Non-binary teacher?

[Thompson198]

Name change.
I’ve got a 5 year old daughter due to go into year 2 in September. We’ve just been told that the teacher for next year is a non-binary/‘non-gender-conforming’ man who wants to be referred to by ‘Mx’ (pronounced mix) and they/them pronouns.
Quite a few of the parents have already complained and started looking for other places at local schools because of this.
what do you think?
My daughter has SEN and is one of the youngest in her class, I worry how she’s going to be able to keep up with the pronouns and understand this without us having to teach her about gender ideology at her age. My husband is extremely against teaching her gender ideology, especially so young, I’m not the most positive about it either but don’t feel as strongly as him. He also doesn’t want her being at the school in September but they have been very supportive for her so far and I’m concerned it might not be the same elsewhere.
Thoughts? How would you feel if this was your child’s teacher?

Someone's right to believe in it is protected. They don't have a right to teach it to unconsenting people's children as though it were fact though.

I just looked up that case out of interest and it was a 19 year old who was shouting "is it a boy or is it a girl?" repeatedly at a transgender PCSO who was walking past them in a busy street. In court the 19yo was said to have Asperger's (their use of term) and suffered from anxiety and depression, but clearly the judge didn't think that explained or excused what was judged to be public harassment and abuse.

So really NOT a boy quite innocently asking!

If in this case the school aren't understanding that young children, and perhaps particularly neurodiverse young children won't sometimes get this wrong or ask questions, then that's another matter entirely.

Children (including autistic children) have to get accustomed to navigating a world where they will come across a huge amount of diversity and difference. What difference this to any number of other differences that a child will encounter in every day life?

I don't have to personally believe that women should wear modest dress and hair coverings to explain to my DC that some people follow religions which expect women to do so, and that's why teacher X wears a hijab. Parents don't have to personally hold the same views about gender to respect the right of another adult to use different pronouns and title. This is such a non-issue.

No I haven’t said that anywhere in my post. My kids understand trans rights and simply asked a question about how X now identified. I answered, and we all moved on. It’s really not difficult.

That depends if it is just a name change or if the teacher starts pushing the ideology, which is a distinct possibility. I wouldn't care less about calling the teacher Mx, personally, but I can understand after all that has happened in recent years, why OP and others would have some concerns.

Right now, none of us knows how it will play out.

Asking people to refer to him as something other than a man is pushing his beliefs on them.

And, of course, for many people, non-binary is a ridiculous and potentially harmful ideology.

It's never been tested in law against the Grainger WORIADS criteria, to the best of my knowledge.

Nope, my kids understand trans rights. They asked a question about how X identified, I answered. We all got on with our lives. No drama needed

It's an innocent question. Funnily enough, not all people with SEN can control themselves and might repeat things. Even if it wasn't innocent, which there is absolutely no evidence for, they did not deserve to be arrested and prosecuted. Someone so thin skinned should not be in the police, and the same goes for people who are teaching small children, who will not always get things right, and speak their mind.

Sowing the seed that the risk from predatory people pretending to be transgender in order to abuse children is a reasonable rationale for telling all children not to accept any transgender people on their own terms, regardless of the context or their relationship with the transgender person?

How is this different from what racists do when they say it's reasonable for people to object to having Asians living in their communities because of the possible over representation of Asian people involved in grooming offences or terrorism?

Your kids cannot in any way understand 'trans rights' as there is no actual human state of being 'trans'.

He isn't asking for that. Can you genuinely not comprehend that?

How many times a day do you say "hey man, come here", or "hey woman, can you help me".

This has 0 to do with what's in his pants, however much you want it to be.

If I have to refer to a Reverend as Reverend Smith, is that him pushing his beliefs? Should I be able to just call him Mister Smith because I don't believe his beliefs have merit?

It's not about that. Men are the biggest risk to women and children, and that includes all men, not matter how they identify. So, telling children that a man is a woman is problematic from a safeguarding perspective. And, actually, the Ministry of Justice stats show that transwomen are more likely to commit sex crimes than any other group. Facts are not bigoted.

It was tested in the case of a Californian man who wanted his UK documentation to state he was 'non-binary'. Which as it doesn't exist in law, was rejected.

He stated he is non-binary. What about that do you not comprehend? What is your understanding of non-binary (you’ve been asked a few times now) or
are you vehemently defending something you can’t define or explain?

I don't believe what you're saying. But if I did, it wouldn't apply here anyway. This teacher is no purporting to be transgender.

What exactly is it you don't believe?

You can call him Mr if you want. He cannot make you call him 'reverend'. I'm sure he won't faint and call the cops and get you issued with a Non Crime Hate Incident.

Men are the issue. White, Asian, trans identifying blah blah blah. Men.

Not every man for the NAMALTS. Enough men that safeguarding measures are needed.

Of course you don't have to refer to a reverend as a reverend if you don't want to.

If you believe that reverend is made up nonsense you don't have to go along with it.

I believe that non binary is made up nonsense and I don't believe either I or my children should have to go along with it.

Your kids have been indoctrinated to believe utter rubbish.

You don't believe official government stats? Not very sensible. Here's a couple of links to get you started https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/18973/pdf/#:~:text=Ministry%20of%20Justice%202020%20Data&text=The%20hyperlinks%20below%20link%20to,and%2010%20for%20attempted%20rape.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/600883038fa8f51ee8fab14f/FOI_200827019_transgender_prison_population_-_sexual_offenders_by_offence.odt

No, he's not trans, but if you read my comment, it was also about how stating a man is not a man is also problematic. I think you'll find non-binary comes under the trans umbrella though.

I would also wait to see what kind of teacher Mx Smith is. As said above, it is pronounced Mix’

I don’t think they should teach gender ideology beyond the agreed curriculum, but the same is true of any teacher. No ideologue should preach in the classroom.

If my child asked me and if I did not want to open a conversation about NB people, I would just say that Mx Smith doesn’t want us to focus on their sex. Using ‘Mx’ is a way of making sex unimportant.

There are vast numbers of people who'd argue that Muslims are the huge risk to all of us, because they're very much over represented in terrorist offences over the past 30 years. You're arguing that if someone belongs to a particular demographic that is over represented in offending, then we should treat every single member of that group with suspicion. In which case, lets apply that to people who grew up in care. Ditto people from traveller communities. Ditto people from very poor working class backgrounds - men and women. You could argue that it's reasonable for you not to offer a job to anyone from these demographics on the grounds that they come from a group who's more likely to defraud you or engage in other crimes at work.

As you say - facts are not bigoted. But you can use demographic arguments to justify your bigotry - people do it all the time. You're doing it too. Sorry if that's offensive to you, given that TERFS passionately believe that their bigotry is actually an expression of their moral superiority.

But I would refer to a Reverend as such, because going out of my way to make someone else feel small isn't in my nature. Calling him Reverend takes no time out of my day at all. He believes what he wants, I believe what I want, neither is affected by the other.

What don’t you believe? The facts and statistics?

But you do believe a man can be a non-man?

Well, I think we’ve solved the problem.