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Original poster

Homosexuality in the Classroom.

766 replies

Darcey1 · 25/11/2009 13:40

My daughter is nine. Yesterday she came home from school and said that her teacher had told the class that she was a lesbian. The teacher is about to have one of these civil partnerships and according to my daughter told the class that girls could marry girls and boys could marry boys if they wanted to.It was according to her entirely natural. This seems like corruption to me. I don't want my daughter exposed to this kind of lifestyle.

I am very upset about this and don't know what to do. Am I over reacting? Should the school have warned us that the teacher was going to do this? Do you think I should make a complaint to the school?

OP posts:
SkipToMyLou · 26/11/2009 09:47

So hang on, I'm lost.

Darcey1=Daftpunk=GrumpyYoungFogey right?

RustyBear · 26/11/2009 09:52

"If you allow any of it, where does it end?"
Sorry, but this is always a bad argument ....

"I think it's a problem to leave it to the professional judgement of the teacher. What guarantee is there that a teacher can judge this?" During your children's school life you will have to leave an awful lot of things to the professional judgement of the teacher; some of them you will never even know about....

I can't imagine what you would have said if your child had been in the Year 3 class of the teacher who is currently on maternity leave from our school. When she went for her 12 week scan, she told the children she was going to a meeting. When she came back, she told them who the meeting had been with: 'someone very close to me but who I'd never actually seen before' and asked them who it might be. Several children guessed at once it was a baby & she then showed them her scan picture. It was beautifully done, the class were thrilled and loved being involved. None of the parents complained, (even the one who complains about everything!)and the class took great care of her during her pregnancy (which she needed as she suffered horribly from morning sickness)

Hullygully · 26/11/2009 10:05

Yeah, but at least she hadn't had recourse to the old turkey baster. That's what we is objecting to here.

daftpunk · 26/11/2009 10:12

mollyroger...

sorry, think i over reacted last night...

(i don't always read posts properly..)

thedollyridesout · 26/11/2009 10:15

Do you have to bring the thread down to such a base level Hullygully? You are getting on my wick too now, hyperbole or no hyperbole.

RustyBear · 26/11/2009 10:15

Yes, but mathanxiety seemed to be saying she should have waited for them to notice the bump. In fact, since her baby was born in mid-August, she was with her class till the end of the school year, with no need to introduce her maternity cover,so maybe she shouldn't have said anything at all

Hullygully · 26/11/2009 10:21

Dolly - Yes, I'm afraid I do. I feel it is the only appropriate response to homophobia and general stupidity. You can always not read it if it offends your sensibilities.

Hullygully · 26/11/2009 10:24

Oh yes, and I enjoy it immensely.

noddyholder · 26/11/2009 10:26

I am beginning to think they are one and the same person there can't be 3!

cory · 26/11/2009 10:39

I'm beginning to think there's a lot of Lady Bracknells on Mumsnet (Ignorance is like a beautiful flower: touch it and the bloom is gone.)

We've had posts lately on the shock of a 10yo finding out that parents buy Xmas presents (not Santa), posters congratulating themselves that their 6yos have never heard that there are people who believe in God, and now a 9yo having to be protected from her teacher's wedding.

And like Lady Bracknell, they seem to think that there is no middle ground between Knowing Everything and Knowing Nothing. (Which do you know, Mr Worthing- Everything or Nothing?).

Nothing between seeing Mummy with a shopping bag and giving up on family celebrations forever. Nothing between atheist bliss and running away to join the Mormons. Nothing between congratulating a teacher on her wedding and speculating on dildos.

Thankfully, most of us seem to live in a saner, calmer world where it is possible to be educated without being precocious.

RustyBear · 26/11/2009 11:29

at Cory. I love the Importance of Being Ernest - it has a quote for every situation!

Spidermama · 26/11/2009 12:58

Great postings Cory and many many others. Rip roaring thread.

DP glad to see you back and I really hope that some of the posters here can provide you with some food for thought about your own thoughts/fears(?) about gay relationships.

