Pride in primary school

[Askingforafriend24]

Help me get my head around this. Primary school is making a huge deal about pride, and running a themed summer fair to celebrate. The whole school - kids and parents - are expected to get involved. Including an educational seminar for the parents that we are expected to attend!

I’ve been told point blank I am a dinosaur for questioning why there is such an emphasis on celebrating LGBTQ+ communities to a bunch of kids who probably don’t think about any of this stuff yet. There is already a carefully planned curriculum around all of this from the LA so I am confused as to why the school feels the need to go even further, particularly holding a massive event outside of school hours! I feel I have other things I would rather do with my Saturday morning, and I feel attending Pride events should be a choice for families to make for themselves.

One parent is no longer speaking to me because she was so horrified I even questioned the event - so hoping someone could come along with some advice.

Don’t get me started on sports day, when the kids all compete against each other (up until year 5) - which means the boys win pretty much everything and the girls come away empty handed. Again apparently I am ridiculous for daring to point out how unfair it is. Really fed up with it.

Do you have a link? The only document I can find for the Irish primary curriculum doesn't use the word questioning in that context, so I probably haven't found the right one.

But what exactly is being questioned? You said "Questioning which is a word some people use to describe who they may like to date." How can 'questioning' something be a description?

Someone else mentioned "gender-questioning teenaged girls". They're not describing who they may like to date, are they?

What do you really think this term 'questioning' means?

Good point. My thinking was that they were already receiving this from the curriculum at this particular school, mentioned by the OP. If the summer fête was (needlessly?) branded in such a way it would exclude pupils from more conservative religious backgrounds as they simply wouldn't be allowed to attend. Inclusivity is not just about Pride after all. The children can't help their cultural/religious backgrounds, why does the fete require a theme at all?

Would the school brand the fête as BLM, anti-VAWG, disability awareness, raising funds for Palestine (that one's political but also humanitarian) for example?

It is a sanitised version, hiding the true intent.

The reason the school should not be doing any of these, including pride, is because it is against the law for schools to push a political position. Pride is a political movement.

I am not digging down back into NCCA it is huge and about to hit the road for weekend.My source is my school so not happy to share, going on some posts here I really wouldn't want them being plagued.

Questioning means they don't know or have decided if they want a person that has a particular sex, gender etc.

@GarethSouthgatesWaistcoat the curriculum is good but it's school. Seeing your community come together at an event, seeing people openly engage, perhaps for the first time seeing an openly gay couple as opposed to a generic school resource. To me that has to be a huge difference to a class.

Questioning means they don't know or have decided if they want a person that has a particular sex, gender etc.
So pretty much all children are Q in the LGBTQ then.

You are being rude here.

Not necessarily. There are many people who know very young that they are heterosexual or homosexual and that they want to love same-sex or opposite-sex people. But I do hope that many more children feel comfortable questioning what they want out of relationships and love. And Pride, and other visibility can help that.

I don't know, I'd say UK society is already saturated in LGBTQ+ awareness and acceptance, more so than any time other time in history or any other cause. I'm not sure anything has to be demonstrated (at a primary school fair) to further enhance that message? Public services, the national media, children's media, the internet, businesses are absolutely covered in rainbows and awareness. Acceptance is at an all time high, resources are plentiful in schools and local/national charities. I'm not against this per se (I support LGB rights, not TQ+ gender ideology sorry) but it's massively unbalanced compared the attention dedicated to other social causes.

Older primary aged children will definitely 'get it' and I'm not sure younger primary children need it reinforced beyond the curriculum, natural curiosity and questioning and absorbing information from their environment.

If you think certain children are being shielded/missing the message they're the ones who are going to be kept from attending a Pride branded fair.

If the materials used in the curriculum aren't effective what is the point of them? They seem like a reasonable conversation starter/line of questioning for a child to approach a teacher, parent, friend or trusted adult. I'm not sure primary aged children need to be thinking deeply about their sexuality/future sexuality. Secondary aged children have a wealth of information and resources including the internet and a vast number of child/young person-centred charities, something that we didn't have growing up.

I'd hazard the majority of attendees at the fair will be heterosexual which makes it all rather virtue-signally. If gay parents/relatives/older siblings are in attendance are they supposed to be some kind of token example? I don't think that's very respectful.

