What to do as a teacher

[FreakyFridaay]

My school has recently introduced the Stonewall material as gospel. We previously had a lot of homophobia which I, personally, challenged. Any instances of teenagers saying something along the lines of ‘that’s gay’ was very harshly dealt with. I’d like to know how others in these types of careers have dealt with it. I still have small children so can’t lose my job by raising my head above the parapet. I had a ticket for WPUK the other night in Newcastle but was too scared to go after my school released the document. I’m at a loss as to what to do.

Ed Psych here, following with interest, am in very similar situation!

I think the best thing to do is to play dumb with it.

E.g. If someone says that Tom is now a girl because he wants to wear a dress, respond with "what do dresses have to do with being female"? If you get called a terf, reply wit "what's a terf? I haven't heard that before"

Playing dumb forces people to have to explain something simply, which as we all know isn't possible in the Topsy-turvy world of gender.

Harder as a teacher. Yes you could play dumb and also try to allow some room for students to question some of the underlying assumptions of this doctrine. Depending on their age it might not take them long to discover the lack of logic themselves. Try not to get yourself in a position of feeling that you are lying to them - perhaps take a 'some people believe' approach?

Ed psych as a professional independent of the school who should be taking an evidence based approach you may be in a stronger position.

I had a ticket for WPUK the other night in Newcastle but was too scared to go after my school released the document.

That is appalling. Not you personally - I understand your fear - but that you find yourself in such a climate of thought control that you are scared to attend a meeting to listen to women raising concerns, lest it impact your ability to provide for your family. It is absolutely chilling, it sounds like something out of an historical novel. I’m so sorry that you’re put in this position.

As I’m not a teacher, it’s not something I deal with myself, but I’m confident there will be others on here with personal experience. I’d suggest sticking to objective facts when discussing generalities in the school environment, and avoiding the subject where possible. Please don’t stop challenging homophobic and sexist language amongst teens though - “that’s gay” and “like a girl” have not gone away. With specific pupils - you may need to champion the rights and needs of your female pupils.

Transgender Trend is an information/resource website that you might find useful - and they have a schools resource pack on supporting all pupils including gender non conforming and those identifying as transgender, promoting acceptance without denying biological sex, maintaining safeguarding etc. If you found WPUK I’m sure you’ve also found Fair Play for Women their site also has tonnes of info. If you have this to back yourself up if challenged, you might feel a little more secure in your position?

The thing is, even if certain people in the school have accepted it hook line and sinker, my experience in real life when you drop in a few easily understood facts about the whole trans ideology such as the vast majority of TW keeping their penises but expecting access to female spaces or the effect on girls competitive sports, is that the house of cards comes tumbling down.

Transgender Trend are fundraising to print copies of their leaflets. You could perhaps take those to the head and ask that they are considered.

Opening up a conversation where you pitch yourself as questioning rather than objecting may be an avenue.

I understand peoples concerns for their jobs, you have to watch your back. You also have to be able to look back at your career and know that you didn't contribute to enforcing sexist stereotypes. The movement mostly affects gay kids, they need protecting so they can grow up to be happy gay kids, not a version of the opposite sex.

Yes, play dumb and try to keep to anodyne statements that no one can disagree with - "I think both girls and boys should be able to wear whatever they like", etc. Good luck!

do you actually have trans kids in the school? when it's all a bit theoretical it's probably easier to ignore, but if you're watching girls lose access to safe toilets, get ousted from sports they love etc, I can imagine that might be more difficult.

This is actually terrifying. That people are being made to feel scared to speak up at such a high level of professional practice.

As to the original question, I agree with seahorses, always assume that in each class there are some future gay and lesbian pupils, and avoid saying things that would erase that possibility.
Also if you make a clear distinction between statements made about sex and statements made about gender, then you should be able to fully justify any comment made on that basis (in my dreams).

This recent article may be of interest as a range of positions/views are referred to. (the comments underneath are worth reading too):

www.theguardian.com/education/2018/may/15/transgender-row-teachers-afraid-challenge-breast-binding#comment-115844701

There's a long interview here with Stephanie Davies-Arai (Transgender Trend), also featured in The Guardian article above.

This is actually terrifying. That people are being made to feel scared to speak up at such a high level of professional practice.

The dangers of closed-down group-think among the caring professions were highlighted by the way the Rochdale grooming scandal was ignored for so long, despite various people trying to draw attention to it. You'd think we'd have learned something.

That is terrible EdPsych. Few of your colleagues believe the Stonewall training. Do you think the Principal Ed Psych actually does too or do they just feel they have to push it?

I guess all you can do is focus on your own practice and remain respectful to all and as evidence based as possible. Depending on the discipline and the institution, it is still possible to do this in academia.

I do actually think the gender critical.approach will not seem so controversial in a couple of years. The push for self-id is exposing all of the holes in the TG philosophy. Keep changing the forms 😁

We previously had a lot of homophobia which I, personally, challenged

Challenge sexism and gender stereotyping too. Make it clear in everything you do that there aren't girl things and boy things. If you get the chance (are you primary or secondary) teach about reproduction in mammals. If you need to teach trans issues would you get away with treating like a religion ? "Some people believe..."

Don't directly challenge transgender ideology, instead try and give the children the tools and knowledge to question it yourself.