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!

Freedom of speech is part of our laws, and school policies tend to refer to British values, which also cover freedom of speech/thought/right to disagree.

That’s not controversial. However your first post suggested he encouraged critical thinking, not shut down discussion by stating his views on free speech. It’s much more effective to ask them why jk doesn’t have the right to free speech/why tra’s have a right to threaten and harass her. Asking students to explain why they hold these views, perhaps in reference to laws, is more helpful to encouraging critical thinking that stating his views.

I would be concerned about this too OP. It’s a worrying time. People will always disagree about many topics, but I think children will be terrified to critically evaluate the scenario, why it would be problematic to deny women a safe place?

It should be debated but if you dare propose a concern you’re slammed with ‘bigot’ etc…

It’s beyond bonkers.

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”
You said earlier that the call-outs were censored. What's the point of saying "they said some really horrible things but I can't tell you exactly what they said". It totally dilutes the argument.

What age are the girls? If too young to hear the unexpurgated call-out then perhaps too young to understand all this?

@TheMarzipanDildo

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

From the OP: "Every student in his form agreed that [JKR] was a hateful bigot"

Sorry senua!

They’re a year 9 class so 13/14. I meant to say this class rather than his class as I wanted to keep things as vague as possible

Though as it goes they are a man so maybe there was an element of feeling mansplained to that they objected to. I think as a male teacher in an all girls school though he’s going to be talking to them as a teacher talks to students rather than a man to a woman. I think mansplaining is a very real (and very irritating!) phenomenon but I think in mansplaining there has to be a mismatch between the woman’s intelligence and the mans estimation of it which I don’t think there was here

Presumably the teacher mentioned the loss of female-only spaces because J K Rowling did in her essay?

I feel sorry for your friend and don't see what he did wrong, fro yoir description. As for this stuff about "mansplaining" - he's the teacher, they're the pupils. It is literally his job to explain things to them.

As an aside, dd2 had what sounded like a similar lesson a while ago. the pupils were asked if they thought JKR should have a right to voice her opinions and only dd2 and one other girl agreed that she should.. DD2 said she was scared to put her hand up and wouldn't have done so if the other girl hadn't. DD2 also said she asked her friends afterwards if any of them had actually read the piece in question, but none had. But, apparently, they "didn't need to, because everyone knows it was transphobic".

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

And you have only got what you have chosen to infer from the OP's post. Presumably the OP has more knowledge of what was actually said than you do. So why are people accusing the OP's friend of mansplaining?

It sounds as if the teacher was trying to encourage the students to look at things from multiple points of view. If that isn't the point of this kind of lesson, then I don’t know what the hell is, tbh! Having said that, if I were in charge of the PHSCE curriculum, I would have avoided this particular topic like the plague. Not because I don't think it's important, but because in a classroom of teenagers it is very likely to cause situations like this. It's not fair on the teachers.

I think in mansplaining there has to be a mismatch between the woman’s intelligence and the man's estimation of it which I don’t think there was here
Usually it's an underestimation but I think this time it might have been an over. He failed in his endeavour so there was a mismatch.

I think that, professionally, he needs to ignore his outrage re the subject matter and concentrate more on his failure to engage his class, failure to be impartial in PHSE, failure to follow the Scheme of Work (how did other form teachers do it that didn't result in being dragged before the Beak?).
For the future: softly, softly catches the monkey.

well it seems as though the head was right and it didn't work did it?
I know nothing about the curriculum or course content but I do wonder if the preparation was insufficient? Diving in on JK Rowling is like handing a learner driver the keys to a Ferrari.

Tinker's story and the eventual ruling might be an interesting discussion topic although it lacks the contemporary relevance of JKR which is a substantial downside.

A few years ago, I invited Mary Beth Tinker to meet with my undergraduate class on the history of American education. Tinker herself is an important figure in that history, because she was one of the students who wore black armbands to school in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1965 to protest America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Sent home as a punishment, she sued her school district on free-speech grounds. Tinker v. Des Moines made its way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in her favor in 1969. In a ringing decision, the Court declared that neither students nor teachers need to “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

heterodoxacademy.org/blog/why-free-speech/

@LolaSmiles

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.

