What do educators make of what is happening in our schools?

[imwideawake]

I wonder what Head Teachers, teachers (and anyone else involved in the nurturing and educating of our young people) are really thinking about the worrying way in which activists have turned their attention to children and have successfully infiltrated the school system, to the point they seem to be having having a very real and disturbing influence on young impressionable minds and their bodies.

What do they make of this mass bombardment of our children - encouraging children to go down the trans route, instead of leaving them be - to dress and behave how they want to, and to grow up with minimal interference to their minds and bodies.

The constant scaremongering of parents by so-called experts. The rolling out of dubious stats as a threat as to what might happen if the parents don't listen to the current advice.
Children taking hormone blockers when the long term effects haven't been properly tested.
Children being encouraged to mutilate their perfect bodies.

Frankly, I'm horrified that children appear to being used in some massive social experiment and I would would hope that people involved in education, more so than most, would at the very least question the advice that's being given out instead of blindly following things without questioning as to whether those things are right.
I appreciate that schools are sometimes bullied into following the current guidelines and are stuck between a rock and a hard place - we live in an environment, whereby to question and go against the flow could cause a person to lose their job, but what are they really/privately thinking?

Surely they can't all have been brainwashed!
These are serious times.
It really is a case of
Leave them Kids Alone!

Maybe this should have gone in Staffroom.

They can't all have been brainwashed should be
Surely Teachers can't all have been brainwashed.

I'm not seeing it actually but I'm primary and Sen.

If anything our staff (including some very highly trained staff in the area of child psych) are working towards the opposite of this. Some children from difficult backgrounds can need to do the whole dressy up stage later than others and so are given this opportunity. We appear to have a few gc members of staff as well as a couple of lesbians who are fiercely gc.

We also had a child many years ago who thought they were trans (asd) later decided they were gay.

I think older members of staff and those who are early years trained might dismiss it but I'd be concerned about younger ones.

It is a huge concern for me.

I am uncomfortable with it as a PSCHE teacher it a topic we actively teach about. We have several ‘trans students’ all female to male.

Teenagers often jump on a bandwagon and for some of our students I am concerned that this is what is happening. We have one student who has spent a very long time deeply considering sex and gender and has gone from sucidial to happy since starting to live as the opposite sex.

Hope Gaspode doesn't mind me borrowing this:

Gender therapists are cheerfully discussing on Facebook the fact that they haven't a clue whether young people put on puberty blockers followed by cross hormones will ever be able to have an orgasm (both sexes). Young girls put on this regime will go into the menopause. They will likely lose 10 IQ points. And that's without even considering the loss of fertility and the possibility of healthy body parts being removed and/or refashioned in ways that don't remotely resemble what they'd have had if they'd actually been born into the opposite sex.

But hey, not to worry, because at least they're alive! The misuse of suicide statistics is even prevalent amongst professionals in the field.

I don't understand how any of this is ethical.

So I won't shut up about this. These children are being badly let down. Some of us need to speak up.

We also had a child many years ago who thought they were trans (asd) later decided they were gay. I have also seen this is secondary.

I work in a primary and haven't seen it all. Absolutley 0 about it.

It’s prevalent in many secondaries.

There have been a number of teachers here on MN speaking about the difficult position they are in because they disagree with teaching children that that playing with the "wrong" toy means they are trans.

Do you think the average teacher is going to put their head over the parapet on this if they disagree with what's going on?

I experienced this in a previous school and there was simply no discussion. We were told this was how it was,use the correct pronoun and stamp on any hint of gossip etc from other students. I reckoned it would be safer to keep schtum,especially as other staff seemed to embrace it. I did wonder if there was something wrong with me as it didn't feel right ...plus I was sure there were other issues going on -asd,gay,adolescence (!) - and the longer term consequences didn't seem to have been too well thought out.

I'm no longer in teaching but I do worry about the potential harm being done.

I have a gender non-conforming child due to start secondary this year. I am fully prepared to be THAT parent when it comes to shielding them from the excesses of the cult. I know the school is on the Stonewall champions list, so the Transgender Trend pack is going to be my second line of defence (the first is preparing my child with a good understanding of sex v gender).

I am very worried. This is currently not an issue at the school I teach at, although I have discussed some issues with colleagues and 6th formers.

Older colleagues seem very cautious and critical, younger colleagues and 6th formers are wholeheartedly embracing the new rhetoric.

Being trans is definitely a thing at my dcs’ school, and they are quite aware that is seems to be a bandwagon you jump on. They find it all very weird but go along with changing pronouns because that’s what you do.

I’m in Primary and it’s not really come up yet. I did hear a talk from Gendered Intelligence at an event once and their approach seemed fairly sensible - to start off by ensuring children understand there are lots of different ways to be a boy or a girl to make sure it’s not just the case that they’re saying they want to change gender because they think that only boys play football etc. They said that it’s only when children persistently insist they want to change pronouns and it’s getting in the way with them enjoying school that you would talk to parents about that being an option. If I ever had a pupil who expressed those thoughts I would probably follow their advice tbh.

