Diversity week-do my dc need to know they're teachers ' sexuality?

[SistemaAddict]

Dd has been sent a video for the school diversity week. Teachers hold up pieces of paper with something about them written on it e.g. Gay and Proud, curly hair, Jamaican etc to give 3 examples. The information before the video states:

"...please watch the staff video to get a sense of how diverse our school is. We have such a range of different personalities, hair colour, opinions, genders, sexualities, religions, beliefs and colours that our school is a rich, welcoming diverse pot..."

I struggle to see how it's anyone's business what sexuality you are especially for a child to know that of their teacher. Surely sexuality is a private matter and not one to share with students? The video shows one teacher with a piece of paper saying gay and proud. They are not the only gay teacher in the school so it makes me wonder why they chose to say this about themselves but the other teachers chose something else about themselves. Another teacher declaring they have bipolar which seems something else that is not something to share with students. I get that they might be sharing so that students feel they have something in common with their teachers but it doesn't sit comfortably with me.

@LonginesPrime

A fair number of people do not accept homosexuality as a direct result of their religious beliefs. How do you deal with that? You have to put one set of beliefs above the other. You have to make a moral judgement. Tricky tricky.

it's about the state not choosing one philosophy over another so people have freedom of thought and conscience

Well, you two have made your views on homosexuality crystal clear, so that's helpful.

Let me know when you catch up to the 21st century and perhaps we can pick up this discussion then.

What?

This is a basic problem in a secular school system - how do you choose what to teach? Do you take an existentialist view? Buddhist? Catholic? Positivist? Marxist? All of these will suggest somewhat different things about even basic stuff like epistemology, which is an important issue in teaching. More so with social issues.

If you have a state with freedom of religion and freedom of thought and freedom of conscience, and you say you want different kinds of families to make a home in it, how do you deal with that?

It’s very clear when you train as a teacher that religious belief will never override the equality act. Therefore we teach about different religions, different ethnicities, different sexual orientations etc. We are explicitly taught (quite rightly) that we have a duty to teach about diversity and inclusion under both The Equality Act and ‘Fundamental British Values’ (horrible name but decent sentiment). In KS1 we teach that there are different families (single-parent, foster, same sex etc) and that gets built on as children get older. I see no conflict with my RE teaching whatsoever.

Err....did someone just accuse me of being homophobic? Nice. I'm not.

I'm simply saying that if you are teaching in a school (as I have) with a strongly religious cohort, there is conflict between different beliefs. I, the teacher, strongly believe that homosexuality is just the same as heterosexuality and that there is no moral value to either. As an atheist I see religious beliefs as a nonsense. But the 30 very devout Muslim girls in my classroom are explicitly taught by their religion that homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of their god. Their god, whom they believe in utterly and completely. Now, what do I tell them? Your god is wrong? Your religion is backwards, come back to me when you catch up with the 21st century? God's don't exist, get over it? Because I can tell you, that doesn't seem like equality & freedom of belief to me. And it wouldn't go down to well in central Bradford, believe me.

The best I can come up with is "everyone has a right to life their life the way they choose, within the law" but that's not quite the same.

@VashtaNerada I imagine its much easier at KS1. At KS4 and KS5 they tend to get a bit more argumentive and also go into a bit more depth.

I can imagine It also helps that we have a mix of religions at my school. I think it’s just a case of making it clear that sexist, racist or homophobic views aren’t accepted in the classroom. I get lots of “but pink is for girls!” which gets well and truly challenged. But yes, harder with older ones.