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?

We have to use the data to close the gap though, don't we? When your results get broken down you have to feed back on any gaps, pp, FSM, sex, etc, don't you? Otherwise you're not going to be able to implement changes.

Generally considered bad form to address a room of adults as ‘ladies and gentlemen’ anymore - usually referenced as students/delegates/everyone these days, so I guess ‘boys and girls’ may also fit this. In groups it’s much easier to just say ‘Morning everyone’ or ‘can everyone stop talking and listen please’. Inclusive without being gendered.

Where I teach, the biggest attainment gap is actually pp students, many of those are white boys.

@MayaKovskaya yes, results data tells us a lot. My use of 'boys & girls' won't impact my results in anyway.

It is not the norm, though many schools have teachers who actively do promote this. It doesn't come naturally at all.

My daughter, who is teaching currently, has experienced a few teachers and heads of department who insist on promoting trans nonsense. She says nothing to them, but quietly subverts the message at every opportunity. And to be honest, most of the pupiuls are having none of it these days, and are increasingly pushing back themselves.

It's not new. I was using "everyone" "year 8" or even "guys" (although I don't like the term) nearly 10 years ago.

Incidentally,it would make a better story if you said she said it was so as not to offend non binary pupils.

Hate that term myself......and would never dream of using it in school ( I'm an ex teacher). It's far too chummy, as well as americanised. I also don't accept that 'guys' is acceptable to use for female people.

In single sex schools it is perfectly natural and fitting to refer to 'boys' and 'girls' or ladies and gentlemen ( sixth formers).

And even in mixed sex schools there are multiple types of occasion when you might choose to use 'boys' and 'girls'. Say, for example if a group of one sex or other are chatting during lesson then it would be natural to say " Girls, please.... or " boys..."". Or when in a school corridor, canteen, netball court or football pitch.....during a drama activity etc.

Nobody really ever says " girs and boys" anyway...in anything other than nursery, reception or primary school.

Personally, if anyone requested me to do this, I' d quietly ignore them and do as I saw fit in my own classroom.

My teacher used to call us all 'chickens'.

"Folks"

"Everybody"

"Class 2b"

"Children"

"Kids"

or my favourite,

"Greetings, splendid noodles of existence!"

I can see both sides of the coin but to be honest the loss of words like girl and women worries me.

That’s quite heartening to hear.

Boys and girls or ladies and gents is still appropriate collectively - after all if you have a trans girl who thinks she is a boy she thinks she is covered by "boys" and if you have a trans boy who thinks he is a girl he thinks he is covered by "girls". Yes, I know...but reductio ad absurdum and all that

I like the term "folks". Yes it's a bit old fashioned, but it's casual and non gendered.

It’s a nice idea to not use ‘gendered language’ but what does it actually mean or achieve in reality? Women and girls are still disadvantaged and discriminated against, we still don’t have real equality in society, 2/3 of us every week are still being murdered by men, but sure, stop using words like girls and women, dehumanise us a bit more, that’ll solve the problems.

I wish there was more focus on gendered language and not sex.

So "boys and girls" or "ladies and gentlemen" is fine, polite and inclusive.

Let's focus on not gendering stereotypes. E.g. assuming imaginary doctors are male, nurses are female, fluffy kittens are female, barking dogs are male. This is far more insidious and so widespread. e.g. "Look at the tractor over there, I bet he's been busy today!" "Look, what a pretty kitten - isn't she sweet!"

It really is. I thought the same. Everyone has to tie themselves up in knots because of this gender woo wang. Awful, in all the ways.

The fact Stonewall (because really, it stems from them, in the UK) have been enabled and encouraged in all of this for so long, is a scandal. As always women and girls come last, no mistake.

It's vital they're not lost when they matter - girls and boys loos, changing rooms and PE for instance.

And while in many cases I would prefer a neutral collective term rather than 'boys and girls' I'm delighted that, having just checked the welcome page of the girls' school my DD attended it uses 'girls' and 'young women' as it should!

My O and A Level geology lecturer (FE college) called us "folks," we ranged in age from 17 to 23. Mind, she was from Lancashire, so typical usage.

I have to say, there seems to be a lot if school jargon I don't remember; we were pupils, not learners / students, it was head / headmistress / headmaster, rather than principal.

One which struck me when my daughter was in reception was her teacher telling me a boy had been "consequenced" for hitting her.

Stand at the front of any school classroom and all you see is a room full of boys and girls. Lets not lie about it, stop pedalling this stonewall bullshit.

I hate being addressed a 'guys', as in 'hi guys, are you ready to order?' No, please don't called me that. It isn't a generic term for people, it's a generic term for male people and I'm not one of them.

Though when I was teaching I don't think I ever felt the need to say 'boys & girls', or the other way round, when addressing them.

I do wonder about the loyal toast which starts at 'Your Majesty' and goes down through the social ranks until it hits 'ladies & gentlemen'. How do they avoid those offensive words?

I actually do agree on using gender neutral terms if possible. There's actually some research that shows that if you just remind women/girls that they are female before doing a task, they will perform worse!

I teach Uni students, who are a good 80% male, but I tend to start emails with "Hi All..." or "Dear All"

In class I'd say something like "right everybody attention please...." or "OK you lot listen up..."
Or address them by the class name, eg "OK second year Maths, let's get started..."

Indeed. However, I was making the point that every school is clear about the difference between boys and girls as we have to monitor attainment of boys and girls don't we?

Excellent points 👌