If a child asks in KS3 science class "is it possible to change sex?"...

[musicalfrog]

What answer would they be given by the teacher?

You could simply say "I'd rather not answer that question because I want to keep my job "

He’s not. End of. If you met him you wouldn’t know he used to be a girl. The bigotry on here is wild.

Where’s the bigotry?

‘He’ is still a female. It doesn’t matter if when meeting that person they don’t look female, they are still female.

A bigot is someone with unreasonable opinions that won’t change those opinions even when they are proved wrong.

It is not those of us that know the sex we are born as can never be changed that are the bigots.

He’s not. End of. If you met him you wouldn’t know he used to be a girl. The bigotry on here is wild.

Yes she is. End of. She'll always be a woman. People will know, they're just being polite by not saying anything. Or maybe they also have been brainwashed by gender ideology.

A woman cannot ever be a fully functioning man! What nonsense

The answer to the original question needs to be honest and truthful- kids deserve that. No need to talk about surgery in a science lesson!!

Functioning? No. You’re wrong. Please educate yourself.

I'm a biology teacher and have had this question before

In the genetics topic we actually talk about certain genetic diseases on the GCSE spec (i share my cousin's story of living with CF) and part of that is talking about how we cant change the genetic code in all of our cells, this is why CF treatment is so fraught with obstacles.
So pupils are already aware of how the DNA in every cell can't be changed in a whole organism, even with gene therapy (which is also on the spec)

Then it becomes a distinction between sex and gender, and every school in the UK is bound by the equality act 2010 which gives both sex and gender reassignment as protected characteristics. So the answer then (legally) is that people cant change their chromosomes but people can change their gender.

Its also a good way to show the very rare cases where chromosomes don't always perfectly align with sex (like Klinefelters, Androgen insensitivity, Turners, etc) Pupils tend to enjoy knowing when the GCSE curriculum is "lying" to them, lol. It happens a lot in chemistry but there are also bits of bio where they like to know that they aren't learning the whole story - they always ask about green eyes for example, when the GCSE only ever talks about blue and brown!

Ive never found this to be confusing for pupils, its a pretty clear distinction.

I would put the house on if that you wouldn’t know. I don’t understand how people can be so intolerant it’s disgusting

It's irrelevant whether you can tell or not, she's still a female! If I had a really good facelift that made me look ten years younger, it wouldn't change my actual age!

And it's not 'intolerance', I'm perfectly happy for her to live her life pretending to be a man if she wants to, but I'm not going to join in the pretence.

Some people physically make changes through surgery and hormones. It's possible to feel you are a different gender to the one you are born.

Amongst other things I have regularly taught a BTEC unit on 'Anatomy and physiology' in that class I can't not teach biological fact.

Tolerance I would be teaching in, 'Equality and Diversity' and looking at the Equality Act.

And no we should not respect everyone in society. I do not respect Isla Bryson or Karen White. I do not respect quite a lot of people.

Oh and in E and D I also teach about when it is perfectly legal to discriminate and the reasons for it eg you cannot get a pilot's licence if you are deaf, or a driving licence if you are blind. Or when a trans woman can be excluded from a women's service.

E and D is great for discussions of what should happen and what does happen. Most of the students will be going in to working in health care so a dose of reality doesn't do any harm.

92% of transwomen don't get the operation. Almost none of them do. 92% of transwomen retain their penis and testicles. They don't transition. You really don't know much at all about this, do you. Only the lies and rubbish you've been brainwashed with. Almost none have the operation. And actually transitioning is not possible anyway, regardless.

To pretend to be the opposite sex is not the answer to something missing in your life. Most girls want to be a boy because of misogyny and self-loathing. 2 thirds (via Autism Spectrum Society's statistics) of trans people are autistic (hence easily preyed on). Most girls who want to transition to a boy have been shown via statistics to be trying to escape childhood sexual abuse or trauma. You have a flowery naive view of this that is uneducated and not based in reality.

Earlier you actually stated that people can and have changed sex. Until you were corrected. That is how limited your scope of understanding actually was. You genuinely believed people could change sex. You said it yourself. It's quite clear you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about here, and don't even know the fundamental basics. You've been mislead and misinformed by science-deniers and flat earthers who think a male can turn into a female. It is biologically and anatomically impossible. 'Gender' 'identity' is simply a misogynistic, man-made social construct that doesn't truly exist. It's not tangible or actual. Unlike sex.

Evidence shows most onset of trans for girls is around the age they get their period. They want to stop their periods, and hate their changing body. Instead of being taught body positivity and coping mechanisms for periods, we allow them to feel ashamed of their changing bodies with breasts and periods.
Evidence shows most onset of trans for boys is around middle age, so a mid-life crisis spurred on by the idea of wearing womens clothes.

The fact that girls are running away from something,
while boys (men) are running TO something, is clearly not recognised enough by people.

Its also a good way to show the very rare cases where chromosomes don't always perfectly align with sex (like Klinefelters, Androgen insensitivity, Turners, etc)

As Biologists have said repeatedly, DSDs (Intersex) reinforces the sex binary. Klinefelter Syndrome is only associated with males. Which proves, it perfectly aligns with sex. Same with Turner Syndrome, which only affects females. Showing perfect alignment with sex.

sorry, i didn't make myself clear

I meant when sex chromosomes don't perfectly align with expected sex based characteristics (e.g. infertility due to undeveloped ovaries in turners, or breast growth in klinefelters, etc)

We are not talking about the animal kingdom. We are talking about mammals. Humans. Humans cannot change sex. Bringing in things like clownfish is a disingenuous and done to manipulate discussion and obfuscate facts. It's always an egg timer test to when someone will drag in animals and clownfish.

It's cruel to tell an anorexic teenage girl almost near death that she isn't fat, and does not need that gastric lap band she wants her parents to demand?

It's cruel to tell the male with schizophrenia that he is not the second coming of Jesus, and we don't need to obey him?

No, what IS cruel, is 'being kind' and letting the person believe dangerous misinformation about themselves. LYING to a person about themselves, is the ultimate in cruelty.

I don’t think the news would report a ‘sex change’ the term is gender reassignment surgery

this seems a bit disingenuous when the original question was posited in the context of a biology lesson.
I think its ok in this context to explain that there are occasions in the animal kingdom where this happens, but not in humans?
Like the poster says, biology isnt just human biology - i think its fair enough to widen it. I did a lot of plant biology in my degree and get really frustrated that plants are hardly the curriculum so i'm always looking to widen the scope of questions in the classroom

This thread is talking about human biology. The opening post says only that it was discussed in a KS3 science class. Biology covers all living organisms. I was not suggesting the OP try to claim that because some animals and plants can change sex that humans can. But the answer to the question "is it possible to change sex?" is "yes for some species but in most cases no".

No that’s impossible dear child.

Sex is biology, gender is a social construct which can and should be challenged at times. Sex & gender overlap when the social construct divides the two sexes & makes conditions different/unequal between the two e.g education, legal rights etc.

unfortunately the male sex is a visual (& sometimes superficial) one. So all they see is female = hair, nail varnish, lippy & dresses. You rarely see a transwoman in jeans & t shirt with no make up. what a visual change does not alter is the way of thinking, nuances in behaviour including speech, attitude etc. all this usually remains male.

another example- gay men are often described as having effeminate behaviour (an emasculated male) do you see a women often behaving like this? Why is it seen as emasculated behaviour?

i can get on board with the first paragraph

But this: "unfortunately the male sex is a visual (& sometimes superficial) one"

no idea how this relates to the OP, or to reality