Teacher told not to use gendered language

[Pregante]

In a teaching observation this month my department head noted as a point for improvement that I should try not to use gendered language when addressing the class. I use boys & girls or ladies & gents depending on the age of the students. She advised this was in order not to potentially offend any trans children. She also mentioned this to some of my other colleagues and gave them the same advice.

I care about my students and would never humiliate anyone. Is this just the norm now? What do I use instead?

In addition to removing agency (completely agree with your points here) I also think it is plain teaching students to speak poorly and ungrammatically. This strikes me as low-expectations teaching and is particularly unfair on EAL students, whose teacher might be one their few opportunities to hear correct English.

That was written communication, not verbal though. Verbally I always use they/them.

'It would be great if you could also call the female pupils that you teach “she”.'

Fair enough but as I said, we were instructed not to.

But would you honestly, truly say this sort of thing:

"my mum says they like their gift"
"That belongs to Jess, give it back to them"
"My sister says they're coming round for dinner"

It's like a woman can never own anything herself or do anything alone!

It honestly sounds really strange to me and like dystopian fiction. No job pays me well enough to make me change my use of language like this, and even at home. That employer has done a right number on its employees.

It sounds ridiculous.

In my mind it doesn’t make sense to do things just because you were instructed. If it were me I would be asking the reason and then refusing to comply if no good reason were forthcoming.

I also don’t understand this distinction between written language and spoken language. Like you are happy to write the word “he” but not say it? Like WTF?!

I remember a teacher calling her students "people", as in "okay, people, turn to page 135 please."

I don't know about you but I quite like having money and I'd rather not be dismissed for refusing a reasonable management instructions. I have a mortgage to pay and a family to support.

And if you think teachers have the autonomy and are free to question SLT without consequences, especially in an FE setting, then you are more than a little naïve. One of the reasons why I left the teaching profession.

I am a teacher :) I teach maths in a secondary school - so from year 7 to year 13.

That instruction does not strike me as reasonable, so I would refuse it. I would also ask to see where it was written in any of their policies. I bet they don’t write this bullshit down! Nope, they can’t fire me using the word “she”!

I am aware that some schools sometimes come out with nonsense, but some of them don’t! Choose schools wisely folks! I also fundamentally take the view that education is too important to put up with any bullshit!

No, i'd say
"Mum likes the gift"
"That's Jess's. Give it back!"
"My sister is coming for dinner."

As in, you refuse ever to say the words “he” or “she”?

@RobinHeartella it sounds like a basic and fundamental piece of language is missing

Ermagahd, you said he and she! That's actual hate speech.

Hell no. I was merely rewriting those sentences without using pronominals. It is quite a cognitive load on top of teaching anything other than use of pronouns.
To come back to the OP, I do think there is value in exploring alternatives to "girls and boys/ ladies and gentlemen". It may focus minds on the task eg "Good morning mathematicians"; acknowledge that they are under tons of pressure "Great to see you hard-working people"; or just break up the monotony "Ladies and gentlemen, please collect a starter. Okay people, are you ready with some answers. Now, mathematicians, today's title is "Imaginary numbers"."

There's not enough value in all that language hopscotch that outweighs the cognitive load.

My cognitive load is not just handling A level physics, but also real-time assessment of each class member's understanding of what I've just taught, I'm also aware of a well being concern of a particular kid so I've got one eye on his reactions, I'm thinking up questions on the spot, I'm responding to questions, my eyes are sweeping the room, I'm immediately noticing a kid look into his lap where his phone must be etc.

I'm not going to be stopping myself from calling boys, boys or girls, girls, as well. There are literally so many better and more important things for me to think about, things that have a genuinely real impact on my students, not a strange theoretical one dreamed up by someone who doesn't actually understand teenagers.

Of course it doesn't work, because the name isn't what causes the difference.

Nor will avoiding the word make people forget about whatever it is that causes actresses to be paid less.

Anyway - it was one of those things some actresses wanted and others didn't.

I'm going to give you an analogous anecdote. This might be outing if anyone happens to read this from my school.