Agree with this.

Whilst at the same time growing increasingly concerned that free speech in schools will soon be a thing of the past. Quite terrifying actually that at a time when peer on peer assault and abuse at school is so high, the concept of keeping safe spaces for our girls is hate speech and transphobic.

Sounds like the children were enjoying their position of power and getting the teacher into trouble.

@senua

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.

Of course he wasn't mansplaining. He was doing what a good teacher should do and encourage discussion of the issues. He needed to take the counter role if the whole class were of one view. I would expect him to do the same if the whole class were gender critical tbh: to present the counter view and get them to debate further. How else are they meant to develop critical thinking, analytical skills and respectful debating skills?

I know nothing about the curriculum or course content but I do wonder if the preparation was insufficient? Diving in on JK Rowling is like handing a learner driver the keys to a Ferrari.

The problem is, PHSCE is usually just taught by the form teacher, who hasn't been trained or prepared for the topic. They just get given a bunch of stuff and have to get on with it. It's mostly just unbelievably tedious, but some topics can be a minefield.

I am very well aware of the ramifications of the JKR debacle and am a seasoned teacher with views very much on one particular side of the debate. But although I am well-practised at presenting a neutral front to students, I would have found this a challenge tbh.

A lot of teenagers are vehement verging on hysterical on this topic, and some would be very keen to try and goad or trap a teacher into saying something they could report as 'wrongthink'. I'm not saying that's what happened here, but it's hard to imagine dealing with groups of potentially difficult teenagers in a situation like this unless you've been there. I get on well with kids generally and last week I had one 16yo try to imply I was racist for calling out his appalling behaviour and another threaten to report me for mocking her dyslexia (by asking her to read a few pages of a book
(Turns out she was lying and isn't dyslexic).

So maybe the OP's friend's students were genuinely upset and appalled (jystifiably or not) at what he said. But some kids just really really love the idea of getting a teacher into trouble.

If the objectives of the lesson were to explore cancel culture and censorship, then that's what the lesson should have focused on But it did - this is from the OP,

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

A key issue in cancel culture is to look at who gets to decide what is cancelled and the implications for society of this, both now and in the future.

Oops, sorry for the essay .

So was this a scheme they'd created or one the whole school had bought into? Who had signed off on these resources/ lesson?

It's tricky as we weren't there. Though I know these conversations can be had as I have had them when I was a teacher. It's the way you set the class up. The open ended questions and giving pupils space to voice their thoughts with out bringing yours into the discussion. Pupils don't need to know what side of any discussion/ debate you fall on be it political, religious or gender politics.

The open ended questions and giving pupils space to voice their thoughts with out bringing yours into the discussion

It sounds like the pupils did voice their opinion and refused to accept there could be another one.

At school we were all given positions to take up in a discussion and told to argue our stance. The exercise was all about looking at things from all angles, etc etc some of the positions being argued were not mainstream. Surely the point of the exercise is key and in those situations you don't necessarily take on the views being argued but you do come away with an appreciation of how to examine a topic and not jumping the gun.
I would find it worrying that critical thinning isn't OK on certain topics.

I don't think critical thinking is encouraged much at all tbh. Schools and teachers are too scared of the possible consequences.

@Andante57

The open ended questions and giving pupils space to voice their thoughts with out bringing yours into the discussion

It sounds like the pupils did voice their opinion and refused to accept there could be another one.

Yes they clearly did but you can frame questions in a way that can challenge their thinking even with the most stubborn group. This is why it is normally the form tutor who teaches PSHE as they, in theory, know the group really well. Surely, he would have already known their views on this topic and would have prepared his questions to challenge their thinking. Not saying it wouldn't have taken time and planning but feels a bit like he went in unprepared to tackle such a tricky subject.