10,000 Dresses

[NotZenEnough]

This book is about a little boy called Bailey. He dreams of dresses, so is referred to as 'she' throughout the book. His parents are obviously complete gits because they think he's a boy. All the characters in the book are stereotypically male or female. Basically it's a bag of shit, and us being read in my son's primary school.
He had it read to him in Y2 and Y4. I know it has also been read in a Y2 assembly.

The SRE teacher is very bright and sensible, and I think generally understands the GC argument. Deputy head bit more 'woke' & doesn't really understand.
I've been in to the school to ask them to stop teaching it, and have tried to raise awareness on the school Facebook page.
Just thought I'd share because I had no idea that this was being taught to children in our primary school.

The way to tackle homophobia / transphoba is to say boys can like sparkly crystal dresses and that's OK. Not saying liking sparkling rainbows means the boy is actually a girl with all the counter-intuitive pronouns on top.

That is horrendous and as a fellow North Londoner I find that particularly disturbing. Good for you for challenging it.

I’m only glad that our school seems not to be going down that road at all at the moment. I will have plenty to say if they ever do, though.

Ffs! I'm sure Derek Jacobi would not understand the implications of this book but it's infuriating that he did this.

It looks to me like a well intentioned book that has gone horribly wrong.

I don't believe for a minute that this book is well intentioned. I think the teachers may be well intentioned and misguided but the book is a TRA special.

Of course, Serfisafleur. It’s all such regressive, bigoted poop, transactivism.

I was surprised that our school did this though. Have you checked what resources they are using? I only really found out about this by accident.

Could you bring this to Stephanie's attention at Transgender Trend? There will likely be helpful advice.

I’ve seen all the sex ed stuff they show to Ys 4,5 and 6 and there’s no reference to any of it in there (simple biology based stuff) but I suppose there could be other things I don’t know about. I think DD would tell me if she came across anything like this though.

I might make some enquiries. Always wary of poking a hornets’ nest though, especially given the current absence of interest in the whole issue there (apparently!).

Good idea re Stephanie DA. Or maybe take in a copy of the TT schools pack?!

I've already taken in copy of the TT pack and given them an exhaustive reading/listening list/ photocopies of articles etc.
I will get no pleasure in re-sending everything in a couple of years time saying 'told you so' but I will bloody do it.
Stephanie is aware of the book.

but I suppose there could be other things I don’t know about.

This is what worries me. All it takes is a teacher who is completely gung-ho about the whole thing to slip in a few extra-curricular story times and worksheets.

In my experience no one is remotely interested in posts which sound complicated or political unless they kick off. Admin had to turn comments off on the '10,000 dresses' thread on school fb page because it got tendentious (her brilliant word!) and one person disagreed with banning the book and thought I was transphobic. Best thing which could have happened because people were interested in the drama. Not many admittedly but more than before.
Friend and I are going to stage a Facebook argument.

This is what worries me. All it takes is a teacher who is completely gung-ho about the whole thing to slip in a few extra-curricular story times and worksheets.

Yes, I have asked that my son is removed from the classroom whenever '10,000 dresses' or any other transgender rights propaganda is being read. That should cover it, and may be inconvenient for them.

What the actual fuck is this total shit?

Girls like pink and sparkles and dresses?
Boys can't wear dresses?

Regressive codswallop FFS

Depressing, isn't it.

OP, sounds like you're dealing really well with it so far!

I cannot believe they are teaching little kids in the UK in state schools that

All girls love sparkly dresses
Boys cannot wear dresses

Fucking disgusting retrograde sexist homophobic bullshit of the first order.

I'm genuinely angry.

The book is disgusting and it's depressing that parents seem not to be interested.

Thanks OP for highlighting this.
Thanks to Neuro for allowing us to have that book read to us by Derek jacobi.

This is doing us all a favour.

We now have to trawl through the school reading lists to bring books like these into plain sight.
Without social media and MN we might not have found out.

Yes yes yes! Absolutely delighted you're appalled! It's a bloody disgrace!

Don't particularly want to buy a copy, but if I did, I am rather tempted to write:
'This book can be found at a school near you'.
Highlight the incorrect pronouns with a sharpie, and leave it in a public place where parents might find it interesting.

What a horrible way to depict boys and fathers.
What a horrible way to depict mothers.

Who was the big footed Laurel friend?

A dangerous and very inappropriate book.

Laurel is the girl-thing-doing older girl at the end. Her and Bailey sew dresses together.

By the time I got to that bit of the story, I was suspicious of the kindly, older stranger.

Op. Have you thought of approaching this from a quasi legal route?
Ask for clarification about how many occasions the book has been used in the classroom and how much time spent on follow up (for your records).
Then ask for details of who the school uses for its public liability insurance? Let the Head know that you will be considering making a claim against the school if there is evidence that the school are stepping outside their learning role and promoting regressive stereotypes with your child in a way that confuses, unsettles and misleads them and may in the long harm cause them emotional harm. Just a thought.

I sent my concerns about the books in the no outsiders teaching resources book to transgender trend but I never heard back from them.

Just to reiterate; this book is in a programme that schools follow to teach the EA through stories.

The rest of it is good from what I've seen but ik not keen on the trans materials nor what Andrew Moffat teaches in lesson plans that teachers will follow.

Certainly has delivered training throughout my local education authority, my son's school's head told me.

If I had more time and energy at the moment I'd directly approach the author and challenge him over the lesson plans and inclusion of this book.

equalitiesplans.blogspot.com/2016/10/transgender-awareness-ks2-3-10000.html