School have a trans information session/day

[PerverseConverse]

My year 7 DD is upset as they have been told they are covering transgender issues in the new year. She doesn't know when exactly it is but has said she doesn't want to go to school that day. I don't know any details at the moment and she's not been told much either.

I've pointed out that it's a good opportunity for her to raise questions and challenge the trend but at 11 it's a big ask of her. If it's too big an ask for her to challenge at that age then as far as I'm concerned it's inappropriate for her to be taught indoctrinated about this in school. She is well aware of trans issues and the wider debate and issues facing women and I'm proud that she's gender critical and thinks it's all bollocks However she's worried that speaking up will get her in trouble

I do not want her exposed to any nonsense in school so will find out when it is and tell them she will not be attending and why.

It makes me so angry that they are peddling this nonsense to children who are in the midst of puberty, adjusting to life at high school, freaking out at mixed sex toilets (previous thread on that), and are generally st a very impressionable age.

What's the best way to tackle the school? I've already sent the headmaster the Trans Trend school resources link in connection with the toilet situation. I told them we weren't supporting CIN and why. And now this!

But gender isn't how you feel about yourself. It's how society feels about you.

You're right, drspouse, gender is the set of cultural expectations imposed on you by society according to your sex.

So self-identifying your gender makes no sense at all.

I REALLY wish schools would find their bottle and push back against this stuff. They absolutely must see how harmful it is.

Let children be children.

Ideas about 'gender', which is a total cultural construction, are optional, they should stop teaching kids everyone has a gender identity. This should be treated as belief system, and like all belief systems it is optional.

I am sure in years to come schools will be held to account for their swallowing wholesale of this dreadfully damaging trend.

This is not to say that there are not transgender and transsexual adults, of course there are. They are entitled to identify how they like. What weight that has in law is a different issue.

But children are a different matter, they are still developing and parents are utterly trapped by the fact schools are caving in to this.

I've have heard someone say that she really likes the genderbread poster when she is teaching this, as it makes everything clear. She does not then get confused when students ask questions as she can fall back on the poster.

There is a reason why she gets confused when asked questions.

It's quite fascinating looking at the evolution of the Genderbread model ...

Ha! Yes, yes it is!

It gets more and more garbled as the author ‘refines’ it

gender (how they feel about themselves)
But gender isn't how you feel about yourself. It's how society feels about you

Which is why we have the discussion around stereotyping. Bear in mind that for many kids this might be the first time they might come across discussion around the concept of gender as an externally-imposed construct. For kids, gender WILL start by how they feel about themselves. We are all coming at this from an adult’s perspective.

My overarching message to my pupils ALWAYS is that it’s ok just to ‘be’. That doesn’t prevent them from exploring, wondering and questioning though.

It gets more and more garbled as the author ‘refines’ it

My understanding of the updated versions (from the original continuum-line version) is that it allows people to consider that instead of just identifying along one line of (say) gender identity from Woman to Man as on the original, it allows for the fact that someone might feel like both at the same time but to different degrees.

Again, this is determined by social constructs of gender, but it’s a great way to open that discussion.

Ds had a chat with me recently. I explained it using apples and oranges.

The apple really wants to be seen as an orange. Some get doctors to add on an orange coloured peel, others get their insides segmented like an orange.

But it's still not a real orange because you started with an apple. It may look like an orange. If you inject flavourings, it may even taste like an orange.

Still not one.

They really go out of their way to challenge the stereotypes usually - lots of talks from women in STEM, politics, the police etc... so their blindspot on this is odd.

It's deliberate, "feminism" is being sold back to us as a support system for trans.

gobbin

Can't you see though you are selling them the sexed body as a feeling? It really isn't. Dysphoria is the feeling of being the wrong sex. Telling kids everyone has a sex feeling is done deliberately to impose the "identity" condition on everyone which is extremely controversial and has no basis in reality at all. It is a political agenda to normalise trans, which is fine and good as a mission in itself, but not like this, not by saying everyone picks all three of these feelings. We simply don't.

I don't feel female - ness so am I potentially the wrong sex, do I need to explore, wonder and question? No I don't? This is generating dysphoria. If this has been told to me as kid I have no idea where I would have ended up. Certainly not as me.

.. it allows people to consider that instead of just identifying along one line of (say) gender identity from Woman to Man as on the original, it allows for the fact that someone might feel like both at the same time but to different degrees.

How does being a man or a woman feel?

woman and man aren't identities. I feel incredibly strongly that this is not a line that should be peddled to children.

Did Malala get shot in the head by the Taliban because she identifies as a girl or because she IS a girl?

I'm meant to be writing a report...

.. it allows people to consider that instead of just identifying along one line of (say) gender identity from Woman to Man as on the original, it allows for the fact that someone might feel like both at the same time but to different degrees.

I hate to say it but this is why we have such a rise in visible AGP. Telling kids fetish porn is a gender identity they should develop freely and come out in the open with and use as a way of breaching sex segregation boundaries against the will of women and girls is beyond the remit of schools. Way over the line.

I'm meant to be writing a report...

ditto!

The comments on the St Albans Girls School thread are cheering.

twitter.com/STAHS/status/1065987063995084801here. It's upthread but posted again because they are worth a read.

Everyone is calling out this BS although the school have doubled down by retweeting some Vogue BS about trans identities which is just basically pretty people, or the sort of ugly people that Vogue can cope with, being non-binary

Just googled the leadership and governance team at St Albans and it's very impressive. I wonder which dimwit allowed this nonsense in.

twitter.com/STAHS/status/1065987063995084801

Just want to say that as acceptance of homosexuality has grown children are also coming out earlier. My ds is gay and he said 8 of 30 children in his class are gay, lesbian or bi. When I was at school no one came out at all, it only happened later on and in far fewer numbers.

Ive already contacted my DCs school (independent) and told the Head of PHSE that I do not want my children participating in any sessions on the trans issue without my specific consent. This was necessary after they posted a tweet from a year 7 session linking to Mermaids.

Thanks! I also identify as a dimwit

rightreckoner can you link to the doubling down comment, I can't find it.

Just want to say that as acceptance of homosexuality has grown children are also coming out earlier. My ds is gay and he said 8 of 30 children in his class are gay, lesbian or bi. When I was at school no one came out at all, it only happened later on and in far fewer numbers.

That is homosexuality. It stood on its own merits.

You are creating a false parallel, false equivalence.

Because A->B in the past does not mean

X---->Y

The reasoning needs to stand on its own merits.

Yes DD has just started at secondary (girls' school) and was invited by her 11 year old friend to come to a talk at the school's Pride club to learn about intersex Pretty good idea I know where that is going.

A part of me thinks that 11 year olds should not be joining Pride or any kind of sexuality related club at secondary school anyway. I realise that makes me massively old school and I wouldn't want children with early awareness of their sexuality to feel alone. It's not a grooming issue of course (although the TRAs are clearly grooming - lesbians aren't). It's having to declare an allegiance and an identity before time. We have lots of gay people around us and in our close circle so it's not news to DD - it just feels like not something for 11 year olds to be consciousness-raising about. Prepared to be disagreed with on that though.

this is what they retweeted, post all the grief they got about gender bollocks.

It's the next tweet up.

Please do all feel free to correct me on the Pride society matter by the way. I am open to being convinced either way.

oh yes, I see it now - thanks. And FFS.