I opened the can...

[AsTreesWalking]

...worms exited.
Yesterday morning I shared a quiz with some students. There was a question that quoted thus: 'I'm not going down that rabbit hole', and, 'it depends on the context' - what was it that these MPs would not define? My students could not think what it could be. So I told them 'A Woman'. They were most surprised. Then they realised and did a spectacular volte face. I pointed out their cognitive dissonance. I told them why I have a problem with self id, and about rapes in prisons.
They went to another member of staff, and today I was summoned to a member of SLT and told that they had said I was transphobic, and had upset them.
I have had to type up 'my version' of the conversation. How I wish I'd just skipped that question! I'm now afraid that my form will all decide that I am a dreadful person.
Why does wrong think on this topic trump all other evidence of a person's good will?
I refuse to lie to my students. I stand by what i said, It was all true. But I'm feeling afraid, and still shaking.

I know at my school that there are many teachers - young women, mostly - very happy to tell the students TWAW, JK Rowling is evil, if you can't say anything kind then don't say anything. There are Stonewall and trans flags in classrooms. Pronouns in signatures.

.... a nice young teacher was trying to give me advice about doing a PSHE lesson on honour based violence and told me to use the phrase 'people with vulvas' because its not just women who have vulvas.

She was astounded when I said no, I would not do that and I did not agree with her. As though it never occurred to her anyone would disagree....

Now myself, I have a tutor group, we have just spent three weeks on honour based violence. I framed it absolutely as a women's rights issue. I didn't mention trans once, I said women were being killed because they had women's bodies and were expected to have babies and look after the house from an early age, not allowed to think about careers, I explained this was something done to women because we have babies. I told them I obviously had very strong opinions but my opinions didn't matter, I wanted to hear what they thought about it, I wanted them to think about it....

Someone bought up women's football and tennis. I didn't mention trans women, just asked them to think about why the best woman's football team in the world would be beaten by a under 15s boys soccer team.... Why Serena Williams would not be able to beat the 250 seeded man in the world..... I asked them to answer their own questions....

No complaints yet....

@rabbitwoman
Well done. Is that a girls, school? Or a girls’ tutor group?

.... and by the way, I have never received a moment's training on how to deliver RHSE lessons, or guidance on how to deal with these topics.

Op, you are amazing. It's fine to give your opinion as a way to start a conversation. We held mock elections, we held a mock Brexit referendum, why is this so different?

@rabbitwoman

.... a nice young teacher was trying to give me advice about doing a PSHE lesson on honour based violence and told me to use the phrase 'people with vulvas' because its not just women who have vulvas.

She was astounded when I said no, I would not do that and I did not agree with her. As though it never occurred to her anyone would disagree....

Hope you explained how bloody offensive it is

Since when has being able to say what a woman is an “Extreme political position”?

Again, not what OP did in this situation.

Op, you are amazing. It's fine to give your opinion as a way to start a conversation. We held mock elections, we held a mock Brexit referendum, why is this so different?

Did you tell your students where you stood personally on the Brexit issue? That’s the difference. It is fine to have a “some say” kick off to topics, but starting anything with “I believe” is not ok. Teachers are supposed to remain impartial. I will ask again as it has been ignored, what if the “fact” the OP was stating is that there is a God and others were wrong for saying there isn’t. Would you be happy with that? We can’t treat this as being ok and hail teachers as “amazing” just because they are forcing an opinion on kids that we agree with.

BoredZelda teachers have to be really astride this issue because of safeguarding. Voting brexit or remain is not a safeguarding matter. It hardly comes up at staff training.

But safeguarding is a really huge part of our role, and this has huge implications for safeguarding, whether you believe TWAW or not.

How on Earth can we talk about safeguarding without it?

@SunbowRainshine31

I think directly linking self-id to rape is offensive to most people.

it is a) wrong and b) transphobic

@rabbitwoman

Now myself, I have a tutor group, we have just spent three weeks on honour based violence. I framed it absolutely as a women's rights issue. I didn't mention trans once, I said women were being killed because they had women's bodies and were expected to have babies and look after the house from an early age, not allowed to think about careers, I explained this was something done to women because we have babies. I told them I obviously had very strong opinions but my opinions didn't matter, I wanted to hear what they thought about it, I wanted them to think about it....

