To be really, really pleased about the explicit ban on the proactive teaching of gender identity?

[BiologicsBeforeIdeology]

It's just such madness that we even got here. My family has been badly affected by activists pushing this madness on my Autistic son, who now half believes he's a girl because some nitwit came into the school and told him people who feel uncomfortable and like they don't belong are trans (not maybe gay, not maybe Autistic, not maybe just Puberty, but trans)

I won't apologise for wanting to safeguard children. This is not a Section 28 thing, it really is protecting vulnerable kids.

"Gender identity
The guidance will introduce an explicit ban on the proactive teaching of gender identity. It will say that the idea that children can change their gender by using different names, pronouns and wearing the uniform of the opposite sex is highly contested. If pressed by pupils, they should instead focus on the facts of biological sex.
Teaching children about gender identity could lead to them questioning their own gender when they may not have done otherwise, the guidance will suggest. Children can be taught the law about gender reassignment — that people can legally change their gender from the age of 18 — but children will be told that that they cannot legally be classified as members of the opposite sex."

More info on the changes https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/4a2b0d57-13c9-409a-a40b-104d7a0499b2?shareToken=ed46490f36a6c9fbb0f70d6bf03c0a99

@ResisterRex just to respond to an earlier point, you literally asked me where you could read responses to the guidance. Nothing to do with 'doing my research for me'?

I don't really understand your first point, and I don't think you understood mine. I am advocating FOR parents to talk to their children and teach them what they want them to know. If that is more than they have been taught in school, great. If it is less than they have been taught in school, then there is a problem, since they can't unteach them what they have already been taught.

As to your second point, there really is only so much teachers can do to make up for shitty parenting. I shouldn't have to teach 11 year olds about anal sex, for example, just because one kid's feckless parents haven't protected them from porn.

As to your second point, there really is only so much teachers can do to make up for shitty parenting. I shouldn't have to teach 11 year olds about anal sex, for example, just because one kid's feckless parents haven't protected them from porn.

This.

No. Because earlier, I was making the point that it seemed the government had discovered its SG responsibilities and that child development ppl were back in the room. Then you said - where's the evidence? So I said "I'd said "it seems"" and gave you the links to the guidance. And said if you want to bring points made by those deriding it, do. Let's discuss. But you didn't. So there we are.

@IdgieThreadgoodeIsMyHeroine are you a teacher? I hope not. If you are you should be aware that the children's commissioner report on this topic states 27% of young people by age 11 have seen porn.

Which means they have likely seen anal, strangulation, slapping etc.

Yes, I am a teacher. Would you have me teach my Year 6s about anal, strangulation and slapping? If so, I sincerely hope YOU are not a teacher.

@Perfect28
Quite right. So we should probably cover anal sex in reception, fisting in Yr 1, and bestiality in yr2. Kids need to know how to strangle each other safely (it will probably come up in their SATs anyway). We must tell every kid in detail about every sexual fetish ever devised by man, because we can't risk one kid somewhere seeing something online that hasn't already been explained by an excruciatingly embarrassed primary school teacher.

And 73% of them haven't so your brilliant idea is to make sure that that 73% should be exposed to it. Yeah, that's a really superb idea.

Year 6 children should absolutely be aware that they may encounter sexually explicit images as a risk of using the internet. They should be signposted to further support if they feel they need it, be it parent, DSL, or reputable site (childline for example).

What's the alternative here? A third of them see porn and it's pot luck if they have parents that they would talk to/ would talk to them about it?

The perception that we are showing children pornography is absurd and offensive.

I apologise, you use the term expose rather than show. The point is they are exposed to it. If a third have seen it, they will pretty much all be aware of it.

Appreciated

I may have missed it, are you a teacher @Perfect28 ?

This is covered with the sentence, "If you ever see anything online which upsets you, talk to an adult you trust or call Childline."

Yes, there's no need to start wanging on about anal to 9 year olds.

Have you met any 11 year olds?! Some of them still believe in Father Christmas!

@IdgieThreadgoodeIsMyHeroine yes plenty do and equally plenty have watched pornography. I know it's an uncomfortable truth but it needs addressing and I don't think that should be a lottery of parenting.

What I find so frustrating is the government pitting parents against teachers simply to stoke more division. (You wouldn't believe the amount of parental abuse my colleagues and I receive on a near daily basis).

Why is issuing guidance "pitting parents against teachers"?

Lots of teachers have said here, and in similar discussions, that they feel let down by the lack of government guidance on how to tackle sensitive topics (especially gender).

Yes, but this guidance muddies the waters even further and still doesn't take responsibility for providing resources.

Absolutely- teachers have been begging for government guidance on this for a long time. Typical of the fuckers to leave it until mid-May to release it, of course.

Plenty of children having watched pornography doesn't mean you should teach them, and the other children in the class who haven't seen pornography, about whatever they may have seen in that pornography! What a bizarre logic!

So you are a teacher. Christ. Has it occurred to you that perhaps you are receiving parental abuse on a daily basis (something which I have not experienced, incidentally) because you are advocating teaching their children about anal sex and BDSM?

At no point have I advocated that we teach about anal. Feel free to reread my posts.

See herein lies the problem.

You've argued against people saying we shouldn't.

(I think. Although preparing to look foolish if not)

That's because there's a middle ground between 'banning it' and 'teaching 10 year olds about anal'.

It's called age appropriate sex education. It acknowledges the realities of the current world, responds to safeguarding issues in the school or environment and aims to empower young people to make positive choices.

What point were you trying to make with this comment, then? I thought your point was that we should be teaching children about the things they may have seen in porn.