The movie is in theaters today.
I have a long history on this blog of saying that children are not ours as teachers, they're their parents'. If there's a conflict about some moral/ethical/philosophical belief that I think students should have and what belief their parents think they should have, there's no conflict--the parents win. The kids are my students, they're not my children.
Not all teachers/administrators think that way:
Teachers at a school district in Wisconsin are being instructed to hide their students’ changing gender identities from parents on the grounds that “parents are not entitled to know,” and that it is “knowledge that must be earned,” according to leaked training documents.
The instruction was part of several recent staff development sessions for teachers in the Eau Claire Area School District in central Wisconsin that focused on safe spaces, gender identity, microaggressions, and oppression. According to one of the trainers, parents who disagree with their kids about gender identity issues are guilty of a form of “abuse.” The trainers also encouraged the teachers to be activists: “to vote, to demonstrate, to protest.”
I don't know about all of California, but this has been my district's policy for some time. And it's a sick policy.
I don't know if you were aware of it or not, but this past weekend there was a #DetransDay on twitter. The stories are heartbreaking. Young women who were "counseled" to have double mastectomies at 14 bear the scars of major surgery for no good cause. Many of these young people were nudged into action by counselors and doctors who steered them into action and terrified their parents with the saying "Do you want a live son or a dead daughter." This flies in the face of decades of gender reassignment data that shows for most children identified with gender dysphoria, it is resolved as homosexuality as adults. What is happening is the LGBTQ+ lobbyists are getting political tread on the numbers that are ginned up using social media, movies and television to promote the condition. What they do not address are the physical detriments down the line including experiences that simulate menopause in young girls on HRT and a great deal of pain and psychological trauma inflicted by people making a boatload of money from insurance companies by pushing this agenda. And don't even get me started on the mentally ill parents, like the woman in Texas transitioning one of her nine year old male twins via a collection of brainwashing techniques worthy of Mengele. And she's a pediatrician! The detransitioning stories should be be a cautionary tale for parents, teachers and doctors everywhere over why politicians should not be controlling medical issues. This will be viewed as worse mutilation than the castrati in 16th century Rome by future historians. They will relegate that to the same type of hysteria as the Salem Witch Trials. Here's an apt article on the subject.
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In the little town of Ferndale, Washington (population 14K), I know of 2 situations which teachers were not allowed to let parents know their children (both cases elementary school children) were going by different names and pronouns.
ReplyDeleteAs a person who worked with people ending their marriages, it is a fact that children who have parents that are divorced are 40 times more likely to be abused than an intact family. A common tactic young children use to feel empowered is to imagine they are people who are victimizing them. Not giving the child’s parents information about the child’s behavior which cause concern, couldn’t that be construed as allowing potential abuse to continue?
I am not saying this would be situation in large percentage of gender dysphoria. But to me, if it is the situation with one child, it is one too many. The parents need to be allowed to know the facts, so they are allowed to examine potential reasons for the behavior.
Did you see the movie? I wanted to, but there was only one showing and it was at a time I couldn't go. I have met one of the people involved in its production, and I am sure it was informative. What suggestions were given for undoing this?
ReplyDeleteI didn't see it, but I know Rebecca Friedrichs--she is a powerhouse *not* to be ignored!
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