptions of what your son is telling you he did in school that day. Presumably you don't attend his lessons, or the assemblies, you don't see or hear any of it unless its secondhand. Hugely concerning then that this is how your son is communicating about what he is taught and that you are reinforcing this back to him, in the way you have communicated on here. He is getting this from you, not the school. You don't see colour eh, we are all just human, what is the evidence that these oppressed groups benefit? Crikey, provocative much? You sound like you've been reading too much MRA propaganda.

Weird response from your son about going to fight in Ukraine. Where has he git the perception of " manliness" from? Maybe look at what messages he's getting from his homelike perhaps?

My sons have given up trying to prove everyone wrong – the narrative against them is too strong.

I found this very odd. If the majority of children in your dc's school is white(65%), and if that really is the message school is teaching, why they are the minority who are feeing everyone's wrong? Won't there be more children feeling the same? You say the friendship form around race, so they have white friends who feels the same way?

It’s a heavy burgeon for your son to carry and I’m going to have the same issue with my sons I suspect.

I don’t know where they find their pride and their role models when they’re not seeing themselves positively online or in the media. I suspect they’re going to need to seek them out through sport or a specific interest they have.

I also don’t believe the young should take on the sins of their ancestors. Yes it’s extremely important to understand the history and to be allies but it’s also really important to elevate everyone in some way. Equality versus equity. Whilst some may need to be lifted higher, everyone needs lifting.

• burden

Iggly
These are presented in a way that makes all black people victims and all white people oppressors

Well I’m not sure how else you would present slavery

By teaching that slavery is still going on today
By teaching that white people (men and women) have been and are still taken as slaves.
By teaching that black people sold other black people in to slavery
By teaching that Black people sold slaves to other countries before the white man got there.
By teaching that all creeds and colours have been at some point involved in slavery.

That not all victims of slavery are black.

OP, you could also look at some of McWhorter's youtube content if you can't get his book. He does a great show with economist Glen Loury, and Loury does his own show also, and they often talk about identity politics and its effect in education. Their show is called "The Black Guys".