My 5yo's teacher is insufferably woke

[Ladyday1995]

Apologies if this is not in the right category.

My DS started year 1 in September. His new teacher has been somewhat of a thorn in my side for a few weeks. Nothing serious though and I've never had much need to speak much to her.
DS came home last week waxing lyrically about COP26, how we are wrecking the planet and destroying animals habitats. He quite rightly doesn't understand what he can do about it, we live a fairly "green" lifestyle etc. We talked about it at length so I could make sure he understood.
Anyway, I'm not all too happy that this is what he's being taught in his valuable schooling hours. I've had a little peep on teachers Twitter and she jumps on many trendy societal issues of today, even supporting insulate Britain FFS.
I realise this is a slippery slope. I'm in Wales and I know the gov has recently slipped past a controversial new "diversity and equality" plan for the curriculum. I can't say I agree with much of what I've read being taught to children, particularly regarding sex education, and gender identity.
It's a bit of a minefield. The climate change lessons aren't ideal, but I digress. My worry starts when the PSE lessons start. Ideally I'd not have my son attend these lessons at all. I am more than capable of explaining these matters to him myself when I think he is mature enough to understand. Is it unreasonable to ask for a more detailed report of what they will be studying? I don't want to look like some Pearl clutching bigot. I am concerned about how much of his teacher's political stances could seep into her teaching practice. Does anyone else have any experience or ideas of what little uns are being taught in school these days?

@ThreeImaginaryBoys

And I do wish some teachers would realise that education doesn’t = pushing my views on small children and acting as though parents are ignorant when they call me out on it.

Don’t act as though your a theoretical physicist and no normal parents can understand what you do so they shouldn’t get a say in their child’s education. Your there to teach children reading and writing and how to get along, you can be a woke activist philosopher on your own time.

@Franca123

I worry that talking about climate change to children in the wrong way will cause them anxiety. I'm also concerned. I plan on most likely removing my children from sex education until they're older teenagers and can think for themselves. I don't want them indoctrinated in gender crap.

Do you also worry that the sciences, history, geography, health can cause anxiety?

Puberty starts long before you’re an “older teenager”, are you happy for your children to know nothing of their bodies? Or to learn about things from unreliable sources?

By “gender crap” do you mean you encourage ignorance of others identity? Or perhaps the more enlightened boys and girls can both play with barbie a or action men and grow up to be whatever want to be - ballerinas, firefighters, doctors, sthp, lawyers, caters etc?

This is an ugly post. 'Woke issues'? Check your bigotry, seriously.

"Teaching sexual consent to 6 year olds who don’t even know what sex is or understand it is wrong and perverted."
This has to be the most moronic thing I've read in quite some time. When I was little I learned that nobody was allowed to touch my body but me. How is this different?

@Franca123

I worry that talking about climate change to children in the wrong way will cause them anxiety. I'm also concerned. I plan on most likely removing my children from sex education until they're older teenagers and can think for themselves. I don't want them indoctrinated in gender crap.

My children's teachers are professionals following a curriculum. I am an experienced teacher following a curriculum. I know my class and tread carefully when teaching things that may cause anxiety.

Your there to teach children reading and writing and how to get along, you can be a woke activist philosopher on your own time.

You're.

I'm still processing that you think it's wrong to teach consent (by which you must mean the PANTS rule) to five year olds even though it's a vital safeguarding tool.

What do you mean by ‘race theory’?

@brightwave

What do you mean by ‘race theory’?

Imma venture a guess that she means the very novel idea that there is systemic racism in our societies still

If it walks like a bigot and it quacks like a bigot...

It's incumbent on the poster to say what they mean by "race theory".

[quote Iamnotthe1]@ThirdElephant

I'm familiar with the standards, thanks. There is nothing on there that states social media should be kept private or apolitical. Expressing support for a political viewpoint on a social media platform is not the same as exploiting a vulnerable pupil nor encouraging a student to break the law. It takes a special kind of mental gymnastics to conflate the two.[/quote]
You don't have to encourage anything. Just expressing views that may encourage children to break the law is enough. I'd say publicly expressing support for Insulate Britain and their tactics comes under that umbrella.

