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 woke BBC has completely ignored the story.

For some it’s just ignore the whole thing in the hope people won’t talk about it, opposition party included. It won’t though

Thanks to the girls it’s too hard to squash

‘Tu as des croquettes? Okay, bienvenue😺’

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/students-in-uk-are-identifying-as-horses-dinosaurs-moons-as-part-of-growing-neogender-furry-trend/ar-AA1cOz82

If you teach children that wishful thinking can make them change sex, you can't expect them not to believe that wishful thinking can also make them change into a cat or whatever else they fancy being today.

The fact they don't actually change into a cat isn't going to deter them, because they can see that their female friend who says they are a boy (& the teacher backs them up) is still obviously a girl so they aren't even expecting to suddenly get a cat body, just to maybe dress up in some cat ears on a headband & draw some whiskers on their face.

From a child's point of view, it makes perfect sense.

I feel sorry for the UK woke left, they are missing out on a global laugh.

Eating grass at Break to make oneself cough up a hairball.

Not all cats like cat flaps. Our two won't have anything to do with the cat flap we had installed. It is now permanently locked. They like the door into the garden left open so they can go in and out as it suits. Their rights would be being infringed if they were limited to a cat flap.

"Children idenitfying as cats"

Come on, y'all don't actually believe this do you?

Something similar has came up in past about schools providing litter boxes for apparent cat-identifying students. It turned out to be false of course.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litter_boxes_in_schools_hoax

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12213579/amp/How-schools-allowing-kids-identify-cats-horses-dinosaurs.html

Near the bottom of the article it mentions Safer Schools and their advice about furries 😱😱

DDs were describing this a couple of years ago as a “thing” among some of their friends. I remember one was a ladybird on certain days. She (or ‘them’ sometimes) changed schools by then, so I don’t know what the day to day practicalities were. They haven’t mentioned it in a while, so I wonder if they’ve moved on.

"The rise of the 'furries': How schools are allowing kids to identify as cats, horses and dinosaurs - and teachers are 'failing to question them"

Source: The Daily Mail

Sometimes I was a dinosaur and a dog at school playtime too, it's called playing. But back then there wasn't a society and media-obsession with transpeople and gender-changing, so kids playing as animals wasn't taken out of context by the tabloids to create hysteria articles like this.

LOL! I was about to post something very similar.

"Apologise to that girl for saying she isn't a cat."
"Prime Minister says I don't have to."

In amongst this hilarity, I do hope the girl who identifies as a cat is doing okay and not feeling personally targeted by all this.

You were still playing these games as a teenager??

Yep. No talks on identifying as whatever you like

No ridiculous indignation from a teacher who got it so wrong

Nothing on three sexes and general lying

Just children playing. Slow clap to those who changed that - TRAs

Sometimes I was a dinosaur and a dog at school playtime too, it's called playing. But back then there wasn't a society and media-obsession with transpeople and gender-changing, so kids playing as animals wasn't taken out of context by the tabloids to create hysteria articles like this.

Yes, children have played at being animals forever and everyone knew they weren’t really animals and it was OK to say so.

in this case, a child is “identifying as” as a cat, which when it applies to identifying as the opposite sex we are told means you actually are, and a teacher is pretty viciously berating and threatening other kids who object to it being taken seriously.

So that’s exactly the same is it? It’s just been taken out of context? No different from what you did as a child? Really?

I don’t remember it being taboo to tell anyone they weren’t really cat.

"in this case, a child is “identifying as” as a cat"

Are they really?

Or do they just like playing as a cat, and then maybe read a Daily Mail article or something gender critical online, and now think it's fun to play at "identifying as a cat"?

I highly doubt any kid is genuinely identifying as a cat and has decided that is how they are going to live the rest of their life.

At the start of the video, the teacher is telling them they've upset someone and why do they think there are only two genders. Odd comment if girl was actually identifying as a cat...to me it comes across that the girls in the recording had been rather unpleasant to a classmate, but have I missed something? Has it actually been confirmed anywhere that the person they refer to had identified as a cat in the lesson?

My daughters are my daughters! My son is my son if they identified as anything other than that id slap them stupid…its time we stopped this nonsense! It doesn’t matter about their sexuality but they are not animals or objects! This is not the norm

Are they really?

Or do they just like playing as a cat, and then maybe read a Daily Mail article or something gender critical online, and now think it's fun to play at "identifying as a cat"?

What does it matter, to anyone other than the child?

"Identifying as" means "claiming to be something and compelling other people to go along with it, whether or not you really are". Exactly the same as men claiming to be "women", or women claiming not to be women.

Whether the person believes the nonsense they're saying doesn't change the situation for anyone else - the "trans"/"gender" ideology forces this sort of disruption-encouraging response. As we saw with that fake boob Canada woodwork teacher.

If you have an ideology that says that people have to go along with anyone's false claims, then guess what? People have to go along with anyone's false claims! And other people can abuse that!

It sounds like you might just have actually understood our point that "self-ID" (ie self-appointed compliance enforcement on others) can be abused. But are you actually properly cat-gender-critical? Are you firmly of the view that cat-gender isn't a real thing? Or do you think there are real cat-gender people, but you think this is probably a false claim, abusing self ID?

Also, haven't you grasped yet that from a general policy point of view WE DON'T CARE WHETHER PEOPLE BELIEVE WHAT THEY'RE SAYING. We're not compelled to go along with someone else's statement, even if they believe it.

(The belief or not does matter with respect to appropriate mental health care for an individual making false claims about themself - but that's the secondary issue here.)

Identifying as a cat makes exactly as much sense as identifying as the opposite sex.
Schools shouldn't be tolerating ANY of this nonsense.
No child should be 'socially transitioning' in school.

Trans gender, trans species, trans race, trans age it's all the same, only women are expected to tolerate it. Repeal the GRA. Mental health and beliefs are in the equality act already, fethism does not need to be a protected characteristic.

TheAntiGardener

I know most of us on here are focussed on the threats to women’s rights with the present trans campaigning, and that is certainly the most immediate concern, but there is a bigger problem all this is highlighted and that is how easy it is to get people to espouse nonsensical ideas (that the majority don’t fully understand or articulate in consistently - and note that I say espouse rather than believe) and to cast out wrongthinkers.

This.

It's astonishing and terrifying that such absolute nonsense has gained such traction in society so quickly.