Heads should stop teachers allowing children to identify as cats, says No 10

[IwantToRetire]

The spokesman said that teachers should not teach “contested opinions as facts” and called for headteachers to intervene in extreme cases.

“It would not be right to comment on the actions of a specific individual or a specific school without knowing the full details, but we understand why these reports will be concerning for parents,” the spokesman said.

“In broad terms, teachers have a responsibility to encourage their students to engage respectfully with those they disagree with.

“They should also not be teaching contested opinions as fact, shutting down valid discussions and debates.

“It’s important parents and carers are reassured that children aren’t being influenced by personal views of those teaching them. Any example that strays from this would be wrong and we would expect headteachers to act.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/20/rye-college-children-neo-pronouns-cats-moons-rishi-sunak/

Unlike the headline the article makes it clear that a "spokesman" (how old fashioned and sexist shouldn't that be spokesperson?!) has said this so Sunak may or may not have a public opinion about this ...

But the Telegraph seems to be keen to keep the issue of self identifying on their front pages.

When I first heard about children doing this I thought (hoped) that it was younger children making fun of the trans generation, but seems not.

NB article is behind a paywall but can be read at https://archive.ph by entering the Telegraph URL above into the box.

(The cat in picture below looks very cross. Probably feels the same way GC women feel - outraged at the notion that some young human could in any way know or speak with experience based knowledge about being a cat!)

About time. There's no excuse for schools "validating" teenagers claiming to be animals. They need to be reported to Ofsted as they're failing to protect children.

I'm beginning to really despair

At least someone's reporting all this bollocks.

It seems that students are currently teaching staff how to respectfully disagree ...

I assume this has come off the back of the TikTok video of those two girls arguing against gender ideology - that all starts with them being told off for telling a girl she isn't a cat.

There was a thread on here about it which seems to have disappeared, because the teacher was named on TikTok.

That is probably the least of her worries now, her position must be totally untenable following this announcement from No 10. "The Prime Minister says you're a shit teacher, Miss." "The Prime Minister says you have to stop lying to us, Miss."

the Telegraph seems to be keen to keep the issue of self identifying on their front pages

Good. A few notable MPs aside, we've been roundly let down by politicians, institutions, and many parts of the media including online discussion (MN excepted of course!).

Now is the time to pile on the pressure. The dangerous notion of self-ID has to go

There is no hope for the human race when government guidence/ those running the country need to intervene to make sure that highly educated people don't actually believe kids can be cats..

I mean most kids grown out of that by what 6? And grown adults need telling?

I am really wary of this bollocks and whether it is happening anywhere other than anime chat rooms.

Going to want to see some hard evidencr e on whether this phenomenon is real in schools, not some my friends grandsons mate type stories.

Focus on this batshittery could so easily backfire.

Its interesting that we have to rely on TikTok to get people to talk about this. It seems that it has been an issue for some time, eg this story from last year https://www.indy100.com/news/student-identifies-as-cat-australia

And not helped by some who have spread rumours about schools providing litter trays!

So as I said in my OP I had hoped it was youngster mocking the self identifying agenda, but seems not.

Although some schools are saying it is a mental health issue. And if it is, is this the best response.

Or is it that young children have always had ideas when growing up about who they are, or have imaginary friends. So is it that this isn't hat unusual, but that schools in going along with the trans narrative of self identity as being valid and something to support, has allowed others to say if it is true for them why wouldn't it be for me.

Or has "nominalgender" been added to the every expanding list (and increase in sponsors?) for Stonewall etc.?

So the government who have told heads to enforce the transitioning of children to teachers.
Is now blaming teachers for the mess that the government and heads put them in.

You couldn't make this shit up.

So the government who have told heads to enforce the transitioning of children to teachers.

Have heads been told to do this? I don't think I've seen that.

My friends dd was put in isolation for refusing to acknowledge another students cat identity. It was transphobic apparently. Utterly bonkers

For more context the government have supported mermaids and stonewall in telling schools etc.

No 10 wades into row over school children identifying as cats

Now there's a headline I never thought I'd read.

