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!)

The DfE evidently disagree with you as they're normally very quick to say if something's not true. Instead they've accepted that children are being treated as animals in some schools. As I pointed out, I have no doubt that the school in denying the cat issue are protecting the child at the centre - which they should do.
Ironically she's done everyone a huge favour as I can guarantee that by the end of tomorrow, the cat tails etc will all be banned (except of course in Early years where they're totally appropriate) and hopefully the idea of identifying as something you're not may be a little less appealing to teenagers.

Just as incomprehensible as any other definition, I suppose.

The DfE evidently disagree with you as they're normally very quick to say if something's not true. Instead they've accepted that children are being treated as animals in some schools.

The DfE are well practiced at spouting bollocks that takes any attention off them and especially if it puts teachers in the wrong. Any time a "DfE spokesperson says" is at the bottom of an article about school funding, or teacher recruitment or whatever, it is the biggest pile of shit ever, so I don't take the DfE saying something as evidence for anything, tbh.

Just as incomprehensible as any other definition, I suppose.

That wasn't intended to be a definition!

You know, noblegiraffe, you are always very clear about your views on maths teaching and teaching in general. You are perfectly prepared to criticise the DfE and say what you think should be happening. I almost always agree with what you say.

But on this topic you are very opaque. You have picked apart everyone else's comments, but what do you think schools/teachers should be telling our pupils?

So if the newspapers and news outlets which said one girl was identifying as a cat got it wrong, can they be sued by the school?

What do you call a woman who thinks it's fine if someone identifies as someone of the opposite sex and doesn't think they should be ridiculed for it?
”men are afraid women will laughter at them, women are afraid men will kill then’ M Attwood

as if ridicule is the issue here

the sort of woman who is fine with ‘Isla’ bryon a male rapist identifying as a woman being put in a woman’s prison (until a huge outcry made TPTB change their minds)

the sort of woman who is fine with men in women’s sports like the TW who “folded their opponents like deckchairs?” In rugby Union

the sort of woman who think it’s fine to hand over spaces in hard fought for programmes like improving women’s representation in STEM or politics to men who ‘feel’ like women?

the sort of woman who is happy for women to be reduced to a set of stereotypes in a man’s head?

the politest term I can think of is quisling

It's all a mess isn't it?

It is true that in a heteronormative society, gay people and those who had difficulties with the gender expectations society imposes on us all were oppressed were denied the basic human right of choosing a same sex partner(s) or living authentically.

The LGB (TQ+......) movement has radically transformed this in just over then years. I am pleased that it is socially more acceptable now to be gay.

But this whole identifying as this and that and expecting other people to go along with it? That's nuts and subverts normal standards of society. It has gone way too far.

If you think how many rainbow flag initiatives there are now and how a majority of western organisations and businesses displays their logos in rainbow colours all the time, you do begin to wonder why such attention isn't being given to more pressing matters, such as climate change and worldwide displacement of innocent people due because of poverty and climate change.

The whole things is now very much like a new religion or cult with apostles, evangelist, religious symbols, missionary work, rituals and celebrations, good and evil dichotomy, morality, oppression of non-followers.

Imagine business displaying the cross or similar religious icons as part of their logo, people would go mad.

Gender identity ideology ought to be treated like a religion. Some people believe x,y,z. Hopefully schools are slowly waking up to the fact that the movement of the LGB has been hijacked and something that started out as a very important initiative to promote tolerance has now become an oppressive cult.

I'd also like to see more passion about the environment and climate change from schools and businesses and less of that sex stuff.

@Theeyeballsinthesky why have you put a list of assumptions? It was a serious question. Taking the question at face value, what would you call that or isn't there a term?

noblegiraffe · Today 16:59

Barbadossunset · Today 13:21
noblegiraffe do you allow your pupils to act being cats in your classes^?

No, and apparently neither did the teacher in the recording, because there wasn't anyone identifying as a cat.

https://bylinetimes.com/2023/06/22/dead-cats-and-transphobic-lies/

noblegiraffe, I read the byline times article you posted which intends to debunk the story, but it does not seem to go into this report by the mother of one of the girls which gives the backstory and context of the two girls’ argument with the teacher:

The mother, who asked to remain anonymous, told the MailOnline that her daughter and her friend "put their views across and clashed with another girl in the class who identifies as a cat".

"My daughter told the teacher that what they were learning was ridiculous and the girl identifying as a cat tried to argue that it wasn’t and that anyone could identify as anything.

As she said that my daughter replied “so If I identify as a kangaroo then I can say I'm a kangaroo?!”

"Some of the others in the class started laughing and the girl who thinks she’s a cat started crying. My daughter and her friend were told to stay after the class and were given a warning to stop and toe the line.

That’s when she started secretly recording the teacher. I have to say that when my daughter came home from school and told me what happened. I didn’t believe her, I thought she was a typical teenage girl exaggerating.

"But then she played me the recording and I was shocked and then horrified and then furious. I still get angry listening to it.

"There are girls in her class and at the school who are trans and she has no problem with any of them, she calls them by their preferred pronouns and accepts them for who they are - but there are only two sexes. It's just science, you are born male or female.

"The fact that the school is shielding this young girl who identifies as a cat and reprimanding anyone who challenges that notion seems to me to be completely absurd.