This is going to sound patronising but it's so frustrating to read so many eloquent, brilliant and well expressed posts from obviously bright and caring women, and to see you so impervious to their reasoning. You are clearly bright but stubbornly holding on to a very primative and unecessary fear.

You could really do yourself and your children a favour by having a rethink. You may think you haven't come across any gay people, but they're everywhere on telly, writing books, in Parliament, behind supermarket counters, making music, working in Wickes, delivering your post .... You come across them all the time. They've always been around and always will be.

There are some children at my kids schools who have two mums. They don't get taunted over it which is great.

One of my DSs is very likely to be gay and my only fear is that he will be hurt when encountering bigots who dislike him for something so completely natural and an integral part of him. He has already managed to challenge the views of his grandmother who held similar views to yours until she spent some time with him.

noddyholder · 26/11/2009 13:02

hello spider hope alls well with you xx

Spidermama · 26/11/2009 13:04

Hi noddy. Good work on this thread.

Spidermama · 26/11/2009 13:08

Upahill I'm really sorry about your friend. What a terrible thing to have to explain to your children.

I think that homophobes need to understand that these sort of attacks go on in the name of homophobia. We have come a long way, but there are still plenty of frightened and ignorant people out there who are fed by your views. Sort it out and if you can't sort it out yourself go and get therapy.

seeker · 26/11/2009 13:18

"and it bewilders [children] when suddenly their teacher, a trusted adult, suddenly challenges all their perceptions.""

Please can this be quote of the week? Education is bewildering - maybe the best thing to do is avoid it all together?

Kaloki · 26/11/2009 13:28

"I think this really does come down to the same issue as skin colour. You always hear adults blithering on about how their children don't see skin colour which is obviously bollocks."

I have to disagree with this. When I was at primary school it honestly didn't occur to me that there were other kids in my class who had a different skin colour to me. It's only looking back that I've realised what a range we had in my class.

I think that honestly it is good for children to know about the different lifestyles there are out there (without knowing intimate details obviously) because it then makes it less weird for them when they are older.

StewieGriffinsMom · 26/11/2009 14:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

daftpunk · 26/11/2009 16:05

hey spidermama..

just read your post...

i'm not hiding behind my religion here...but the bible does teach us that "man shall not lie with another man"...(or sonmething like that...been a while since i read the bible)

you can't expect someone who has strong religious beliefs on homosexuality to totally disregard them in order to satisfy certain members of society..

mathanxiety · 26/11/2009 16:09

It saddened me immensely when my oldest DD first referred to African Americans (she grew up in the US) as 'black' -- she was brought up colour-blind, so to speak, and had referred to herself as light peachy coloured, and her friends as various colours of brown, peach and pink; the shades corresponded to the colour names in her Crayola set. It was actually a teacher who had used the term 'black' in the course of a lesson on the Civil Rights movement. It was a puzzling term for her. But yes, a learning experience. Whether it was an age-appropriate learning experience, I don't know.

It's all very well and everyone is happy when the message the teacher puts across is something we agree with, something PC, or something we consider positive. Or something that we think is appropriate for the age or maturity of our child.

But what if daftpunk was your child's teacher?

noddyholder · 26/11/2009 16:13

i'd home ed

whoisasking · 26/11/2009 16:13

What's your stance on shellfish DP?

daftpunk · 26/11/2009 16:20

whoisasking....

take the piss...

do you really think i give a fuck..?

whoisasking · 26/11/2009 16:23

Excuse me? You're the one quoting scripture. Leviticus isn't it? Which also warns calls eating shellfish an abomination, having sex with a woman who is menstruating an abomination, Tattoos are an abomination.

Touchy much?

badietbuddy · 26/11/2009 16:26

Well indeed. If you want to live your life by the bible, be my guest, but I thought the gist of the whole thing was to love your fellow man, and in the words of Bill and Ted, 'Be excellent to each other.' Obviously they should have added 'except those gays at number 43'