Someone bought up women's football and tennis. I didn't mention trans women, just asked them to think about why the best woman's football team in the world would be beaten by a under 15s boys soccer team.... Why Serena Williams would not be able to beat the 250 seeded man in the world..... I asked them to answer their own questions....

No complaints yet....

Honours based violence is also directed against gay men and trans women. It is the system, not the ability to have babies.

15:57CatherinaJTV
🙄
Way to minimise something that predominantly affects women.

Some women commit murder and sex crimes toooooooo!

You may find your SLT are supportive.

If the teacher is being asked to lead a discussion around this in class (which she was, as she was given the question on the quiz), then she is surely allowed to state facts.

'Transwomen are not women' is a fact, not a belief.

Facts may be disputed by people who hold certain beliefs. Some people think the earth is flat. Some people think life on earth was designed by God, not evolved. Some people think transwomen are women.
Teachers shouldn't be pushing their political opinions, but they also shouldn't be presenting these 'alternative facts' as equivalent to scientific reality.

@Circumferences

15:57CatherinaJTV 🙄 Way to minimise something that predominantly affects women.

further reading for those who are genuinely interested:

clok.uclan.ac.uk/30902/1/Khan%20%26%20Lowe%20%282020%29%20Homophobic%20HBA%20in%20Idriss%20%26%20Abbas-CLoK.pdf

Thank you DrDino, you've said it well.
Roar.

@DrDinosaur

If the teacher is being asked to lead a discussion around this in class (which she was, as she was given the question on the quiz), then she is surely allowed to state facts.

'Transwomen are not women' is a fact, not a belief.

Facts may be disputed by people who hold certain beliefs. Some people think the earth is flat. Some people think life on earth was designed by God, not evolved. Some people think transwomen are women.
Teachers shouldn't be pushing their political opinions, but they also shouldn't be presenting these 'alternative facts' as equivalent to scientific reality.

This

@CatherinaJTV

It’s not remotely transphobic to link the issue of self ID to rapes against women. Women are being raped due to the erosion of single sex spaces - in prisons, hospitals, changing rooms, toilets. Some of these rapes are committed by men who pretend to be trans to get access to women. Some of these rapes are committed by intact TW (with penises). Of course I don’t believe all trans people are rapists. I know that many trans people will use female spaces respectfully. However the fact that there are both men pretending to be TW to get access to vulnerable women, and intact TW who are raping women, means that self ID - which allows any man unfettered access to female spaces - puts women at greater risk. I’ll happily post a load of links. There are, sadly, loads of them - men and TW with penises raping, assaulting, filming women and girls in single sex spaces. Masturbating in toilets and changing rooms when women and girls are present. It’s a clear, and sadly, proven, safeguarding risk.

We aren’t scared to talk about it and we won’t be silenced.

Reality is not a political view point.

Of course it isn’t. And how terrifying that we actually have to point that out. God help the children brought up in this insanity.

@thinkingaboutLangCleg

Reality is not a political view point.

Of course it isn’t. And how terrifying that we actually have to point that out. God help the children brought up in this insanity.

Not only that, as a teacher this is reality that we are faced with every day.....

We have to separate boys and girls for sports and for changing. How can we do that if creating categories of boys and girls is now considered a 'political opinion'?

It seems I express a political opinion now every time I refer to another teacher as 'sir' or 'miss'.

I sometimes teach biology, I have just taught year 8 about menstruation, conception and pregnancy - all the text books we use refer to men, women, mothers..... How can we do that if those words now have a political weighting?

A few years ago there was a drive to close the achievement gap between boys and girls and a programme at our school got funding for it - but it has now become political to refer to 'boys' at all and group them together so how can we negotiate that without expressing what has now become seen as a 'political opinion'?