@echt

It's incumbent on the poster to say what they mean by "race theory".

She's been asked that at least 3 times and still won't answer

[quote Megalameg]@ThreeImaginaryBoys

And I do wish some teachers would realise that education doesn’t = pushing my views on small children and acting as though parents are ignorant when they call me out on it.

Don’t act as though your a theoretical physicist and no normal parents can understand what you do so they shouldn’t get a say in their child’s education. Your there to teach children reading and writing and how to get along, you can be a woke activist philosopher on your own time.[/quote]
How do you know I'm not a theoretical physicist? Do you think all teachers have a low level of education themselves? You would be wrong.

You are very rude, and apparently rather uneducated. Don't wish your own stupidity and bigotry on future generations.

It's incumbent on the poster to say what they mean by "race theory"

She's been asked that at least 3 times and still won't answer

I know, but I'll be deleted for saying the poster is as thick as a thick thing.

Why does a child need to be taught only about stuff they can do something about? It’s not as if they can do a whole lot about history, geography or science but those are all entirely valid subjects

Those subjects are not generally making kids think if they don’t imminently learn gene editing by the end of term they will be responsible for the next pandemic. Or if they can’t point out an oxbow lake or an archipelago on a map, the planet will be a post apocalyptic nightmare before their 8th birthday. These subjects don’t generally make them feel they have to solve mankind’s greatest problems personally. At 5 some children take things very literally indeed.

[quote Megalameg]@TrampolineForMrKite

So you are an example of a teacher proudly pushing their own “passionate” political views on students even if they’re 6 - in fact you see it as important that you do this.
Yet according to all these other commentators this never happens.
But here it is, straight from the horses mouth.[/quote]
@Megalameg you seem very angry, but I haven’t actually gone into any detail with what I believe so.... I’m not sure why.

I’ve spent my whole career in inner city London where many of the cohort don’t even understand the political system in this country. It comes up, a lot, in the subject I teach (English) and you can’t teach say, Dickens, without reference to politics both in Victorian times and now. And I might start a conversation on this with a class by saying that I believe in similar social justice to that which Dickens advocated for.... and what do they think? How does that link with what’s going on in politics in this country now? And yes, of course, I do give my own opinions on these matters, but would say that it’s just one set of opinions and I would try and give an example of the opposing view and why they might believe in that too. Another example would be when teaching a book with key stage three where the context is the Miner’s Strike. I might play some Billy Bragg and we would discuss what the miners were fighting for and what the government believed. At that point I would say that I personally believe that the miners were right, talk about my own father being involved, explain why I believe what I believe but explain too what the government believed and were trying to achieve with their tactics. I’m not at any point suggesting that they join The National Front or calling Margaret Thatcher a wanker.

Teachers aren’t robots, even if Ofsted would like them to be. Their own beliefs and ideologies will inform their teaching and how they teach. That’s totally natural and fine and actually what makes a good teacher. Sounds like the OPs son’s teacher is trying to keep the kids informed about the world around them and I’m sure that she, like me, explains the opposing side. Teachers aren’t stupid, we have training on this stuff and there are checks and balances. The likelihood of someone pushing ISIS at a class and it going undetected is minuscule.

I stand by talking to students about what I believe. There’s a difference between talking and pushing opinions.

Those who are worried about kids being taught about climate change - do you think they're hearing about it for the first time at school? Do you not have radio on in the house / car with news bulletins? Newspapers? TV News? DS is 9 and we've rarely shielded him from whats going on in the world, it's important that he doesn't grow up in a bubble. We talk around things that come up in an age appropriate way and so do his teachers. I welcome those side of schooling, no food can come from children only being exposed to the views of their immediate family.

No good,not food obviously!