"Why on earth are 13-year-old kids being taught about gender identity anyway? They're just children. It’s not right."

The argument took place on Friday afternoon in a class on 'life education', where students were told that "who you want to be and how you identify is up to you”.
www.lbc.co.uk/news/teacher-despicable-student-classmate-cat-mum-hit-back/

Same, my DC are at school with children who hang out in a group and all call themselves furries and have ear hairband things.

I've spoken to other people locally who also know children identifying as furries.

It's not made up, at all.

Have the school confirmed they have no cat-identities? The parent and one of the children in the recording seem to be saying it was a cat-identified child who was upset.

That it's happening in some places - it's seeming increasingly likely. Both from the point of view of very many people saying they've come across it, which would require a large number of trolls, some of them teachers. And from the point of view of it just sounds very feasible given the culture the kids are living in - and also feasible that schools have been Stonewalled into nodding along sagely with any child who says the word pronouns.
That there are also some people deliberately trolling the Telegraph/Mail I would also well believe.

The school have said that they have no cat identities I think.

QuickWash (that was a x post not calling you a troll!), do the 'furry' people also consider it to be a gender identity and get addressed accordingly by teachers? Kids having online or role play alter-egos and a fashion trend for ear hairbands is one thing, but teachers playing along is quite another.

Interesting Eresh. I suppose it could be that the upset child has a furry identity but isn't demanding teachers go along with it so the teacher doesn't know. Hence their upset at the talk of cat identities. Or that the girl recording lied to her mum about what upset her classmate and is now caught out because it made the national media.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/gender-row-school-none-of-our-pupils-identify-as-a-cat/

"A school at the centre of a gender row now under government investigation has said none of its pupils “identify as a cat or any other animal”."

And the truth comes out.

How about 'live as the other sex to their genetic sex'?

No. Still entrenches stereotypes. It doesn't mean anything outside of those stereotypes.

Have you seen the latest Matt cartoon!!

But how do you live as the other sex?
I can see how you could dress as another sex I suppose... but it's not just about clothes, is it?

What would your suggestion be ?

I'm always very clear about those views because I know what I'm talking about. I have graphs and figures and a lot of experience.

On this topic, what do I think schools should be doing? Who the fuck knows? The whole thing is a massive dumpster fire and any outcome is likely to please nobody.

Like transitioning pupils - people on here are very quick to point out that social transitioning is not a neutral act but an active intervention, per the Cass Review. What you do not see mentioned is that the Cass review also said that doing nothing is not a neutral act. So there's the whole 'with medical advice' thing. But we all know how fucked the NHS is, so if there's a child in distress, on a massive waiting list and the parents are begging the school to act - what then?
The side that is horrified that schools are transitioning pupils behind their parents' backs or without their consent also seem to not want any transitioning of children, meaning they want schools to overrule parents who do want it for their child. So are parents' opinions regarding their child important or not?

As for teaching about it - some don't want it in schools at all, but then you've got the protected characteristic. The hate crime group. The fact that transgender people do exist. But the laws are crap and poorly defined and hard to explain because for a start, they are massively, massively out of date. Given that gender reassignment only applies to male to/from female but now we have a vast wave of 'non binary', is including non-binary in lessons sensible, or heading down the road to 72 genders? 🤷‍♀️

My suggestion is that the phrase doesn't have any objective meaning.

People who wish they were the opposite sex.

‘We first started hearing reports of furries last year and we weren’t sure if they were just rumours,’ says Lucy Marsh of the Family Education Trust. ‘But as we began to talk to parents and children, we realised it was actually happening in schools around the UK.

‘We recently heard of one school in the North where at least four girls are ‘identifying’ as furries and have asked children and teachers to communicate with them by miaowing and barking. At first many parents think it’s harmless because it’s just kids in cute costumes or cat ears. It’s like the kid who wanted to stand out and be a Goth in the 1990s.

‘But you start to dig deeper and you realise something more manipulative is going on. Saying you are actually an animal — and teachers and pupils playing along with it — is teaching children to deny reality, the reality of what they can see in front of their faces. It can be very confusing for them. While it may be harmless in school, take that behaviour onto social media, where not everyone is who they say they are, and you run into problems.

‘We don’t understand why on the one hand schools are teaching pupils to be safe online and not trust people who might say they are one thing when they are something else, yet on the other are encouraging children to change identities in real life. It’s a huge safeguarding issue.’

Tracy Shaw, of the Safe Schools Alliance, agrees. More worryingly, many of those in the adult furry community — thought to be mainly white males in their late teens or 20s — introduce explicitly sexual themes to their online and offline ‘play’.

‘The drive to be “inclusive and kind” had led to schools having a complete blind spot when it comes to safeguarding,’ says Shaw. ‘If a teenager comes to school wanting to be identified as a cat, the first question should be: “What’s going on in this child’s life and what have they been exposed to at home or online?”

‘Whatever adults want to do in their spare time is up to them. But I know of one child who became involved with the furry community online and her parents found some very disturbing images that had been sent to her. It’s not as innocent as it seems.’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12223999/Inside-world-furries-cat-pupils-dressing-whiskers-tails-school.html

if the govt and schools don't grasp this bull by the horns (or in 2023, maybe also by the udders)

😂