Brexit vs remain, tories vs Labour, trump, religion - these are all political positions and protected beliefs that don't have much of an impact on children's day to day lives in school, but biological sex sure does and so a gender ideology that is trying to undermine and redefine biological sex sure does.

And think about Shakespeare, Chaucer, Harry Potter in our English rooms. Children have told me before they hate JK Rowling, what am I supposed to say, how can I respond without making a political statement!?

One of the film texts set for film studies was 'Juno' so a discussion is bound to come up. Think about Sports Science - there is a huge amount of course material that refers to the differences between male and female athletes and bodies.

During Pride Week we were given resources which showed a slide with definitions of gay, bisexual, lesbian etc at which point all teachers would have been FORCED to display their political opinion - do we say 'same sex' attracted or 'same gender' attracted, because these are two opposing opinions and we needed to chose one to use.

What was I supposed to say to the 17 Yr old gay boy who told me it would be transphobic of him not to date trans men? How could I have responded to that without making my political opinions on sex and gender apparent?!

So every time we teach these subjects we are forced to express a political opinion, if we insist on using 'boy', 'girl', 'Ellen'.

When someone says they were punched at break, the first descriptor is boy or girl? How can we manage this without being able to define who is a boy and who is a girl?

For pastoral care and learning support it is essential we have a mix of male and female staff to help students, how would that work if we were no longer able to match them up?

It is ridiculous to suggest that expressing support for biological sex as a protected characteristic above gender is now a political position that we should not be mentioning because we are required to do it every day in school

How on Earth can we talk about safeguarding without it?

If you are actually a teacher and you don’t know how to talk about a controversial topic with students without giving your own view, that’s a problem.

And, you can’t just explain away every digression by throwing the word “safeguarding” in.

'Transwomen are not women' is a fact, not a belief.

For all sorts of reasons, you can’t just claim it as “fact” and it is disingenuous to pretend there isn’t controversy over the statement. I will again use the “god” example. Would you suggest a teacher would be correct to say to kids “there is no god” or “god exists” and to defend that saying it’s a statement of fact?

Once again, you can’t just decide this teacher is amazing because they stated a view you agree with.

“BoredZelda

How on Earth can we talk about safeguarding without it?

If you are actually a teacher and you don’t know how to talk about a controversial topic with students without giving your own view, that’s a problem.

And, you can’t just explain away every digression by throwing the word “safeguarding” in.

'Transwomen are not women' is a fact, not a belief.

For all sorts of reasons, you can’t just claim it as “fact” and it is disingenuous to pretend there isn’t controversy over the statement. I will again use the “god” example. Would you suggest a teacher would be correct to say to kids “there is no god” or “god exists” and to defend that saying it’s a statement of fact?

Once again, you can’t just decide this teacher is amazing because they stated a view you agree with.“

@BoredZelda
Are you suggesting here that to say “Trans women are women” is a like a religious belief?

Physically/biologically speaking it is a fact that they are not women and never can be.

I am sorry BoredZelda but safeguarding is not a controversial topic, it is a central part of our job. A child's political opinion or religion may not inform their safeguarding but their sex definitely does.

When a child is playing sports and changing afterwards we have to decide whether we will treat them as the sex they identify as or the sex they were born as - how do we do that, then, without immediately signalling our political position on gender ideology, whatever that might be?

When we teach biology, we will either use 'mother' 'woman' or 'birthing parent' 'people with uteruses' and whichever we use will signal our political position on gender ideology.

When we teach personal safety are we going to say 'never trust someone is who they say they are because they might be lying' and then in the next sentence say 'if someone tells you they are a woman you must believe them'? Because whether you chose to do that or not will signal what your personal opinions are about gender ideology.

I have no problem with students calling me Miss, does that signal I am GC? because insisting on being addressed as 'teacher' or 'sensi' signals alignment with the opposite view.

Every day we will have dozens of interactions that will signal whether we are GC or not, just by referring to biological sex or teaching biology or safeguarding - what can we do to negotiate this in a completely neutral way, then?