@ThreeImaginaryBoys

I do wish some parents would recognise that they are no more qualified in education than they are in, say, car mechanics. Or that their views might be wildly ill-informed

Louder for the people at the back. We are trained and continue to be trained whilst doing the job. It’s not- to paraphrase Father Ted- like you collect 12 crisp packets at the age of 22 and rock up ready to push your agenda on young minds. Teachers are heavily scrutinised and monitored. And normally pretty bright.

I don't know how teachers cope with these ridiculous and uninformed parents who consider the teacher to be a 'thorn in their side'.

Learning about what is going on in the world is exactly what our children need, they won’t be giving them all the gory details but kids need to know about global warming, teaching them young may help them understand what they can do as they grow up. As for other lessons, my partner was sent out for these at the request of his mum, it mortifies him to this day and I can safely say being in those classes would’ve been nothing but beneficial for him. Kids appreciate knowing what’s going on, yes maybe the details don’t need to be shoved in their faces, but the general idea is very important.

I also hate this general feeling that if a child’s teacher has different views or expresses themselves differently you get to judge them, you might consider the teacher woke but that has absolutely nothing to do with how she teaches. Teachers are humans with opinions and have a right to air these on Twitter if they wish to.

@ThreeImaginaryBoys

So are you? No. But it is you who are rude and ignorant for thinking you should be able to press your beliefs onto other peoples children and the place to do that is when your teaching school.
Nice attitude toward kids and their parents for a teacher you’ve got.

@ThirdElephant
Just expressing views thatmayencourage children to break the law is enough.

Might be worth re-reading the document you linked to. It's about the expressing of views in a way which may lead to them taking illegal actions, not about the expressing of views themselves.

A teacher posting their personal opinions or beliefs on social media is not breaking the teacher standards unless those beliefs are, in and of themselves, illegal.

@TrampolineForMrKite

You are missing the point, it doesn’t matter what your political beliefs are or whether they align with mine - you should not be pushing them on school kids. That’s not what your payed for or what parents send their kids to school for.

Frankly it seems very egotistical, like you see the class room as your own soapbox with an audience that has no choice but to be there and listen to your irrelevant to their schooling beliefs. And since you’ve agreed with a post that basically confirms you think teachers are just so clever (it’s a basic degree ffs) that parents can’t comprehend the genius it takes to teach, I can’t help but think that’s exactly how you see it.

Once again, parents don’t care about your beliefs or send their children to school so you can live out your fantasy of being an activist or politician and let everyone know about your politics. And I’m sure kids don’t care either. You are payed to educate children in the given subject, not treat the classroom like your own private Facebook page.

You are missing the point, it doesn’t matter what your political beliefs are or whether they align with mine - you should not be pushing them on school kids. That’s not what your payed for or what parents send their kids to school for
Well said, and I'm a teacher.

I'm not opposed to teachers sharing their opinions on certain topics if students ask and the teacher is confident enough to make a professional judgement regarding the topic, age of children, the relationship they have established with the students/class, what learning or wider debate would be achieved by sharing. I would question any teacher who feels the need to liberally insert their opinions into the classroom on a regular basis.

What bothers me is that there's a minority of teachers who are so convinced their personal views on any and every topic are right that they don't see why anyone wouldn't agree with them. They say things like "but I say my views are just one view", but it's obviously that they hold other views with contempt and think they're the good guys. They have a huge blind spot.

[quote Megalameg]@ThreeImaginaryBoys

So are you? No. But it is you who are rude and ignorant for thinking you should be able to press your beliefs onto other peoples children and the place to do that is when your teaching school.
Nice attitude toward kids and their parents for a teacher you’ve got.[/quote]
I don't press my beliefs on anyone (and I don't believe any teacher on here has said that they do either). I provide children with the tools to learn, support a broad and inclusive curriculum, and encourage them to form their own opinions.

I have an overwhelmingly positive view of my pupils and their parents. I do, however, raise an eyebrow at those who believe they know more about my job and what I'm teaching than I do. I include you in that.

What do you do for a living?
Would you like me to come and critique that for you based on a starting point of zero knowledge? I doubt it.

Don't think you will rile me. You won't. I deal with boisterous children every day and am remarkably patient.