I don't think the government has actually told heads/schools to do this. The horrifying reality is that for years it's been seen as fine for schools to bring in anyone who claims to be an expert to provide educational materials and policy in some areas, such as trans rights, and in that way they have been infiltrated by an agenda-pushing lobby teaching stuff that has no basis in fact and makes no sense. And because that lobby has simultaneously pushed the idea that it's bigoted not to agree with it, lots of teachers have swallowed it whole and many others have had to go along with it to keep their jobs. The government has evidently had very little idea of what's been taught - even some heads are clueless as far as I can tell.

I agree government have supported gender-ideology-pushing charities, but in good faith (that they were trustworthy and meant well) without realising what was actually happening - that it would end up with kids being taught sex isn't a reality, liking toys that don't match the stereotypes for your sex means you need sterilisation and surgery, or you can choose to be a cat. (Although isn't that headline transphobic? According to some TRAs it's not a "choice", it would be less transphobic to say someone has always been a cat and is finally able to be themselves)

It about time they tried to stop this disturbing nonsense.

My friends dd was put in isolation for refusing to acknowledge another students cat identity. It was transphobic apparently. Utterly bonkers

So clearly is happening in some schools, even if only a minority.

When I was growing up nothing really made sense, and I was tiresomely asking Why this, Why that. Cant imagine how I would respond to this notion being added in to the mix (confusion) of trying to make sense of the world.

The Mail followed up the recording with the parents and confirmed it was legitimate. The Telegraph identified several other schools where children were identifying as animals ot the moon.
The article also highlighted the "Safer Schools" organisation (not to be confused with the Safer Schools Alliance), which claims to be a “multi-award-winning safeguarding ecosystem” and has issued "guidance" to parents and teachers in which it says: “The furry community itself is a complex one, made up of many different identities and definitions of what it means to be a ‘furry’.”
It also advises parents and teachers to “engage in conversation about what they think it means to be a furry and what they see as the benefits”.

This government have allowed every possible unsuitable organisation to go into schools and to offer "advice and guidance" - no matter how extreme their views about children, sex and paedophilia (eg Mermaids and P Tatchell). No qualifications / understanding of children, education, safeguarding, child development necessary. And this is the consequence:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/20/rye-college-children-neo-pronouns-cats-moons-rishi-sunak/

Thank goodness, the experts have weighed in!

So only "furry" animals count? What if one identifies as a reptile, insect, amphibian or bird?
Stop the nonsense!

Children are absolutely being told to think that you can identify out of sex entirely, and that there is a whole raft of neo pronouns to describe their inner essence. Cat really isn't that much of a stretch.

If you can say you're non-binary, then cat is just as stupid.

What started as a really, really niche mental health issue, gender dysphoria, has been swamped by adult cross-dressing males, who need children to buy into an ideology that means they (the males) can continue their fetish in public.

The government totally bought the ideology. Not blinking an eye when children were. being taught a bloody genderbread spectrum of identities.

It's been going on for years. This is the result.

Those headlines are the emperor's new clothes actually in progress. Pointing out the eye bleedingly nonsensical nature of identity ideology.

The problem is, the government, unlike the women on mumsnet, appear to not understand the sheer magnitude of the problem.

Articles blithely calling these children furries. That's an adult sexual fetish! They seem completely in the dark.

That's an adult sexual fetish! They seem completely in the dark.

I think there is a difference between children who like to dress up, which has been promoted as a money spinner by retailers, and the very different adult sexual furries.

They do need different names.

BUT ... as with the trans community co-opting young people who experiment when growing up by wearing clothes that dont conform to gender stereotypes, young people who like dressing up and "identifying" as an animal are made more vulnerable to adult fetitishists by having what would previously have just been being an imaginative child, into a false reality. And if the ones confirming that false reality are exploiters it is a slippery slope.

Its part of this whole reversal of roles where previously parents, guardians, teachers would help children learn about the real world, we now have young people telling adults that what they imagine, dream is reality, and it is cruel (unkind) to challenge their made up world.