Any teachers willing to give their experience of gender ideology in schools?

[Curiouserandcuriouser1]

Primary or Secondary. I’m interested to know what and where it is being taught and how teachers feel about it. Is there much push back from staff?

By ‘where it is being taught’ I mean how it is fit into the curriculum, not where in the country.

I teach in a primary school - year three. We use Jigsaw. Trans people are mentioned in one lesson in year 6. The rationale behind this is that trans people exist and some children identify as trans in primary school.
The Jigsaw lessons I teach to do with gender are about gender stereotypes and how bad they are. We explore traditional assumptions about male and female roles/ likes and dislikes, etc. and how it’s all nonsense. This is great for the kids in my class as many are brought up to believe only women should do housework, for example, because it’s all they see at home. It’s also as simple as teaching the children that pink is not a girl’s colour! It’s amazing how much the children’s minds are blown by this.
Basically, I get to teach feminism. Much fun. It’s really great for the boys too because we talk about how boys and men don’t have to be tough and can show their emotions. Really important I think.

Depends what you mean by gender ideology? Traditional gender stereotypes or more current issues around gender identity?

There is a thread over in "The Staffroom" that is relevant to this. I wouldn't post there as I'm not a teacher, but I happened across it a few days ago and I found it interesting that it was a mixture of genuine concern and "there's no problem here, move on, nothing to do with you".

Which I suspect is a reflection of real life.

@User65412 sorry I should have been clearer. I mean more current issues around gender identity and critical gender theory.

@Nuffaluff that sounds great. I’m glad our children are being taught about gender stereotypes and that they don’t define what it means to be a man or a woman; I agree, so important. I have two boys and want them to learn that it’s ok to talk about their feelings and be vulnerable so that’s lovely to hear.

@TurquoiseBaubles thanks I’ll take a look!

Depends what you mean by gender ideology? Traditional gender stereotypes or more current issues around gender identity?
I expect OP means the latter. However, if schools are teaching about gender stereotypes I think that’s very relevant to this.

Thanks for clarifying! I teach year 6 and no, we do not teach anything about it. We have to be very careful about keeping to the guidance - not sure if you have read it but it's worth a look. We stick to that completely and all primaries in my area do. If a pupil asks a question about it (or anything else not in the guidance) we'll explain that's not in the guidance for us to teach but that they will learn more about it as they get older. We'll also contact parents if we were concerned.
This is from the TES:

Teachers must not "reinforce harmful stereotypes" by suggesting that children might be a different gender based on their personality or fashion choices, the government has said.

New guidance on how schools can plan their relationships, sex and health curriculum, published today by the Department for Education, also states that some secondary content may be taught in primary schools, with parental permission.

The section of the guidance entitled "ensuring content is appropriate" states that schools should not work with organisations which produce materials suggesting that "non-conformity to gender stereotypes should be seen as synonymous with having a different gender identity".

As the pp said, we do teach lots about traditional gender stereotypes and 'roles' now and through history, and how we can challenge these.

@Curiouserandcuriouser1
It’s not just my year group either. They will explore gender stereotypes in other years as part of the Jigsaw curriculum. Only one lesson that mentions trans people and gender ideology is not taught. It’s more like ‘trans people exist and they feel like this and everyone deserves acceptance for who they are, etc.’
On a slightly unrelated note, one thing I really like about the new curriculum is that we talk about people being gay. Not in terms of sex education obviously, but in terms of attraction. I’ve never been given the explicit teaching opportunity to do this before. Again, very important because the majority of my seven year olds have never heard of it before and, if they have, will have been taught that gay people go to hell. I really enjoy teaching PSHE these days.

@Nuffaluff I'm not a teacher but having seen the Jigsaw materials as a parent I wondered if you had seen the claim that children aged 5-6 have a "developing sexuality", and what age, if at all, the school where you teach will cover FGM?

I didn't find anything in the materials that connected to feminism so maybe you are able to take something from it and approach it in a different way, from all I read, and I read a lot, Jigsaw reinforce stereotypes, say everyone has a gender identity, non binary is real, think children are sexual beings and that secrets can be kept from parents.

Sorry OP, not wanting to derail. I hope to see many more replies from teachers as this is really important.

A teacher spoke at Speakers Corner at the weekend and said that both TT and SSA materials were reaching schools, I found that reassuring.

Here's a testimony by a teacher of Science and Head of Year in a large secondary school in 2017 (be interesting to know if this has changed in 2021 following Dfe new guidance).

