Non Binary Teachers

[WandaWomblesaurus]

My daughter (older teen) has had a total of three non binary teachers across primary and high school.
All were biologically female.
All went by Mx.

I asked her about her observations of them and anything she noticed in common with them as I was curious about how they have affected her education over the years.

"They all try too hard to connect with their students in an inappropriately informal way, talking a lot about personal life and relationships. A lot of talk about gender as would be expected. Sharing stuff about their own personal lives and relationships to the class and asking us about our relationships."

"They hijack the subjects they are teaching putting gender in. So for example we had a relief teacher in an English class giving us a paper about girls saying they are boys and having mastectomies and we were asked to rewrite it in our own words. I wrote on the paper I didn't agree with it."

"All of them have trans flags, stickers, posters saying TRANS IS BEAUTIFUL. Advertising it as a lifestyle choice basically."

"They try and be charismatic by putting on the nb front of 'coolness' and progressiveness but actually they are all quite awkward and square."

"Clothing wise they still all majorly present as women. They might have a short haircut but they wear dresses and makeup and I don't see how they even look androgynous or are breaking any stereotypes."

"A lot of time in classes is spent trying to imprint their opinions on us and they go off topic. They only try and relate to the girls. They don't have the skills to relate to the boys. A couple of the girls in my classes talk openly about having crushes on these teachers."

"The MX is a big thing, they get very snippy if they aren't MX'd, even by kids who are struggling to understand basic things. The pronouns are always seen as more important than the student."

Curious stuff isn't it?
I can't imagine these teachers having power in schools for much longer.

BonfireLady · Today 10:15

Thanks for your link to Anya's Twitter thread, it turns out that I had a similar question.

rainydaysandwednesdays · Today 15:14

They won't have this at private school, that's for sure.

No, they have something worse:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4992522-dear-god-has-everyone-seen-this?reply=132484686

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12991767/We-treat-young-people-individuals-seeking-accommodate-needs-accordingly-45-000-year-boarding-school-taught-Daniel-Day-Lewis-singer-Lily-Allen-REFUSES-trans-pupils-plans.html

Boarding school that charges £45,000-a-year and taught Lily Allen and Daniel Day-Lewis refuses to back down over plans to let trans pupils stay in dorms of their 'preferred gender', declaring 'We treat all our young people as individuals'

Would you call him Father if he had nothing to do with the church but just liked to fantasise about being an ordained priest?

@Coffee473

I think you are trying to twist the issue to make it fit into ‘safeguarding’ because it’s something you are uncomfortable with.

You don't believe that encouraging children to tell untruths for the purposes of making adults feel better is a safeguarding issue?

Coffee473 · Today 16:14

I never used the word “compelled” or “forced”.

So what word would you use for your actions, of firm correction, when a pupil calls you something other than what you want?

Everyone is a boy or a girl. To pretend otherwise is gaslighting.

This is a massive social experiment with children being used by the medical profession to experiment on with untested drugs and experimental brutal sex change surgery. Schools teaching children that science and facts no longer exist. That sex change is not only possible but really desirable, even for the youngest of children. That they have no rights to privacy and boundaries from the opposite sex. The professions that children are meant to respect and aspire to be now promote complete nonsense, TWAW, some people have no sex etc
The impact of this experiment on the young is already catastrophic - not only for those desperate, mentally vulnerable children trying to medicate their way out of their developing bodies but also other children as they realise these once respected adults are literally telling lies.

As Orwell reminds us:
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command".

I think it is okay for teachers to believe in gender identity/ideology, but they should no more be allowed to indoctrinate, coerce or compel children to go along with it than any other extremist belief system.

I think it's also okay for teachers to ask to be called 'Mx' or to say they believe they are non binary so long as no child is expected to actually believe that there is a third sex, and the counter idea, that humans are dimorphic mammals and sex change is not possible, is also offered.

@ArabellaScott for example the comment below, quoting George Orwell. An extreme comment in response to unproven and unsubstantiated internet claims.

What did that post say that's untrue?

