Proud moment at school today

Best we don't mention all this to Michael Gove, eh?

 

Great stuff. Hopefully their acceptance, understanding & tolerance will be mirrored by their parents.

 

Fat chance

 

All sounds a bit gay

 

'Safeguarding team'

'Transition day'

'Gender non-comforming'



And these are what, 8/9 year olds?

Wow.


I honestly thought you were describing teenagers initially.



But in response to the point you're making, I suppose it's good that kids with different feelings (or however you describe it) are being made to feel comfortable in having them. But as Craig said further up, it'll be a different kettle of fish in their teens. There was a lad at my sisters old school (she left two years ago) who was apparently fancied by a gay lad. His mates took the piss, as you do. He ended up battering the gay lad. Turned out the gay lad didn't fancy him, it was a joke by some lass, **** stirring, who fancied the lad who did the battering.

Kids must be both a nightmare and a joy to work with. Good luck to you, JD. A proud profession for sure. Just be careful.

 

Me too Andy, I read the post and genuinely thought that it was about kids about to leave school or even in the sixth form.

 

I do know what you mean.

 

We as Barnsley folk are proud of the film KES......although it was brutal...........but now the swing has gone completely in the other direction in our schools..............and is now in a place that most people in the real world (i.e. not school or school teachers) just cannot understand.

And then we wonder why kids are leaving school with little or no understanding of how the real world works.........but everything seems to be ok if someone dances with a pink pom pom

 

Edit: Actually, I'm not going to rise to it.

 

Jam drop - what exactly are you proud of ?
I think you may have got it completely wrong and in a few years time when in High School this lad is going to have massive problems.
Responding to the of a 'gender nonconforming' child is an immense challenge to both parents and teachers and you need professional advice here.

 

I'm proud that the children in my class are able to accept people for the choices they make and not what society expects. The only reason this kid will have problems in high school is if he encounters people who are not willing to accept him. I know that's probably going to happen but if everyone taught that it was ok to be yourself like I do in my class, then there won't be anyone who thinks any differently. Homophobia is learned behaviour and I (and I hope everyone else too) teaches that it is not acceptable.

Also, if I tell him it is not ok now to like boys or do a dance then he's got massive problems now. They might be different ones (e.g. feeling abnormal and unable to do what makes him happy, rather than being directly bullied) but probably no less massive to him. I may as well let him be happy now and teach my class to accept people's differences, rather than treating him like he is the one in the wrong and making him miserable now.

 

There may be trouble ahead
But while there's pom poms and music. And boys too romance
Let's face the music and prance.

 

Well said. I think its definitely something to be proud if that your kids basically dont care who this lad fancies or what hes attracted to. I cant think of anything worse than telling the headteacher and making a big deal about it.well i can and that is to go telling hin its wrong or that hes going to get bullied for it as all that will do is make him hide his feelings and grow up resenting who he is.

 

its a tricky situation for you as a teacher,if this kid is showing tendencies of being gay you cant tell him its wrong,he is what he is.On the otherhand you cant ram it down the thoats of the other kids either,theres a balance somewhere and you've got to make sure everyone is suited,maybe it will be easier because of their age,who knows?

 

Their age makes acceptance very easy. As I said before I thought you were talking about teenagers and I was amazed at what you said in your opening post but then when I realised that you were talking about 8 year olds it sort of put the situation into a bit of perspective. At 8 years old I don't think this lad understands his sexuality or what he is doing, he may well grow out of it, he may not but one thing is for sure he is going to find acceptance less easy to come by as he gets older. I don’t think that you can glibly correlate homophobia and bigotry with having concerns over an eight year old boy wanting to behave in this manner. I have two boys, one at 22 and one at 17 and their sexuality would not / is not an issue to me but if they'd have wanted to express themselves in this way at eight I would probably have very reluctantly gone along with it but at the same time I would have been very concerned.

 

Safeguarding ??

 

well it could be a lot worse

he could be a Wednesday fan

 

I do not think all of what you have said means the lad is homosexual. Many boys and girls at that age have a crush on a kid their age and of same sex. Its normal really. The boy could turn out to be that way, but I would wait and see what happens when puberty kicks in.... it could be a whole different story then. But whatever the kid chooses in life then he should not be ashamed of it, and neither should his family. Of course if chooses to follow a DeeDah team then he should be horse whipped publically and ridiculed.