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

I agree but I would like a broader look at teachers and schools peddling ideology to kids. Eg critical race theory. I’d like to know how it happened that schools felt they can do this.

I would also love it if schools were not allowed to use the curriculum for their hobbyhorses, particularly English lit, which often seems to be entirely focused on political or social messages.

When I did Shakespeare Gender identity didn't exist ! We talked about misogyny, sexual stereotypes, women's rights the patriarchy. Absolutely possible not to go into Ggender ideology when discussing Merchant of Venice. Can also bring up that dressing young boys as women in the play was a useful tool when women were not allowed to act. Infact GI rather narrows the Shakespeare area

Absolutely. It’s an anachronism

I'm a little uncertain about this. Children - including teenagers - aren't growing up in a vacuum isolated from the rest of culture. They will hear about gender ideology outside of school and if the topic is banned at school they won't have a place to discuss and think about the issues and are more likely to be captured by gender ideology.

Ideally children should be taught that some people believe in an inner sense of gender identity which may or may not be different to birth sex but that other people just believe that everyone's body has an intrinsic sex and don't believe in gender and either position is ok and should be respected but no one should force their beliefs on others. They should be made aware that the puberty time they are currently going through is a naturally dysphoric time for everyone and feeling uncomfortable with oneself is part and parcel of being a teenager, so they won't be able to truly explore for themselves what they really feel until they are all the way through puberty and have been living their adult life for a few years - but until then they certainly don't ever have to be constrained by the sexist stereotypes associated with their sex and should just be themselves.

Unfortunately I think so many school staff have drunk the kool aid that it would be difficult to have guidelines that would allow all this to be communicated without there being a danger that a teacher who was a fan of trans ideology giving it a massive ideological spin.

It’ll take them several years to take all the steps backwards necessary to make documentaries on the issue given that they’ve both been instrumental in normalising and endorsing the “born in the wrong body” message.

Yanbu op and this

Same, delighted

I totally agree that adolescents should be enjoying healthy fun activities. However, if your hobbies are swimming and horseriding, like mine were, it's dishonest to pretend that periods aren't really quite shit. However, being pissed off with them doesn't mean you're actually a boy, or in the "wrong" body that needs to be fixed with medication and extreme surgery; it just means you're a completely normal teenage girl who's allowed a hormonal rant.

I'd also like it reiterated that if you don't particularly like the idea of sex, with anyone, it doesn't mean you need to be put in a group with a special label. You don't need to join the LGBQT! lunchtime club, or the unofficial straight gang. You can know the theory of sex without having to be interested in it (for now).

I am liking this announcement too. But just wondering does anyone know if it’s England only? I wouldn’t be surprised if Scotland does something different just cos they want to been seen to be different

Scottish government that is

It is England only. Education is devolved.

There's a consultation and we're all invited.

https://consult.education.gov.uk/rshe-team/review-of-the-rshe-statutory-guidance/

Scroll down for link to pdf of draft guidance.

if the topic is banned at school they won't have a place to discuss and think about the issues and are more likely to be captured by gender ideology.

Surely the place to discuss it is at home with caring parents who can help them navigate the complex landscape of growing, changing bodies, sex and sexuality, changing sense of identity etc?

I think not teaching contraception etc until 13 is a big mistake. Girls of 9 are having periods these days and knowledge is power.

Dialing back the gender stuff to 'some people believe ' is fine by me. And telling teenagers that puberty can really suck in some ways is probably a good idea.

@Beowulfa There’s no denying that periods are a bodily change that are very challenging to get used to but we grew up hearing that they needn’t hold you back from doing anything you enjoy. This is the message I have passed on to my DDs.

Surely the place to discuss it is at home with caring parents who can help them navigate the complex landscape of growing, changing bodies, sex and sexuality, changing sense of identity etc?

Only if your mum isn't Susie Green.

It's covered.

I have a confused and unsettled 13 year old girl who luckil wants to be a fox and not a boy. She is currently being assessed for autism. I absolutely do not need her being encouraged to think her lack of comofort in her skin is due to her actually being a boy. She needs to know she is uncomfortable and we need the neutral space to work through this, led entirely by her and facilitated by me, to find out what she needs put in place to find some comfort.

I don't think school needs to tell anyone that trans adults are right, wrong or anything else. If asked I'd say "they can do whatever makes them happy, it's ok by me". If Jim the adult chooses to change his name to Joan and put on a frock I'll call him Joan and mind my own business. I only object to people suggesting to my daughter that she might want to do something similar so she can feel better.

Yes, completely anachronistic to discuss Shakespeare in these terms

This is interesting, from Dr Jessica Taylor, on Facebook today:

"On the new government guidance being released tomorrow.

If you’re a ‘feminist’ celebrating the fact that schools will be banned from delivering direct sex education to under 13s just because you disagree with views around gender, it’s time to admit this was never about ‘feminism’.

You cannot ignore the rest of the guidance just for the bit you agree with.

Girls start their periods anywhere from 8-17 years old. They need to know everything. They have a human right under UNCRC to be informed about issues that impact their body and their personhood.

1 in 4 girls will be sexually abused before the age of 12 in the UK (according to NSPCC stats)

Girls are bombarded with sexualised imagery from birth, meaning that research demonstrates that they self-sexualise from the age of 7, and see themselves as sex objects/via the male gaze according to APA Taskforce on Sexualisation of Girls.

50% of 10 year olds watch porn regularly according to NSPCC data, and Pornhub openly admit that at any one time, 1 in 10 of their DAILY 115 million visitors are young children.

The proposed ban on teaching under 13 and 14 years old about porn, abortion, sex, STIs and other ‘explicit’ issues is wrong. It’s a huge mistake.

Children are being sexually abused in childhood. They are watching their mums being subjected to domestic abuse. They are being groomed online. They are being blackmailed and bullied with sexual images and sexting.

We have the highest rates of rape and assault of children occurring ON SCHOOL CAMPUS we have ever seen, according to stats from 2023. That’s predominantly boys raping and sexually assaulting girls AT SCHOOL.

Teachers are dealing with this every single day, with little training or support.

No feminist should be supporting or celebrating this new guidance."

www.facebook.com/share/p/DZKZwMQYtQRZASJu/

I agree with this 100%. Children should be taught scientific fact. If that upsets some people, so be it.

I don't agree with later teaching of sex education. We know that children are being exposed to all sorts of harmful online content and they need to be taught appropriately and safely well before they start to access the wrong sorts of explicit material online. When I was at primary school in the 90s, a peer told me her older brother had shown her pornography. We'd have only been about 8 or 9 then. I dread to think what kids are seeing now.

@Blonkets where in the UK are kids being taught critical race theory?