Inappropriate material

[Tron123]

Recently I was touring a secondary school and there was a display board about 6ft by 4ft with LBGT issues in bold. Has anyone visited/seen similar displays in a school, is this common?

Tron123:

I think this is part of a wider effort to educate children to be tolerant of all races/ creeds/ sexualities.

e.g. www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/11/primary-school-headteacher-attacked-fighting-homophobia or www.ellybarnes.com/primary/

In some communities (e.g. Handsworth, Birmingham) this is quite a shock to a very conservative (with a small 'c') community with a high proportion of minorities in the population (e.g. www.birmingham.gov.uk/handsworth)

February is traditionally LBGT pride month: e.g. www.norwichpride.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/RA-LGBT-handout-for-secondary-schools-Feb-2014.pdf - so these things tend to proliferate around that time of year - but this may relate to work being done is PSHE or RE right now.

I think the question is whether you're shocked by the posters and what that says about you as a person?

My DD1 (now Y7) came home from her primary saying 'that's so gay' in Year 3 - she was 8 and she had absolutely no idea what the word actually meant. She understood the use of the expression - suggeseting behaviour was a bit off, wrong, silly - but she didn't appreciate that by saying such a thing she was implying this about gay men.

The reality is there are lesbian, gays, transexuals out there - they're our colleagues, teachers, coaches, friends, etc... - and I think the days of condemning different as 'wrong' should be abandoned. It may not be how you chose to live your life or something you're particularly comfortable with - but the reality is that your genes/ hormones are directing that - it's not a conscious decision.

For my part - I'm much more worried about nice heterosexual boys downloading so much porn and 'learning' to objectify girls/ women and to treat them fairly contemptible (www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/teenage-kicks-is-internet-porn-creating-a-damaged-generation-1938238.html. I think that's a far bigger elephant in the room and I think the laddish culture in sports like football has a lot to answer for!

There are children growing up knowing that racial abuse is not acceptable (although I know that sadly doesn't stop some from using it) but don't understand that it is just as unacceptable to attack someone for their real or perceived sexuality.

It's far too common to hear 'queer', 'lezza' and 'faggot' used as insults from some young people - things seem to be getting better but that happens through education and schools making a stand.

Don't know if it's common, but imagine it would be.

Not particularly surprising, given that at that age, some kids know or suspect that they may be LBGorT.

Out of interest, I just asked my 10 yo, (who still has another year at primary before he goes to high school in 2016) if he knew what all of these terms (LBGT) means, he wasn't quite sure about Bisexual or Transgender. Now he does know, because I've just told him, and he is neither shocked nor surprised that he might see posters or displays at high school.

Don't be so fucking ridiculous.
HTH.

So you think it's inappropriate for 11/12 year olds to see even heterosexual couples kissing? Do you never kiss your partner in front of them? (If you have a partner). Why do you think that it's wrong for them to learn perfectly acceptable things that couples do together, whether they're hetero or homosexual? Do you think that those precious children should never learn that adults kiss and hug? Ffs they have sex education in primary school now, I think if a child has got to 11 without realising adults kiss that's more inappropriate than teaching them some folk are attracted to the same sex.

My daughter knows that two females can kiss and get married, same as two males. She's 4. (She asked me if her and her female friend could get married. I said yes if they wanted to. She then told me only men and women could so i corrected her. Major non event and she's not remotely scarred or whatever homophobics think will happen to children if they find out someone is homosexual)

My DD came out at about 15, but had clearly been struggling with how to do this at her (all girls') school much before that. There was no overt information or assurance around and I think that a big poster would have been v helpful and reassuring. I would think that such a poster would indicate that the school is taking the issue seriously and that would be a big plus.

In the 6th form she took the issue of lack of homophobia awareness to the senior leadership team and was asked to address a teachers' meeting about it -proud mum! She also mentored a couple of younger students who were going through the same thing

Entirely appropriate. Entirely age appropriate.

If you are a young teen struggling with your sexuality that poster is vital. Seeing yourself mirrored back to you, validation of yourself, is so important. I would be more concerned if there wasn't any info displayed.

Pastsellbydate posts "I think this is part of a wider effort to educate children to be tolerant of all races/ creeds/ sexualities. In some communities (e.g. Handsworth, Birmingham) this is quite a shock to a very conservative (with a small 'c') community with a high proportion of minorities in the population."

Tolerance suggests that people allow the existence of something they may not approve of or agree with - It infers putting up with something.

I prefer to teach my children to be open, accepting, kind and supportive of their friends and peers, whichever wrapper they come in - no tolerance required.

Oh and as a "minority", I am heartily sick of the lazy assumptions and stereotypes concerning minority communities and homophobia.

In what way was it inappropriate? Do you believe 11 and 12 year olds shouldn't know about homosexuality?

Sounds excellent to me.
What is your problem Tron?

Thank you to those who have politely explained their views and experiences, my post asked whether display boards were unusual in schools and those comments have been helpful.

You might want to think about how "common" and "inappropriate" link in your head, as your thread title was far more judgemental!

Trinity your 2nd post talked about the high prominence of the board and its appropriateness around 11-12 year olds

You clearly think its inappropriate

Display boards are not unusual in schools. My DS's does not have one single one completely given over to LBTG issues, but there are posters eg those produced by Stonewall dotted around on a number of them.

Yes, material designed for 16-18 year olds may be unsuitable for 11-12 year olds but that does not mean all LBTG material is unsuitable for display. I'd say quite the opposite; it's not difficult to find suitable display material for 11+ age group and the messages on it are still suitable for older age groups.

the fiancee of a good friend of mine was, when still a man, a pupil at a well known public school

a local girls school had to report that by the time the A level results came out that they had a boy on roll due to a sex change

kids come out at 14/15 without guilt

GOOD
it means they concentrate on their exams, not their sexuality
so its good for the long term economy

countries that ban
gays
left handers
women
from reaching their potential will suffer economically

There is one in my son's secondary school. I assumed they were common place.

There wasn't one when I was growing up in the nice catholic school I attended and I am from a catholic family. It may have helped my sister come out earlier than she did.