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?

that's a different issue upahill...this is a teacher talking about her personal life with 9 yr olds..

But mathanxiety - why is there the focus on the sexual side of things. When I refer to my husband, I am not making an 'announcement about my sexuality'. I just refer to him as my partner. You can refer to a same sex partner in the same way. People only seem to bring the actual sex into things when getting worked up over same sex relationships.

And if it were a female teacher talking about the man she was marrying you would not get your knickers in a twist daftpunk. So don't make out that this is about 'personal life' per se. It's about prejudice against same sex relationships and little else.

Yeah DaftPunk I know it's a different issue. Like I said I'm feeling a bit sensitive and I'm just whiling my time away on mumsnet for a bit.
Just upset at the thought that OP is shocked and outraged that she will pass them feelings on and things don't change.
Never mind me ---Sorry

Newsflash: Babies are the result of (whispers).... SEX! Babies Are an announcement about sexuality.

So that's it teachers -- You have been told. You must Never Ever admit to

• Being married
• Having children
• Having descendents of any sort
• Thinking about getting married or having a boyfriend/girlfriend/partner/inflatable sheep in your life.

It's simply not allowed to reveal any of it, because that would be after all, an unauthorised "announcement" about your (dirty filthy rude intolerable) sexuality.

Now please zip up your automoton suits & get on with your gender neutral public role.

I would definitely not advocate pandering to prejudice, but I think this particular teacher had an agenda. I also think she should have called a halt to any questioning after her announcement, because she didn't have the parents' permission to discuss sexuality with their children, hers or anyone else's, and she should have given some thought to whether what she said was age appropriate for the children. 9 is borderline for this sort of information, imo.

The best way to avoid stepping on any of the mines that there are out there is to keep your personal life strictly to yourself if you're a teacher.

upahill....any physical attack is terrible...but it happens everyday to all sorts of people, gay men/straight men..women/children blacks/whites....you name it...

i hope your friend is ok...

But why should she have to behave differently to a heterosixual teacher in the same position? That is the very definition fo prejudice surely?

Age 9 is not borderline for knowing that people enter into legal partnerships. I doubt very much whether the sexual sie of things was brought up at all - that is your inference, as is the notion that she had an "agenda". There is no evidence for that at all that I can see here.

You only have a leg to stand on in this argument if you would react in the same way to a female teacher telling her class that she was marrying a man.

thefallenmadonna...

i don't want anyone pushing homosexuality on to my 9 yr old thank you

i have a 9 yr old, i will talk to him about it when i feel he is ready.

That in no way answers my point.

"pushing homosexuality" - what does that even mean?

what is your point..?

apart from trying too hard to look liberal

Some of you seem to think that our children have grown up prejudices. You seem to think that kids automatically think about a sexual act that repulses you when they hear about homosexuality. They dont. They think about love and companionship, as they dont have any sexual experiences to have this sort of prejudice. And if they DO, then it is sad for totally different recent.

You dont make a child homosexual by telling him/her that some people love people of the same sex.

It is also naive to think that a 9 year old is clueless regards to homosexuality. My 7 year old talks about his 9 year old friend who admits to being in love with other boys, rather than the girls in class.

Time for a DP?

My point is that you said it was inapprpriate for a teacher to be talking about her personal life. Whereas in fact I suspect it is not personal lives in general you have an issue with.

i don't think anyone is trying to look liberal, some of us actually don't have issues with homosexuality or sexuality for that matter. if my dd had come home with this info. i would thought how sweet and carried on. my dd is 5

Why should the children know anything about your life, if you're a teacher? They are not your audience. They are not your children. They have parents whose right and obligation it is to teach them right from wrong, according to their beliefs, whether those beliefs are popular or not, or widely held, or clumsily expressed. You as a teacher are there to teach them a certain curriculum.

Your right to freely express your views on human sexuality or politics or religion or race stop at the classroom door, imo. Not because any of your views are necessarily wrong or because there's something dirty about any particular subject, but because you have a public role and you should be neutral in carrying it out, unless parents have made the choice to send their children to a religious school, in which case you are required as a teacher to impart the faith of that particular religious group.

Babies are not necessarily an announcement about sexuality or even sex. Lesbians are perfectly well able to have babies. Gays can be fathers.

ffs they are teachers not prison wardens. of course they can talk about their life. weirdo

Well a teacher at DS's school got married last term, and DS had to sign a card to her. I shall retrospectively complain to the headmaster that I don't want him indoctrinated into heterosexuality, or to be given any details of this women's personal or love life without my written permission. [enraged]

How vile that the idea that gay men and women should be 'seen and not heard' is being passed on to children.

A good few of these children will turn out to be (shock, horror) gay themselves. How wonderful for them to be growing up in a climate so unlike that of even 20 years ago where homosexuality was still considered 'unspeakable'.

Luckily for the rest of us those who want it seen and not heard have been pushed to the margins in legislative terms, but they're still alive and well at the school ates it seems.

So when I show my class the X rays of my husband's dislocated shoulder, mentioning him in passing, I'm "expressing my views on sexuality". Or indeed when my classes saw my ring and asked me whether I was getting married, that was something I should have completely avoided addressing? See, I don't think you really think that. But if you do, fair enough.

Oh my Mathaanxiety. Clearly never worked in a school. Keeping your personal life to yourself!? Virtually impossible- kids see you out and about out of school- "miss I saw you with such and such", Miss gets pregnant (we know she had sex but we can't ask about that so we will talk to her about the baby). Part and parcel of being a teacher is having a relationship with young people. I like to know how their weekend was, and if they ask after mine am happy to tell them. Obviously I only share information that is appropriate but I am not going to pretend I don't have an existence outside of the classroom. Sometimes my partner does get mentioned and for teachers in heterosexual relationships it is a lot easier than for those in same gender relationships and it shouldn't be. Why should you have to hide who you are at school. Please remember we are talking about Sexual orientation (ie. an integral part of your identity) not your sexuality (your private life). The former in an ideal world would be open at school and the latter should never be open at school because that is not appropriate.

I do like how out of the 100 or so posts to this thread its only a couple of posters who are a bit ignorant. Bless mumsnet and our liberal inclusive unbigoted values.

and now I will stop feeding the troll.
P.S I am a teacher in charge of a tackling homophobia project across several boroughs so I do have a bloody good understanding of the issue.

or should I say 'not seen and not heard', lol

mathanxiety's point about 'neutrality' is very illustrative. 'Neutral' is seen as heterosexual and an announcement about a heteronormative even such as an engagement to marry a man would elicit no comment whatever.