I never used the word “compelled” or “forced”.
So what word would you use for your actions, of firm correction, when a pupil calls you something other than what you want?

You mean when they call me “Mrs” and I remind them it’s “Ms”? I just say “It’s Ms Coffee473 actually” and get on with the lesson. I also never mentioned “firm correction”.

To the previous poster who mentioned a teacher “telling students off” when they didn’t address them as “Mx” - obviously that is not right. But in my experience that is not the norm.

I actually found it quite refreshing that my class of teenage boys, after having the supply teacher who identified as non-binary and asked them to use the name “Teacher” made absolutely no comment whatsoever. They talked about what they had done in the lesson and just said “Teacher Jones told us… “ (and yes it was about the topic and not gaslighting or brainwashing about trans ideology)

In my humble experience, the teens are quite accepting and not bothered by any of it.

I am a teacher and I use the term non binary because I reject the gender binary.

If "reject the gender binary" refers to rejecting expectations and limitations based on someone's sex, I think the vast majority of posters on this thread will be in agreement. Like me, many wouldn't call it "the gender binary" these days, owing to the way that the word gender has ceased to be a synonym for sex in common parlence. These days it's become shorthand for a gender identity, where gender (identity) refers to the way someone chooses to opt in or out of cultural sex-based expectations/limitations.

The key question: does "rejecting the gender binary" mean that you ask your students to refer to you with they/them pronouns? If so, what would you say or do if they didn't?

@MrsOvertonsWindow you don't think saying 'schools are teaching kids that facts no longer exist' is extreme? Again, I ask you where the evidence is, because frankly that kind of claim is offensive.

Yet, I find the claim that there are more than two sexes, and that it's possible to change sex, offensive and dangerous.

So how to proceed?

Yes to this

@BBonfireLady on the contrary, I say that I don't care what they call me to reassure them when they accidentally call me sir, which usually embarrasses them almost as much as when they say mum.

Also, just because a term is misused and misunderstood, it doesn't mean you have to also change your language. Non binary refers to non gender binary. As you say, most 'gender critical' people would agree. Circling back to my main point which is- this is a non issue.

If staff members are actually doing any of the things described in the OP, then a formal complaint should be raised.

I think people need to be a little more discerning.

@ArabellaScott no school is doing that. Prove to me otherwise.

@ArabellaScott and the daily mail article you posted refers to 'more than two genders' (not sexes) - which there are, because gender is a social construct.

Adults in schools who tell children that TWAW and promote (on behalf of Stonewall etc) that sex change is possible are doing that yes.
Pretending that some people don't have a sex is not true.
Telling children that there's no physical differences between the sexes so males can participate in female sports is a lie.
Telling a little boy that he's really a girl ( and vice versa) is a lie.
I could go on with countless other examples of how we're lying to children about all this.

Of course I was being hyperbolic and know that most teachers don't believe this or promote it. But I'm exasperated and disappointed at how many adults in schools have allowed themselves to be silenced. Watching in silence (and I understand fear) while children are serially lied to - sometimes with tiny lies and sometimes with big lies.

This is an untested social experiment that's being done to children by adults who should know better and for the most vulnerable children, it will ruin their lives

https://www.transgendertrend.com/childhood-social-transition/

which usually embarrasses them

Why does it embarrass them if it is a sex based term?

@Ereshkigalangcleg what is your point? Many young people get embarrassed at the thought of getting things wrong or drawing attention to themselves, much in the same way they do when they say 'mum' or 'dad' by accident. I don't care if they call me miss (incorrect) Mrs, sir, or my surname. Heck I don't really care what they call me as long as they are polite 😌

@MrsOvertonsWindow where is your evidence that this is happening? Seriously are you able to present any at all?

Idk if you are male or female but if they use Sir and you are male it’s not wrong

I don’t believe that calling a teacher a gender-neutral name is a safeguarding issue. Otherwise it wouldn’t be permitted by the DSL at our school.

DSLs are not infallible. If your DSL is anything like ours, he/she is probably scared shitless of upsetting your NB colleague.

See the clip I posted up thread. The boy was disciplined for stating there were two genders.