Recently we had an inset about student anxiety and exam related stress. (Good, useful.) The assistant head introduced the session, and in her intro said about how student anxiety is on the increase. She speculated that that was because modern teenagers have so much to worry about now, "such as climate change". That was the example she gave.

Wtf? I sat there like, do you actually know any teenagers? Do you actually talk to the kids we teach? Yes I teach many anxious teenagers, poor things - they are worried about their exams, their parents, family issues, their friendships, their romantic relationships, or lack thereof... I promise you that for the vast vast majority of anxious teenagers, climate change is not in their top ten list of worries. They've got enough to worry about in their personal bubbles.

Similarly, the vast majority of teenagers do not give two shits whether you say "boys and girls" or "people". They have real shit going on.

My point is that these power-addled assistant heads, many of them, are simultaneously totally out of touch and peculiarly politically-motivated. They care more about being right-on than being actually useful.

I think the differentiation is practical and logical. There are far more female than male prostitutes. So most people will default to that when they think of the word.

It used to be the same with nurses, people would often talk about a "male nurse" because it was so uncommon, the image people had was almost entirely female.

They are both also cases (along with actress) whee the person's sex may well impact the work.

I see a lot of younger people now who speak like this all the time. It is often confusing, I have to ask for clarification on just that kind of thing regularly.

I hope it goes out of fashion.

Your last paragraph contains a brilliant summary of the current wilful stupidity found in some staff in more senior positions in schools: "these power-addled assistant heads, many of them, are simultaneously totally out of touch and peculiarly politically-motivated"

Your paragraph reminds me of the things that my father used to say, more than 50 years ago, about the goings-on in his school, where he was a head of department in a grammar school. My father used to find the whole thing extremely funny, and I imagine he ignored anything ridiculous or extreme and just got on with his teaching.

It also makes me think about 'following the rules' when the rules are unfair, or cruel, or worse (see "I was just following orders").

What the hell do MFL teachers do? Assuming Spanish or French.

I know Finnish is virtually gender free, they have to speak English to discuss this stuff.

”I reckon you'd also imply a plurality/collectivism that isn't there, which removes individuality. It feels particularly bad when used for a singular woman, like it removes agency somehow.”

I agree. It does feel like it removes agency and individuality. On a number of different levels actually. Not just for the subject of the sentences but for the person communicating.

That's disrespectful of you @RobinHeartella
If you think that climate change and trans ideology doesn't worry any teenagers, you're doing some selective listening.
Climate change is an existential threat that will probably make large areas of the planet uninhabitable in our pupils' lifetimes. The kids learn about it in geography. And science. How is anyone not terrified?
You're literally discussing the cognitive load of using pronouns, but trying to say it's not a worry for the boys and girls you teach?
If a girl has been told she must be a boy because she has short hair, do you think that's not stressful? If three of her four tomboy friends have declared themselves non-binary, and asked her to call them Red, Blue, and Fergus, do you think she can just walk away and make friends with the dollies whose eyelashes are longer than their skirts?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iel_(pronoun)

It is a whole world thing. Although the standard of French most kids aspire not to reach means they can't remember which pronouns are whoch so it's not a problem.

I'm afraid you haven't understood my point at all. Of course it's not ok to tell a short haired girl she's a boy, or make children use wrong sex pronouns. I really have no idea how you got that from my comment. Calling my class "people" rather than "girls and boys" would make no difference in that regard.

Teenagers with anxiety, real anxiety that affects their day-to-day getting to school and coping in lessons, aren't that way due to worrying about climate change. Really, believe me on this.

Yeah I have no doubt that bonkers SLT have existed in schools forever.

It's a topic for another thread, but the structure of most schools is such that you can only get a raise/promotion by moving into management/strategy, and doing less in the classroom. This means that many managers a) get promoted to escape the classroom, because they're just not very good at it and/or b) end up getting out of touch with frontline teaching and/or c) are so keen to "progress" they feel they have to bring in new "initiatives" in each role to enrich their CV for the next promotion.

[Not all SLT are like that ofc]

I don't know if any of this applies to op's manager. But it was cathartic to get that off my chest haha