Defended JK Rowling; banned from PHSCE

[Worriedthisisactuallyhappenin]

I have name changed for this as outing and have been vague about my connection to it but I am quite involved in the situation and don’t know what advice to give.

A person I know is a teacher in an all girls school and as part of being a form tutor does PSHCE with them. Last week they were looking at cancel/call out culture and looked at the examples of JK Rowling’s discussions around trans/women’s rights. Every student in his form agreed that she was a hateful bigot that shouldn’t be allowed to say those things. They then looked at some (censored) examples of the things that were said in response to her, and the students again all agreed that they were an appropriate response to “hate speech” though a few thought they shouldn’t have been so rude. The person I know tried to encourage a bit of critical thinking and encouraged them to think how loss of female only spaces could impact people eg. rape victims, women of certain religions, and to think about who decides what is considered hate speech and how JK’s message could be considered that while the responses to her weren’t.

Since then they have been called into a meeting with the head and asked to hear their side of the story as students had complained that they were defending a transphobic bigot. Having heard their side of the story they have been told they are no longer able to teach PHSCE as it’s “obviously not working”

I don’t really know what I’m looking for, maybe just reassurance that there are still other people out there that would be worried by this!

don’t know what advice to give.
Get things cleared by management first? Don't fly solo.

You have only got his side of the story. Although his attempts sounds great, your friend was mansplaining which is never a good look.

To be honest, as a teacher, I think your friend was playing with fire even getting into that discussion. She’s not been sacked or disciplined. I think cancel culture is a good topic for PSHE, but I would have tried to keep it more general.
Is there not a centralised scheme of work for PSHE at her school? Look, I’m not saying I disagree with what she thinks, but I think she was a bit naive to tackle it in this way. I’m sure others will disagree with me though!

Looks as if the teacher was trying to impose their views on the class. And it didn't work.

I do disagree with the prior posters. How on earth do our young people stand a chance if their teachers are not allowed to put an opposing view and encourage freedom of thought. I would applaud your friend for the attempt. It is worth recognising that there will have been children in that class who hold a different view, would have been unable to have it recognised and that this teacher is supporting those children.

I am also incredibly worried by this - this does not sound at all like trying to impose own views but encourage critical thought. Which seems to be wrongthink these days.

Well, if nothing else, it sounds as if this 'cancel culture' lesson has also manage to teach the concept of irony. Bonus!

She needs to speak to her union. When I taught PSCHE students were used to be posing difficult questions for all points of view. I remember one pupils saying “Miss is playing devil’s advocate again. If you said Hitler was good then she would ask a question about that too.” The key to PSCHE is to pose questions or to ask pupils to imagine they are a range of different people and ask what they believe different people might think and why. As a teacher I would never tell my pupils my views on controversial or political issues it’s wouldn’t be appropriate. It sounds like she hasn’t been trained to teach PSHE.

T o get cancelled from trying to discuss cancel culture is ironic at best and frightening at worst.

Sounds like the HT just doesn't want the hassle of the complaints.

I strong HT would make it clear to pupils that a variety of viewpoints in discussion should be tolerated.

Your friend is in a diffiulct position as his boss will not support him.

Like Tessa, I think your friend was playing with fire here. This is one of those situations where I suspect the detail lies in what actually happened within the classroom vs the retelling of the situation later by the teacher and students. Was the lesson from a centrally planned scheme of work? Who decided that this would be the example to use? Was it in the scheme of work to show the responses to Rowling's comments and to debate single sex spaces?

If the objectives of the lesson were to explore cancel culture and censorship, then that's what the lesson should have focused on, not whether the students/teachers agree or disagree with JK Rowling, whether JK Rowling is or isn't transphobic, or debate single sex spaces.

I don’t know how you got mansplaining from the ops post.

It sounds like he challenged their assumptions. Which is what educators should do. From what the op posted he didn’t tell them they were wrong or tell them what to think, just asked them to think critically and consider what bias might influence their perspective.

Shouldn’t the d of e updated guidelines apply op? Someone else who understands this better than me will be along soon who can likely answer that. But the section about teaching political views needing to be balanced would seem to be relevant, as would the part about being factual about laws (single sex exceptions, speech, what is hate speech and so on).

I would think at an all girls school it would be reasonable to expect a female teacher to address more sensitive aspects of the curriculum that are personal to puberty and sex, but there should be no reason a male teacher isn’t appropriate for all the other parts of it.

It’s ‘obviously not working’ sounds very vague and poor practice. They should be able to offer clear reasons, otherwise how can he know what to improve. Equally if the pupils complaint have no concrete reason to be upheld I don’t think it’s reasonable to remove him. That sounds like it amounts to a bunch of kids saying we don’t like the teacher ‘because’ & want him removed from that subject. And that’s disturbing.

Wonder at which point all these young women are going to realise those rights they are givving away are...their rights, that they very may well need some day.

