Will biology teachers face discipline in the future...

[xsquared]

if some woke pupil reports them for explaining the differences between the female and male reproductive system?

Nothing of the sort is happening in my dc's school and luckily both dcs are sensible enough not to fall for the trans ideology.

[quote Signalbox]Sadly I don't think that the sciences will escape if things continue on their current trajectory.

James Lindsay and Joe Rogan discussing how science is considered to be a western construct and "western way of knowing" (starts at 1:26) and how American schools and universities are incorporating this idea into science curricula:

newdiscourses.com/2020/07/james-lindsay-joe-rogan-critical-social-justice/[/quote]
It’s way worse than ‘western’. This is white culture.

www.cascadia.edu/discover/about/diversity/documents/Some%20Aspects%20and%20Assumptions%20of%20White%20Culture%20in%20the%20United%20States.pdf

This document formed the basis for an ‘infographic’ that was recently published in the national museum of African American history and had to be taken down.

It actually seems really racist to me.

This is a brilliant video featuring James Lindsay (my new favourite person) going through many aspects of Critical Race Theory and Queer Theory and how they view ‘reality’. It’s long, but well worth watching as it analyses where the science denying ideas originate.

my new favourite person

I really like James Lindsay.

Thanks for posting I've not seen that interview.

I’m a gender critical biology teacher. I couldn’t get up in front of my classes and say that men have periods or can get pregnant. I talk about women and girls having periods. I talk about men ejaculating. I could not say anything else. If I was forced to, I would stop teaching.

It smacks of 1984’s 2+2 = 5 scenario.

TheRealMcKenna mentioned similarities between genderism and creationism - when I started teaching there were some academies that were pushing the "creationism as an alternative theory to evolution" thing. I know of teachers who felt they had to move school - I'd have been the same.
I do worry, having met SLT who can be easily taken in by any old nonsense (anyone for Brain Gym?), that science teachers may be put under pressure with this.

I do worry, having met SLT who can be easily taken in by any old nonsense (anyone for Brain Gym?), that science teachers may be put under pressure with this.

There are some blessings to having the national curriculum and a Tory government. Given all the recent changes to the NC over recent years, there is unlikely to be any coming down the pipeline imminently. Whilst PSHE may change, the biology curriculum is unlikely to. Biology teachers can fall back on that for the time being.

I’ve had firsthand experience of exactly this. Can’t go into detail about it, but SLT wanted some ‘language changes’ made to accommodate a trans student. A few long, technical scientific terms were thrown their way and it was suggested that SLT should tell us the correct, sex-free alternatives. They backed off rather quickly.

what's SLT please? Thanks

@TheRealMcKenna

I do worry, having met SLT who can be easily taken in by any old nonsense (anyone for Brain Gym?), that science teachers may be put under pressure with this.

There are some blessings to having the national curriculum and a Tory government. Given all the recent changes to the NC over recent years, there is unlikely to be any coming down the pipeline imminently. Whilst PSHE may change, the biology curriculum is unlikely to. Biology teachers can fall back on that for the time being.

I’ve had firsthand experience of exactly this. Can’t go into detail about it, but SLT wanted some ‘language changes’ made to accommodate a trans student. A few long, technical scientific terms were thrown their way and it was suggested that SLT should tell us the correct, sex-free alternatives. They backed off rather quickly.

Good on you and @Greenandcabbagelooking.

After speaking to dd (year 7) on a walk, she says it's not really a thing in science but teachers seem to skirt around it in PHSE and say things along the lines of people like to be different and shouldn't be bullied for it, which is pretty neutral.

SLT stands for Senior Leadership Team.

I teach (not biology) but when it has come up I have just been very clear that I am talking about sex using the correct terms, not gender.

@HPandTheNeverEndingBedtime How did you respond HP? I hope they were put in their place!

I told them that people could dress how they liked and cut their hair how they liked and should always be respected but what makes us male and female is in our DNA and can not be changed. So only people born as a female could ever have periods.

I know why they said it, their sister was transitioning a few years above. Like so mant teen girls who decide they want to be boys I'm fairly sure she was probably on the ASD spectrum and was quite 'boyish' in the activities she enjoyed. There had also been abuse in the home at one stage and being a 'boy' is safer. We had been asked to refer to her as their new name, I avoided that where possible but also didn't want to upset her.

Thanks @HPandTheNeverEndingBedtime.

Actually, science teachers have it pretty easy as they get to absolve themselves of much of this shit.

Year 7 biology was about puberty and sexual reproduction from a ‘scientific’ point of view. No discussions about contraception, gender or sexuality were included in the curriculum. Students asked questions (I could write a book on them) but it wasn’t obligatory to discuss them.

On the subject of ‘male’ and ‘female’ I would simply state that scientists assigned terms to describe And hypothesise about observations about the world that could then be used to make predictions. If evidence supported the ideas they become accepted theories.

Thus, we accept that a proton has a positive charge of +1. The proton doesn’t ‘know’ it possesses that property, but it doesn’t affect the fact that it behaves a certain way in a mass spectrometer that supports the idea. We could have assigned it a value of -1 and it would then have behaved perfectly in accordance with that theory if an electron was assigned a charge of +1. The same with N/S magnetic poles.

Sperm cells are designated male and egg cells are designated female. End of story.