[user104658]

Originally Posted by Liam-

Here’s the thing, kids should be taught useful life skills, especially as they get older, but they should also be taught about human difference and the acceptance of being different, being nice to people who aren’t the same as you and accepting and loving yourself if you might feel different from everybody else

It doesn’t have to be one or the other

I agree HOWEVER doing so would involve teaching that some people believe that gender is on a spectrum, not that gender IS on a spectrum.

Again I find myself comparing it to religion; we teach about Hinduism (etc) in schools, we teach that there are many millions of people who believe in the teachings of those religions... we teach that people should respect each other's beliefs even if we don't believe them ourselves. We don't teach that the elephant-headed gods are real. We don't comment on it either way. And we certainly don't insist that people pretend to believe things that they don't.

We teach the facts; which in this case is that gender is a sociological construct and therefore open to debate. Some people believe gender is on a spectrum, and some don't. That's ALL that schools should be teaching.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Soldier Boy

I agree HOWEVER doing so would involve teaching that some people believe that gender is on a spectrum, not that gender IS on a spectrum.

Again I find myself comparing it to religion; we teach about Hinduism (etc) in schools, we teach that there are many millions of people who believe in the teachings of those religions... we teach that people should respect each other's beliefs even if we don't believe them ourselves. We don't teach that the elephant-headed gods are real. We don't comment on it either way. And we certainly don't insist that people pretend to believe things that they don't.

We teach the facts; which in this case is that gender is a sociological construct and therefore open to debate. Some people believe gender is on a spectrum, and some don't. That's ALL that schools should be teaching.

Exactly and to compare this to religion again especially speaking as an Irish person who went through state schooling run by the church I think parents of children in Ireland are going to have a low tolerance for this attempt to push ideals on children in school as fact that can't be questioned or disagreed with. We're still trying to get the Catholic Churches strangle hold on the education system and in turn children's minds separated (and we're not even fully there with that yet)