I was thinking about this the other morning; Is this an end of civilation thing? the distress caused by societies ending/radically changing/ recources becoming less abundant, like ours enivitably will with climate change, is causeing a subconcious, incohearent rage against women, femininity, motherhood?
Bethany Hughs did a doc about the end of Minoan civilation and they destroyed all their female gods (or something like that?)
Maybe this is the same impulse?

As for your poor teacher, I duno. Depends how much he/she likes teaching PHSE?
Personally I would make the management go through all the official channels before giving up the role.

The person I know tried to encourage a bit of critical thinking and encouraged them to think how loss of female only spaces could impact people eg. rape victims, women of certain religions, and to think about who decides what is considered hate speech and how JK’s message could be considered that while the responses to her weren’t.

The first bit sounds like it’s just totally off topic and not related to cancel culture.

The second bit, I think a reasonable question to raise is how far can people go when criticising those they think have expressed hateful/bigoted views of any kind. JK Rowling was threatened with violence, is that ok? Is there a level where it isn’t? Who decides what comments warrant what level of response? That conversation can be had without being specifically linked to JK Rowling, or transphobia.

But I guess it also depends on the age of the children, and how much it’s normal for PSHCE lessons to veer into debates, which I really have no idea on.

The scheme of work included both some of what JK said and then a number of responses to it and was looking at call out culture so the responses were examples of “call outs”. Friend was surprised at how swiftly and completely they condemned JK’s comments as hate speech but thought the rude and, in some cases, aggressive call outs were fine which is what prompted the further discussion. I think they saw it as a separate issue to the trans debate and we’re looking at it from the point of view of freedom of speech.

There is a scheme they follow but I think a lot of PHSCE/citizenship schemes leave quite a lot of space for discussion to see where it naturally leads and be able to explore that.

My friend is quite upset that they’re being viewed as bigoted when they felt they held a very middle of the road view about people’s rights to express themselves and other people’s right to disagree

@Rollerdecks

Well, if nothing else, it sounds as if this 'cancel culture' lesson has also manage to teach the concept of irony. Bonus!

This. What a appalling irony.

I think they saw it as a separate issue to the trans debate and we’re looking at it from the point of view of freedom of speech.

Again, magnificent work there on the irony front.

Free thinking is a very contentious subject. It amazes me how many people campaign for free thinking but are incapable of seeing the irony behind their standpoint.
A local nut job has spent most of Covid as a denier and anti vaxxer constantly posting propaganda and shouting down anyone who tried to engage in intelligent debate. She constantly claims to be a free thinker but denies others the courtesy.

I don’t know how you got mansplaining from the op's post.
A male teacher in an all girls' school tried to teach his class about why he was right and they were wrong. And didn't convince a single one of them. In fact, incensed them so much that they reported him.

As I say, he is to be applauded for his beliefs. But he went about everything the wrong way, as all the teachers on here have attested, and has possibly made things worse.

I must say I would have serious concerns about a school which teaches children that it's OK to silence someone just because you don't agree with their views. There are some very serious free speech implications there.

Who else do they want to shut down? Is it only people within the trans debate, or is it anyone they want to characterise as a bigot? At what point do they draw the line?

“You have only got his side of the story. Although his attempts sounds great, your friend was mansplaining which is never a good look.”

Mansplaining they are a teacher encouraging a class to think critically rather than yell “burn the witch”. Good on ‘em.

Whatever you think about what JKR wrote, you have to agree that the response (death threats, rape threats etc...) was an example of godawful bullying. The sort of behaviour that should definitely not be encouraged by a school.

I wish they taught my son's lesson, he has been coming home with some stuff that's pretty alarming, lots of talk of branding people as certain things, lots of talk of naming people racists and transphobic, oh and men can have babies too, to the point of it's confusing some kids, he was having a debate with his friend because his friend thought that men with penis's could actually have babies, his friend thought they can just put a baby in a man's body and it grows and they just cut it out.🤦🏼‍♀️ Simple apparently.

My son said he feels Iike he's being brainwashed and if you add logic to the discussion you are name called.

Regardless of anyone's views, pupils should be encouraged to think critically and look at both sides. It's scary there is no debate on this issue.

If they have followed a scheme of work then they might want to ask the head to he more specific about the reason for being removed from teaching PSHE.
It sounds to me like the line crossed is likely to be the fact your friend used the lesson as a springboard to discuss single sex spaces. I also wonder if your friend's handling of the topic was a as balanced as they think it was.

If the school leave quite a lot of openness for PSHE, they need to ensure that staff are appropriately trained to teach it well. Sometimes I think some staff have blind spots where they think they're being neutral/showing both sides but their own view is loud and clear, and other times I think some staff are so convinced they're on the right side of a particular issue that they forget there's a range of other valid views.

senua
Also, OP doesn’t actually say that their friend is a man...

No wonder there's such a gaping hole in the UK where critical thinking should be.