Eddie Izzard keynote speaker on LGBT education at Festival of Education

[2fallsfromSSA]

You really could not make it up. https://twitter.com/SafeSchools_UK/status/1641022039799496705?s=20

This commissioning editor from Schools Week seems very excited about it. https://twitter.com/dutaut/status/1640816656279642114?s=20

Has Eddie realised that education quite often means 'explaining clearly what things are'? It's the antithesis of the TRA movement.

Are there really no teachers or people working in a related educational field who are LGBT who could talk about LGBT issues??

Izzard could talk about charity fundraising, about comedy, about gender identity as an older male, about celebrity, about celebrities in politics even, but what on earth makes Izzard suitable for being a keynote speaker at an education conference??!

😞😞 Hopefully enough red flags can be raised to block this.
Eddie Izzard is a great observational comedian and orator who sadly seems to have been battling with "gender identity" for years. If he's now found peace with himself that's great but, given what he says in public about his gender identity/AGP, this has all the hallmarks of evangelical preaching dressed up as fact. Unless we went to also hear religious teachings presented the same way, I'd say this has no place at an education festival.

Not sure I'd still go if I were Spielman. Either this is about education or it's not. Looking through the list of those scheduled to speak - not just Izzard - it feels like a massive waste of time anyway. Spielman seems to pretty much be the only one you'd want to hear from as a teacher or someone working in education.

There are loads of these kinds of events these days. All similar. All allegedly about a particular topic but when you look, they tend more towards what the speakers can get out of you attending, rather than the other way round. The way round it should be.

Don't know about the other dude. Quick look at his Twitter suggests he, at least, has a background in education.

WTF does EI know about education? Scraping bottom of the barrel. For what? A "big" name.

There's a longer list here:

educationfest.co.uk/agenda/keynotes/

Many of them seem education-adjacent, rather than education-education IYSWIM. Just all seems quite far from what Spielman does. And the descriptions of the day don't seem to be really addressing the pressing day-to-day concerns of those in education:

educationfest.co.uk/agenda/

@raspberrywine the other guy is a commissioning editor for Schools Week and I think, looking at his twitter, responsible for booking some of the speakers. SSA complained to him about an article Robin White wrote and he was extremely dismissive.

I wonder if Spielman knew who she was sharing a platform with when she accepted the split. If she has any integrity she will pull out.

Tricky to pull out as the TRAs will go nuts about being cancelled etc. The better reason is that it doesn't really seem to be dealing with education. Who advised her to go? And on what basis? I can't see what this has to do with school inspections.

She could pull out on safeguarding grounds, that a man who has spoken about breaching girls boundaries should not be speaking at an education event. But I agree people will go nuts. I presume she did not know who else was on the platform when she accepted. Or at least I would hope she would not have accepted had she known.

Izzard is on record as being dismissive of the boundaries of teenage girls. His autobiography details getting changed into a dress for the first time ever, which in his ignorance and privilege he chose to do in female public loos. He talks about his encounter with the teen girls there as if it were he, the adult male, who was somehow under threat from the situation.

This male should not be involved in education.

Oh bloody hell. I am out of words. At this point it is just expletives. Sorry, nothing constructive to add.

I am booked to go, and encouraged my whole team to book. It has been a brilliant event in the past where I have picked up great ideas and found people to speak or run CPD in schools.

Booking Suzy/Eddie makes a mockery of the whole event. S/hehas zero credentials in education and zero regard for the importance of boundaries in safeguarding.

There was an amazing line up of superb speakers at the recent IoE / WPUK women’s liberation event at UCL. I hope the festival organisers will shortly be announcing some of them will be keynoting too.

It should never be seen as great to have 'found yourself' if to do so means not respecting women's boundaries. He felt entitled to change in a ladies loos and when young girls challenged him on that he believed that he, not they, were the victim. That makes him a very, very dangerous man.

Completely agree. If "finding peace" with yourself only impacts the individual it's not a problem. This doesn't, hence me positioning it as evangelical-style preaching. If that's OK then why not someone preaching a religious doctrine that promotes Sharia law for example?
I think we're saying similar things, just putting it differently.
It's where it crosses in to impacting others that it's completely unacceptable and dangerous where it passes as "be kind".

Absolutely agree.

Times when saying nothing is the better option:

twitter.com/dutaut/status/1641141586577838080?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

It just beggars belief. Refusing to engage with the issues and questions put to him.

It really is not going well for him.

I can't see one positive post there.

Quite a ratio

This is utterly unbelievable. I’m with @raspberrywine and can only muster expletives.

If "the other guy" is Paul Kirschner, this is very disappointing because he has done loads of serious and important work investigating different theories in education, and has shown that some popular "progressive" approaches are not supported by evidence. I'd be surprised if he were taken in by "progressive" gender nonsense.
Can you show where he was dismissive of SSA's concerns?

No the other guy in my OP was the commissioning editor of schools week and the person responsible for booking izzard.

https://twitter.com/safeschoolsuk/status/1641042768238632962?s=46&t=wKQqSS_HYEY78hJQTlX9tJw

JL Dutaut his name is