I’m primary and the issue hasn’t come up in our school. I’m ready if it does. If someone tries to show me that rainbow barbie ken spectrum training PowerPoint I know what to say.
What concerns me is how gender conforming girls are nowadays. It’s so different from when I was a kid. Virtually all the girls have long hair and pink stuff. The one or two out of 200 girls who don’t are my (secret) favourites.
I teach year 3. So many times we’ve discussed ‘boys’ things and girls’ things’ and the children persist in their beliefs that there are such things despite my best efforts.

I'm intending to contact my dd's school and threaten legal action if she is exposed to the trans narrative. She is GNC and has ASD. Many girls with ASD are at risk of being transed by social media and schools. The first step is to introduce them to the narrative (wrong body/wrong brain theory which has no scientific justification). The second is to glorify the 'brave' trans children. The third step is to offer them an alternative community, a loving, accepting community in contrast to the social isolation they have experienced thus far. The final step is to distance them from their parents by suggesting their parents are cis and therefore the children are 'othered' from their parents. Gender ideologists and trans activists then supplant the parents. Finally the parents are forced to give in by the threat that "your child will commit suicide" I could see that Bespin is part of this movement and doing this very type of thing from the comments she put on another thread and I called her on it. I believe they are well intentioned and have no idea that they are actually using grooming techniques and leading vulnerable girls down a pathway to self mutilation. This is the case for many trans activists and gender ideologists. They genuinely believe that they are being compassionate and progressive. Meanwhile there is an epidemic of young girls, with asd and/or who are gay, submitting to a pathway to bodily mutilation. The vast majority do not start out longing for a penis. They are not transsexual.

SarahCarer, that makes for chilling reading.

It is completely normal for young children (nursery) to dress in an of the clothes they fancy from the dressing up box.

then about 4-5 something kicks in and they have a stereotyped view of what makes them a boy or a girl. Sometimes they think if they put clothes on it will change their sex...

then they get that they are either a boy or a girl (often with a lot of stereotypes depending).. (or at least they used to back in the day when I was teaching)

dd does nt conform to gender sterotypes and I am arming her with the knowledgethat being yourself and liking things like science and boys clothing does not make you a boy, but makes the clothing girls clothing...

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3299393-Trans-Children-in-their-own-words?pg=2&order= This was the thread. Bespin sounds like a compassionate person but she very clearly glorifies/romanticizes 'trans' children, sets them apart as being more tolerant and supportive, claims she is 'proud' of them when they are not hers to be proud of, and others them by claiming that they are being criticised or judged when in fact they are not. Again I will say that I feel that people like Bespin are acting in good faith. Most gender ideologists are. They have no idea how harmful and cruel these behaviours are to vulnerable children.

What SarahCarer said.

I am very concerned, not necessarily as an educator as secondary education is not my sphere of expertise or experience. However as a parent of 4 teenagers I have direct experience of 'issues' being consistently raised and taught which are beyond some young people's comprehension, which are being taken as the answer to basic teenage angst but more worryingly are praying on vulnerable individuals who are seeing 'transgender' as the answer to all their problems. Many many many teenagers question their identities, just as many jump on the latest bandwagon.
For me it is very very scary. I don't deny 'trans' is an issue for some young people. I do worry it is becoming a catch all position and I am sad to say almost a trend. Which actually devalues it and makes it harder for those who genuinely feel they should/ need to transition.

Thanks Lang. People also need to be aware that gender non conformity can be a sign of ASD and girls have been massively under diagnosed. Children with ASD are often gender blind. Gender is a social construct and many neurotypical children pick up on social cues as toddlers and internalize other people's expectations of them. They then both conform to gendered expectations and impose them on others. Autistic children tend to react differently to social cues or not to react to them at all as toddlers. This means they have a very different relationship to gender.

*not all

Sorry to the regulars for being repitious. This is my personal crusade. Regularly reposting for newbies.

I'm a senior leader in a secondary school. It is definitely a thing at our school, I feel quite lucky that most people on our team are GC or sympathetic to such thinking. It is difficult though because it's not the students' faults and I don't want to make them feel devalued or unheard. They've just been taken in at a vulnerable time of their lives.

I feel strongly that our role to children needs to be non judgmental support, (in this sense I'm not arguing the toss about pronouns) but to encourage caution, non permanent, non hormonal changes which can help them work through their feelings. I try and give them a wide variety of things to read by women (all of our students who are in this position are young women who think they might want to be boys) who struggled with the traditional idea of womanhood (all of us?!)I don't deny the existence of gender dysphoria but not all girls that reject femininity want to be boys and vice versa. It's so difficult! I can't imagine what it is like to be a parent and trying to help your child.

The guidelines for schools in the Transgender Trend document is excellent and I have shared that across the school. I'm also educating staff about the bias of Stonewall and Mermaids.

I'm all ears for advice though... I feel like it's a different fight in schools. You can't just peak teens because they think we're mental old ladies who "just don't understand"