Teachers will be forced to tell parents that their child is questioning their gender even if the young person objects under new guidance for schools in England, the equalities minister has indicated.

  • Ezra09@ttrpg.network
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    1 year ago

    There’s a gap between questioning and transitioning. Kids need people they feel safe talking to. Kids need to be able to ask questions about the world without feeling like they’ll be punished. You mentioned in other comments about programs to reduce abuse, but what about something as simple as:

    Mr Teacher, I have questions about what it means to be a boy or girl. I don’t want to ask my parents because they get mad when the topic comes up on the news.

    Well, little Timmy, you shouldn’t have told me that because I now need to legally tell your parents. Hope you’re ready to feel unloved just for asking a question, nerd.

    • MasterOBee Master/King@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There’s a gap between questioning and transitioning

      If Jimmy is now going by Cindy, that’s a social cue of transitioning.

      Kids need people they feel safe talking to. Kids need to be able to ask questions about the world without feeling like they’ll be punished. You mentioned in other comments about programs to reduce abuse, but what about something as simple as:

      I agree they need people they feel safe talking to. Schools have counselors.

      It shouldn’t be up to teachers to determine the morality of what the kids saying and whether they should share it with the parents or not.

      Well, little Timmy, you shouldn’t have told me that because I now need to legally tell your parents. Hope you’re ready to feel unloved just for asking a question, nerd.

      See? You have to be incredibly hyperbolic to even create a situation where it’d be bad for parents to discuss with parents about the children’s behavior.

      If instead of a teacher, your kid starts going to church and has these secret meetings with pastors and priests, are you comfortable with that?

      • Ezra09@ttrpg.network
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        1 year ago

        If Jimmy is now going by Cindy, that’s a social cue of transitioning.

        You say I’m using hyperbole in the same comment as this. You do know it’s possible to question gender without changing your name, right?

        I did use hyperbole to make my point, but only in how bluntly it would be said. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say there are shitty, but not abusive enough to lose their kids, parents out there, and I do think there are kids out there who would rather ask questions of other adults in their lives. I am making this argument about the edge cases, because I think the argument “this will only fuck over a small percentage of people” is a shit take. So is “teachers are government employees who should act as interchangable robots that kids can’t trust or confide in.”

        • MasterOBee Master/King@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          You do know it’s possible to question gender without changing your name, right?

          Yes, which is why I think it’s weird that you try to draw this line that encourages teachers to hide that from parents.

          . I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say there are shitty, but not abusive enough to lose their kids, parents out there,

          And you think government employees should determine that simply because of their intuition? The movement from objectivity to subjectivity at the whim of the government is tragic.

          I do think there are kids out there who would rather ask questions of other adults in their lives.

          Therapists. Religious leaders. Aunts. Uncles.

          Why does it have to be the teachers? The education system is a failure - our spending on schools tops the world. Literally 30% more per full time student than our peer countries. Our test scores are constantly at the bottom of those countries.

          Then we’re being told that our schools are shitty because they’re underfunded. Then they tell us the students will do better if the teachers can teach them about gender and sexual ideologies at young ages, and have private conversations with the teachers.

          Nah, dog. If our schools showed that they could teach our children math, english and science with the vast sums of money we keep throwing at them, maybe I’d buy it. But not with how shitty they’ve shown the education system is.