Could we be passing judgment on a story, and a person, where all the facts are not yet known?
No, surely not, that would be a first... well maybe not.
Trial by an internet forum, from all of us who in reality know very little of what’s going on here. I find this type of thing bizarre, and irresponsible. No doubt overtime there will be more to come out regarding this story, but it seems that already some want to pass judgment on the teacher.
Its seems that it is also being reported that some of these 11 year olds, (at a girls school) then changed their pronouns the following day. The teacher in question wanted to discuss the children’s gender/pronouns with the parents to see what they wanted their children to be referred as, as opposed to bowing down to 11 year olds.
The pupils decided to stage a protest because the teacher allegedly refused to acknowledge their request on usage; the teacher saying she would need to involve parents if a pupil’s preferred pronouns differed from their biological sex. Do the parents not have any say in this? Parents who are paying £20,000 a year for their children to be at this school.
Why did the school allow this protest from the pupils? The teacher said: “I was told that they made placards with slogans such as “Trans Lives Matter”.
I’m already aware that in some schools in the uk that if a young child feels they are different, and might be considering transgender, then the school might not tell the parents, but deal with the child in their own way, whatever that way might be.
Why would I not want to work in an environment and profession like this, I wonder? Some seem to think this teacher isn’t suitable to this learning environment. I don’t think I would be suitable either.
If what has been reported so far is correct, Is it irresponsible for a teacher, in the eyes of the school, to not want to talk to the parents of 11 year old before using a preferred pronoun; a pronoun that might change the next day or the next week.
When speaking with someone at work, whose wife is a Supply Teacher, and then hearing stories from him where is wife has said she went in to teach at one school and some of the young pupils were changing their gender every week.
I have a 13 year old niece who sees herself as gender neutral, but only it seems become she feels that no-one should be assigned a gender. My 13 year old niece has a boyfriend; she dresses in a way that I personally can only describe as being a girl. She insists on using the boy’s toilets and changing rooms, and wants everyone, including her parents, to refer to her not by her given name, but to call her by the colour, “Grey”. Because it’s a neutral colour, and because she sees herself as a neutral gender. On the one occasion I’ve spoken with her boyfriend, he sees my 13 year old niece (who is also my goddaughter) as very much a girl. Why is that I wonder.
