"Teachers to tell children Gender Ideology is a contested belief"

[WarriorN]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/14/teachers-pupils-gender-ideology-trans-guidance/

Teachers will have to make clear that gender ideology is a “contested belief” rather than fact if they bring it up in lessons, Gillian Keegan will say later this week.
The Education Secretary is set to issue guidance on Thursday following criticism that some pupils were being taught that there were 72 genders.
Schools will not be told to hold lessons on gender ideologygy, which states that people can be born the wrong sex and that they can change their identity to the opposite sex or other categories such as non-binary.*
But if they do hold lessons on the issue, they must make it clear that it is a contested belief.
In other words, they must say that the “gender-critical” beliefef that there are just two biological sexes is also valid.*
The guidance - which will be out for consultation - will also order schools to show parents all classroom material to ensure they are comfortable with what is being taught.

there's no evidence that teaching is taking place in schools according to gender identity ideology

And yet the current mandatory guidance says it has to be taught

Pupils should be taught the facts and the law about sex, sexuality, sexual health and gender identity in an age-appropriate and inclusive way. All pupils should feel that the content is relevant to them and their developing sexuality. Sexual orientation and gender identity should be explored at a timely point and in a clear, sensitive and respectful manner

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education

While that's true, if you put that in front of one of the denialists they'll then shift the goalposts to say "but I was talking about gender identity ideology because that's not really a thing. Gender identity is a thing, because we all have one."

Just want to hurriedly note that in my area NO was bought for schools 6 years ago by the local council. They didn't have much choice - however i suspect they've continued it under their own steam

Pupils should be taught the facts and the law about sex, sexuality, sexual health and gender identity in an age-appropriate and inclusive way.

Oh yes. And what "the facts" and "the law" are regarding gender identity seem to be up to individual teachers to decide.

(See also "age-appropriate" and "inclusive".)

This has featured heavily on R4 Today this morning (I've been listening since 5:30, so caught the news bulletin as well)

Admittedly I usually have the news on as background noise, so don't pay a huge amount of attention, but it feels a bit like Womens' Hour.

Amol Rajan has upped his game.

x.com/journalismseen/status/1790644968127635917?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

On R4 Emma just read out a comment by a woman who said her child had come home from school with very confused comments about gender. She asked to see the information at school and was dismayed at its content. She said she was very happy to hear about this new guidance.

Im glad Emma has read that out because the whole show seems to be “nothing to see here, it’s all politics”.

X posted with you @ResisterRex And that tweet shows exactly what the BBC have been up to this morning.

It doesn't make it clear if it's actually using gender ideology as the contested belief rather than gender critical. Gender ideology is a Vatican coined phrase formed to push back against LGBTQ rights across the board. I'd be worried by the former, in terms of direction of travel, but not so much by the latter.

Gender ideology is a Vatican coined phrase formed to push back against LGBTQ rights across the board.

Are you sure about that? Here's an academic article from 1984 which I'm hightly sceptical has anything to do with the Vatican:

https://newleftreview.org/issues/i144/articles/johanna-brenner-maria-ramas-rethinking-women-s-oppression

Times radio had callers talking about gender ideology being used in schools

R4 try pretty hard not to hear that view from anyone in the small part I heard

Haven't listened to The Times Radio but listened to a fair of R4, so I agree with this point about R4.

They had ONE text read out towards the end that I heard, although there could have been more from 8:45(?) or so onwards

I heard the political football person and if someone said no evidence I’m glad I missed that

I find them so utterly complicit in gender ideology and its harms it’s infuriating

Just gaslighting women

Tomorrow is the National PSHE/ Healthy Schools network meeting and the Chair has just posted this following a slew of outraged comments from captured teachers.

I agree, it will be good to touch base with everyone. I am also trying to schedule an extraordinary meeting with SEF and Stonewall about the revised guidance, and I’ll share an invite as soon as we can pin down a date/time.

That the kneejerk response is to run to the odious Stonewall says it all. The sooner the P/RSHE curriculum is amended, the better.

The impression given by the Radio 4 coverage is that the teachers are the experts and we must believe and follow what they say. And the way things work, they only end up talking with captured teachers. I don't blame heretical teachers for not going on the BBC. There's a risk they'd be stitched up in an interview and also they'd have made a lot of enemies in their profession.

There's been a shout-out for comments to go into Woman's Hour. In the post-Barnett era, I don't expect Nuala McGovern to apply the kind of critical analysis this subject deserves. But I'd be delighted to be proved wrong.

It’s also going to be discussed on Women’s Hour; it’s Nuala McGovern hosting today.

You snooze, you lose.

Cross post!

🤣

It's incredible that there are some teachers going on the radio saying that it's not taught in schools - how do they know what's happening in other schools. I've been fighting this at our school since I discovered in January this year that it was introduced in September with no consultation. I don't blame the school, I do think they genuinely have been told that they were bringing their policies in line with current guidance/KCSIE/inspection and advice from the PSHE Association and of course the lack of clarity from the current guidance doesn't help at all. You can read the paragraph that @Thingybob posted in both ways - that gender identity is a "fact" and therefore must be taught (the gender identity ideology position) or that gender identity has no factual basis, it's a belief that some people have and other people don't and therefore should not be taught (or if it is, should be taught only in the sense that it's a legal fiction).

I'm still not convinced that children under 13 can grasp the "legal fiction" aspect of the GRA and PC of gender reassignment. Most adults can't, let alone kids, and our PSHE teacher couldn't explain to me how she taught the concept of "gender identity" to my DCs without sexist stereotypes. The only thing we could agree on was that it was a "feeling" but again, she couldn't explain why that meant we should teach children that this might need puberty blockers, surgery and hormones.

The political football chap is not just any headteacher, Pepe Di'Iasio is General Secretary of the ASCL (he took over from Geoff Barton in April)

He is the go to commentator on any issue concerning education and is speaking on behalf of the ASCL membership of over 25000 head teachers.

https://www.ascl.org.uk/RSHEReport

Unions haven’t been great on this either, looking at NEU as an example

It's a move in the right direction but it is not completely satisfactory.

Are kids being taught that gravity is a "belief" in physics?
That the earth being a sphere is a "belief" in geography?
That 2 plus 2 equals four is a "belief" in mathematics?

When things are incontrovertible facts, they must be taught as so.
Biology is a fact that never changes, and the fact that sex is real and that there are two sexes is a fact and should be taught as so.

If they want to add in all the gender crap they are are welcome to do so but it must be taught in the same way that they might mention that some people believe the earth is flat when discussing the facts of the planet.

Back to common sense please.

Facts never change - that's why they are FACTS.

And being "gender critical" is not a "belief" - it is just the provable, incontrovertible, unchangeable TRUTH.

Nuala just picked a great listener’s message to read out, about the harmful effects of gender ideaology on young people.