"I consider the context of my LGBT group members, all of whom were T. Without exception, every transboy or demiboy in the group had a diagnosis of Aspergers or had experienced sexual abuse. My gut-feeling also suggested that all of these children would probably ‘come out’ as lesbian in the future."

"students in the classroom who are so relieved to have the opportunity to challenge the discourse which is so clearly at odds with what they know to be fact. I really am fearful, however, that there will be conflict between students who identify as ‘trans’ and those who have just had the ‘gender is a social construct’ lesson. Teachers are in an impossible position."

Bottom of the page here:
www.transgendertrend.com/dilemma-of-teachers/

This is a guest post from a supply teacher who describes the transgender lesson she was asked to teach to children
www.transgendertrend.com/dangerous-social-medical-experiment/

FindtheTruth - that post is really chilling, particularly this:
Normally at the end of a controversial lesson, students are keen to debate the issues. RE lessons are often lively as the syllabus includes lessons on capital punishment, alcohol, war, abortion, drugs, racism etc. Both sides are always presented. What was different about this lesson was that no opposing views were included in the material provided. There was no chance to debate the issues in any meaningful way

The supply teacher mentions that this has been the same in a number of schools they have taught in, though from the posts above seems this isnt the case everywhere.

I am pushing back against the lessons we are given fir 6th form right now.
Poorly thought out and completely one-sided. I refuse to teach them.

@AsTreesWalking

I am pushing back against the lessons we are given fir 6th form right now. Poorly thought out and completely one-sided. I refuse to teach them.

Hats off to you - are you supported by your colleagues or are you a lone voice in the school?

We don't teach it - I teach RS and one student and part of the curriculum is religious views on sex and relationships. One student asked if we were going to learn about gender. I said yes, gender equality which is where I will be quite clear about gender stereotypes and that gender is a construct. So many of my students define themselves in terms of their gender and sexuality. Frightening.

We had a dreadful training session which was from the local council - it received rave reviews from all who attended besides me (they were yammering on about the high rate of trans deaths and gender identity as a PC). I was so upset by it and the fact I was the only one served to make me feel even worse.

This thread is a good idea and it feels like teachers need a group

We had a dreadful training session which was from the local council
Maybe your council used an external person or agency. I started a thread to collate dodgy council stuff though it's not taken off. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/a4412921-Local-Authority-Districts-Counties-and-Councils-resource-thread?

How long have you got?

My school teaches it and trains staff in it. A tiny number of us are trying to push back and having a miserable time of it. There are plenty more who are really unhappy about it but are too scared (I don't blame them) to say anything.

It's soul destroying.

Jigsaw also has a dodgy lesson for Yr3 which describes a girl who likes 'girls' toys' and is therefore happy being a girl, a boy who likes 'boys' toys' and is therefore happy being a boy, and a non-sexed child who likes both. The words 'non-binary aren't used but the clear implication is that a child who likes girls and boys toys (which are presented as fact, not questioned at all) is NB. I kicked up a stink and dds school agreed not to teach that lesson. I therefore totally disagree with the pp who says Jigsaw don't reinforce gender stereotypes.

I teach in a Catholic secondary and I think Catholicism saves me from a lot of the madness (I get another formr of madness where I have to teach teens to use 'natural contraception') but we do have an LGBT club which is Stonewall central. I push back when it comes up but I'm treated as a bit of a crank.

@MsGoodenough That's ridiculous! My sister liked dolls and I liked trainsets. My.dds like ballet, judo, and climbing trees.

Where the hell do they get this rubbish??

Mainly posting to place mark.

Statistically there must be teachers who are pushing back on this. However I think too many teachers are either clueless on this topic, can’t be bothered to read up on it or have drunk the kool aid.

Teachers know they'll have no backup. The PSHE association is totally captured by the trans zealots. The unions are all signed up with the NAHT (Headteachers) having some appalling guidelines that creepily promoted mixed sex changing and toilets. They got some push back and have now hidden them. So much of the damage has already been done by all the trans lobby groups being allowed to write school policies despite their zero qualifications along with promoting their ideology directly to children with no critical thinking involved.

This from the Safe Schooks Alliance has a breakdown of the main PSHE materials used in schools

safeschoolsallianceuk.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Parents-Guide-to-external-PSHE-RSE-providers.pdf

I teach KS1. I don't know the jigsaw or stonewall schemes. In our RSE work we only talk about gender in terms of stereotyping, eg jobs/toys etc but we don't specifically mention transgender just that children can play with any toys they are interested in and that jobs don't need to be limited by gender.