LGBTQIA+?

My sisters friend (gay with a daughter) used to say how bloody awful it was when the school would make an effort to be all ‘inclusive’ with her and not just bloody get on with teaching her kid.

she said that their home life was none of their business and she wasn’t their ‘pet cause’ to show how inclusive and right-on they were.

You’re not correct about the sports thing - Boys certainly benefit from being male well before they reach puberty.

Very sorry, I quoted you by mistake in this response. Please ignore that.

Sure - that's what some orgs call it. You can substitute in LGBT or LGBTQ or LGBTQ+

(No I had it in my post and removed it to be clearer)

trans materials for 5 year olds would be a reading book featuring a family with two mums, a story where the prince married a man, a mention of how Uncle Joe was once Aunt Emily, a pretend wedding with two brides or grooms

Sadly, what you're saying about ‘trans’ is actually indoctrination as people cannot change sex, so Uncle Joe can never become Aunty Emily. Children should not be taught as fact that this is possible.

If all the winners are boys it suggests they need to rethink their cut-off point for mixed sports.

As for Pride in schools - I'm OK with age appropriate things (as pp have said) but I want to see more inclusion od SEN and other types of disabilities. These are things that chikdren will encounter far more often than uncle becoming auntie

So I'm heterosexual but wasn't aware of that as a child. I guess I am formally LGBTQ then?
I feel like I missed out on my celebration. What a rip off.

I feel like you're not replying in good faith...

If you ever spend time as a child or a teen or an adult unsure on your feelings for a same-sex person, there's a chance that you were indeed questioning.

If you never felt that and only ever had feelings for opposite-sex people, it's likely you were never questioning.

Also, as "fun" as the celebrations feel, I think the point of Pride is that for many people that questioning phase can be very upsetting and difficult, especially if they're not surrounded by messages and support that it's ok.

If it was in your post originally, then I’ll answer.

In my opinion LGBTQA+ is an umbrella term trying to cover too much to make sense, especially as Trans can mean falsely directing some potentially gay children towards thinking they may be trans., and falsely directing autistic chikdren, and children in care, or previously traumatised who feel they don’t fit in and see this as an answer.

As for Q for Queer? An odd person, someone living diffferently? So what.

Or does it suggest Queer theory: forget boundaries, because they are all false. This is poor safeguarding for children.

Love does comes in many forms, not all good just because it is ‘love’.

A for asexual as a relevant term for primary aged children? Are they supposed to think there is something wrong with themselves for not doing sexual things?

plus +?

If it were a family religions day being planned: Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Agnistic, Atheist etc probably people would complain mightily.

As people have already said, children are already told about different families, mutual respect, and not to bully people for being different.

As for bullying someone not toeing the line, the OP seems to be feeling quite stressed about not really wanting to attend because of what some people have said to her.

Someone on this thread a poster was was called bigoted for not agreeing with the school’s plan. This comes across as bullying.

It isn’t just LGBTQ+ agendas which are worthy of respect.

Is questioning only about same-sex relationships? That seems a bit of a heteronormative way of looking at things.

I have a 4 yo daughter. I am more than happy for her to know some men love women, some women love men, some men love men, some women love women.
And also that she can love/marry whoever she chooses to.

Children and young adolescents often have intense, emotional, same sex friendships that are full of a feeling of love. Some can even have crushes, based on intense admiration, awe and liking. This used to be a natural phase without any implication of this being same sex physical attraction. In some countries for example it can be normal to see girls walking hand in hand.

It would be a pity if children became confused about thiis through all this adult driven pressure.

@ScrollingLeaves Again, I'm OK with my daughter holding hands with whomever she chooses to. In the same way as I'm OK with her, as she gets older, developing a relationship with a man or a woman.
I'm not go to suggest to her a preference for one or the other because ateotd it's entirely her choice.
Same with my much older sons.
Straight or gay makes not one jot of difference.

I work with severely disabled people. We don’t have a month to drawn attention to the issue of disability. People’s sexuality is a private matter. It’s fine to be attracted to the same sex but Pride has become more like an ideological religion than a fight for equality.