Homosexuality in the Classroom.

[Darcey1]

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?

apologies whoisasking....didn't mean to reply to you in that way...

just really pissed off atm...

sorry....

People are very selective in their adherence to the Bible - condemning homosexuality while eating a prawn mayonnaise sandwich, for example. Or eating a burger and a milkshake for lunch. Or leaving the house while menstruating.

Mathanxiety, education is not, though, about delivering on-message ways to think, about anything! The whole ppint of education, surely, is larning to grow up an appreciate a range of opinions and experiences.

My own personal current 'deal with things in an age appropriate way' is around sex, abortion and rape. DS, 9, has not asked the obvious q's about how conception happens, so i deliberately found a time to sit down and tell him how the sperm gets to the egg. Because I wanted him to hear an accurate version fom me, and also for him to get the idea that it is a perfectly Ok thing to chat about with your Mum. The Evening Standard 'read all about it' boards in the street every day OFTEN have the word 'rape', the word 'abortion' crops up in public print - I am unwilling fo DS to deal with these things before he has even begun to comprehend what happy loving sex with happy consequences might be.

But I suppose most people just feel that the idea of a loving relationship (no mention of sex, no teacher would refer to their sexual activity, surely!) between people of the same sex is no more difficult or shocking than any other kind of loving relationship.

Children deal with new and unfamiliar concepts several times a day - that's the point of being a child - and i have NEVER come across a child who has been shocked or disturbed by discovering that another child has 2 mummies (we had a a 2 mummy family in our post-natal group - has never been an issue for children who have met them at a later age at b'day parties, fro e.g)

DP, why is it that you feel that sam sex relationships are harder for children to deal with than anything else unfamiliar, and need special prep? Two people love each other seems so much less likely to shock than, say, this sausage comes from a dead animal! Or that cemetry is full of dead people, or babies come out of mummies.

I am genuinely trying to understand what it is that, for you, makes same sex relationships 'charged' with this extra factor...but you haven't explained it.If it WAS Leviticus, then i could understand. I wouldn't agree, of course, but it would be a position that you have adopted and can explain. But you haven't.

daftpunk - if you must peddle your ignorant and repugnant views then you must expect to get challenged on them. I've seen you play the victim in circumstances like this too often to be moved by your "poor me" stance.

There are plenty of gay christians.

seeker....we're not talking about freedom for prawns....this is about homosexuality.....most religions are against it...for obvious reasons..

the world would come to an end if we all became homosexuals..

maybe you should try showing some respect for my religious beliefs....

Dp your posts are full of contradiction and back pedalling For obvious reasons?What are they?

DP maybe you should show some respect full stop

Daftpunk, do you mean that if we all 'go gay' the actual world will come to an end? Or that the human race will die out? Big difference, IMO.

Oh, and your statement implies that homosexuality is a choice, as opposed to a sexual orientation. Complete rubbish, of course.

Flippin 'eck this thread still going then!!!!

DP - what I am saying is that the Bible teaches that it is wrong to eat prawns, to eat beef and milk at the same meal and for a menstruating woman to touch anyone. I am assuming that you adhere to these rules - or do you, like so many religious people, pick the rules that mirror your prejudices and forget the rest?

DP, I have no idea, really, WHY 'most religions are agianstit' (if indeed they are), but there is no chance that we will all 'go gay' and certainly not by listening to a teacher talk about her civil partnership!

Even if a whole worldwide generation of babies were born to be gay (some sci-fi event, or something in the water, perhaps), the human race still wouldn't die out....people come to various arrangements to have babies, you know!

Oooh oooh, if we're talking Leviticus don't forget the rule about wearing only one type of fabric at any time - no "mixed fibres".

I assume everyone citing Leviticus and the Bible to excuse explain their homophobia adheres to this?

DP the world will not die out if everyone turns gay'....for a start, heterosexuality and bisexuality for that matter are widespread in our corrupt and licentious world and thank god for that of course. I have at least 6 gay friends with babies and know another gay couple trying for one.

Thanks for asking Butterfly and you to Spidermama. Things are difficult. Hopefully things will turn out Ok but it's early days yet and he is still in hospital. Me and kids and DH going out shortly to visit.

It's nice of you to ask.

What is the fear?? Why do you fear this 'corruption'?

Fear that one our children will grow up having sex in a slightly different way to how you are used to?

Being in a caring loving relationship with somebody?

Because that is all it boils down to. A gay/lesbian relationship isn't only about the sex, it's about 2 people, with similar outlooks, falling in love. Whats the big deal with that??

Blu, naturally you have every right to anticipate questions your DCs may have about issues they run into, before they receive misinformation from friends or get an undesirable impression from the media they encounter. And you have the right to share your views and your values on matters of human sexuality, sexual activity and sexual orientation with them. I have done the same with my own children.

I think my pov is that unless I have given permission, a teacher may not share his or her views on these subjects with my child. While I do not share the OP's negative views of homosexuality or believe that it is contagious, I sympathise with anyone who would prefer to get their own views across first to their own child, or at a point when they think that child is able to grasp that information and philosophy, not when a teacher decides she will make an announcement to her class about a private matter.

The teacher basically came out to the class of 9 year olds and proceeded to give her views on what was normal or natural as far as human relationships are concerned. A teacher who announces she will be getting married to a man is also making an announcement about her sexual orientation, and depending on her judgement, a class may be told that women marrying men is normal and natural. There are parents who may hold different views from either of these teachers or both -- some people don't believe in institutions such as marriage.

Parents have a right to be wrong, or to swim against the tide, or to question the zeitgeist. Teachers should not assume that they can or should impart their values in the area of human sexuality without the parents' permission. I believe it is the parents right and privilege and responsibility to do this with their own children.

'her views on what was normal'?? You are a homophobe whether you admit it or not. In no way is announcing a marriage 'expressing your views on what's normal'. It is sharing your happiness with your class. Not pushing some kind of gay agenda. Jeez, some people

And while I think about it, those of you pushing the religious or 'sanctity of marriage' arguements, how would you feel about an unmarried teacher announcing their pregnancy? Would you be as up in arms about that? Presumably not, because being straight makes all the difference doesn't it