Adults are wrong to criticise ‘woke’ children, says Benenden head

[Igneococcus]

Has she been stonewalled?

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/2c743ce4-4ae7-11ec-9bc6-5abf98655bc4?shareToken=126806d1cce5d3397e820e042ca98924

And I’m not trying to make a dig at you kikkomam. Maybe your children go to a school that doesn’t have these problems.

However, I am making an observation about pressure on teenage girls. I am not being ‘mean’.

Has anyone else read the "Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" by Muriel Spark? The girls in that story aren't really the ones with the problem...

I agree there is pressure on teen girls. Funnily enough there seems less pressure re looks at our single sex private school than there was at the local state (dd wnet to both)

Why should you only be able to have a supportive environment for girls if you pay more than most people can afford? How is this progressive? It's all right Jack, is what it is. It's a problem for state schools, but that's too bad, it's not for us? Excellent.

I would be taking my girls out of that school. I how she gets a backlash on this.

@fournonblondes

I would be taking my girls out of that school. I how she gets a backlash on this.

Of course she won't. Apart from a few hundred spluttering commenters who are probably well above the age when they'd have kids schools to worry about.

@Ereshkigalangcleg

Why should you only be able to have a supportive environment for girls if you pay more than most people can afford? How is this progressive? It's all right Jack, is what it is. It's a problem for state schools, but that's too bad, it's not for us? Excellent.

I have never said its progressive. Of course state schools should have a supportive environment for girls, and I'm sure a lot of them try to. Single sex makes it easier.

Apart from a few hundred spluttering commenters who are probably well above the age when they'd have kids schools to worry about.

Why is it not allowed for older women to care about younger ones? Or to have an opinion about things?

What is the criteria for being allowed to comment on this?

@Fariha31

I really dont get why post people fall so hard for this shit? Its a total mystery to me.

Because then you can pretend to be “inclusive” despite charging a fee no normal person can afford Pretend ethics. Get to feel good about being “socially aware”. Validate posh young girls’ sense of their own specialness.

While everyone conveniently forgets about all the other stuff you aren’t so progressive on (only the other day, a friend was telling me about the extensive racist bullying and singling out, by teachers as well as by other pupils, that she experienced as a non-white pupil at one of these very expensive girls’ schools - it wasn’t Benenden but very similar.)

@Shedmistress

Apart from a few hundred spluttering commenters who are probably well above the age when they'd have kids schools to worry about.

Why is it not allowed for older women to care about younger ones? Or to have an opinion about things?

What is the criteria for being allowed to comment on this?

If have woke teens and like them you are more likely to be respectful of their (yes sometimes misguided) thoughts.

Oh here we go, stick the boot into private schools. Don't dress this up as feminism, please.

If have woke teens and like them you are more likely to be respectful of their (yes sometimes misguided) thoughts.

So you have to have a woke teen to be qualified to comment on this utter virtue signalling bullshit?

I have two non woke nieces, am I allowed to give a shiny shit about them or am I too old and spluttering to be allowed an opinion?

@Kikkomam

Oh here we go, stick the boot into private schools. Don't dress this up as feminism, please.

You are the only person on here telling old women they are too spluttering to have an opinion.

Of course she won't. Apart from a few hundred spluttering commenters who are probably well above the age when they'd have kids schools to worry about.

How ageist and unpleasant.

@Kikkomam

Oh here we go, stick the boot into private schools. Don't dress this up as feminism, please.

People aren’t sticking the boot in - private schools are fundamentally exclusive.

@Shedmistress

If have woke teens and like them you are more likely to be respectful of their (yes sometimes misguided) thoughts.

So you have to have a woke teen to be qualified to comment on this utter virtue signalling bullshit?

I have two non woke nieces, am I allowed to give a shiny shit about them or am I too old and spluttering to be allowed an opinion?

You can think and type what you like. We don't all have to agree. I think if you've sat and listened to a thoughtful teen talking about why they believe what they believe then it's harder to criticise. That's how I feel anyway, I'm sure others feel differently. I agree with what the head of Benenden says, which is what this thread was ostensibly about.

I doubt the majority of the commentators on the times article are women!

My DP's DC are at a (mixed) private school. I went to a state school and have worked in education-adjacent roles.

@Kikkomam

Oh, if you want a pop at private education then I can understand the motivation behind this thread more. Perhaps ask your local state secondary what their polices are on transgender inclusion, I doubt you'll be very happy about those either.

I work in local state school (as so quite a few on these boards) and this shit does not wash with the parents. We get a one or two of the more middle class white kids falling for it in each year group, but thats where it ends.

Do your parents run your school? Do they decide what policies the school has in place?

We get a one or two of the more middle class white kids falling for it in each year group, but thats where it ends

So you have no working class or BAME teens who believe in transgender inclusion? OK then.

@Ereshkigalangcleg

Why should you only be able to have a supportive environment for girls if you pay more than most people can afford? How is this progressive? It's all right Jack, is what it is. It's a problem for state schools, but that's too bad, it's not for us? Excellent.

This is my point.

The reality is that because indie single sex schools can select their intake, they are not going to admit ‘trans’ kids meaning that the changing rooms etc will remain single sex.

The girls’ schools also seem to be selling feminism (whether it is or not) and empowering girls as their USP. The data shows that girls in single sex environments are much more likely to do STEM subjects than in mixed environments because these are seen as boys subjects.

I’m not saying it’s right. It absolutely isn’t.

But I agree with the posters who say that these indie schools are so aware of their privilege that they are trying ham-fistedly to show it.

I also agree that some (not all) indie single sex schools put an absurd amount of pressure on girls. There’s one here which is regularly the no 1 or in the top 10 in the country.

They kick 7 year olds out of their junior school if they are not academic enough and plenty of their students drop out or end up with severe mental health problems because of the pressure.

I also agree with the sentiment that just because this woman is head of a £40k a year school she somehow has superior insight. Private school heads are recruited because of their own class and privilege.

Without giving too much away, I’ve seen a consultant dismiss a candidate for an Indy head job because she came from a state background and needed “to upgrade her wardrobe to meet parental expectations”.

Fortunately she performed best on all the tasks and was appointed.

Typo. That should read, I disagree with listening to people just because they are heads of expensive private schools..

I think if you've sat and listened to a thoughtful teen talking about why they believe what they believe then it's harder to criticise.

Really?

In my fairly immediate family, we have one female teen who has had a double mastectomy and posts endlessly on Facebook about 'being the kind of man my father was', and another who prioritises any and all transgirls' feelings over the privacy of (female) girls, even when those (female) girls have solid reasons for wanting single sex provision. If she's ever wary of the motives of a male person around her, she berates herself for a lack of understanding.

I think that's achingly naive and sad in both cases.