Catholic primary schools reject Roderic O’Gorman view that their pupils should be taught ‘what is it to be transgender’
Catholic primary schools reject Roderic O’Gorman view that their pupils should be taught ‘what is it to be transgender’
25 comments
Easy solution. No more religious schooling.
Anyone find it ironic that The Catholic Primary Schools Management Association are arguing that because there is a lack of scientific consensus on the issue it shouldn’t be taught in school?
That’s some Pandora’s Box to be opening.
What is it exactly that they want taught? The article doesn’t say.
That is a bit of a heavy topic for primary school in fairness. Regardless of religion
Not that tough really. “Some people are women, and some people are men, and some people aren’t either. And you can’t always tell by looking”. If they can expect you to understand the holy trinity, transubstantiation, and go through your first communion and confirmation, they can accept people being different on the inside to how you might guess at first glance
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Literally all that is needed in primary is to introduce the topic, some people are boys, some people are girls, and some people aren’t either. You decide what you are and what makes you happy. Boom, done, kids can learn the specifics in secondary school.
This organisation represents 90% of schools in Ireland. It isn’t a matter of “Catholic teaching” when the vast majority of families have no alternative.
Let’s be real, Catholic primary schools already teach about gender, they just do it their way. I don’t see a problem with schools saying, oh by the way transgender people exist. You’re probably gonna see them on media or on social media. They’re people. This is what that means. We can talk about it more later in secondary school.
I think it’s worth saying that lots of Catholic schools do a decent job in supporting LGBT+ students. But that lots of other schools are so homophobic that teachers can’t come out, their religious classes enforce backwards views of families and students mental health suffers.
Yeah because the Catholic Church is such a great barometer of what’s good for children.
I love the comments “it’s a bit too much for Primary schools”, meanwhile they are taught (I was taught this at primary level, unless it’s changed massively) “There is an invisible omnipotent god watching you at all times, and if you feel any of these specific emotions or break any of the rules we have set you will burn in hell for all eternity unless you confess to certain people we have deemed that it’s ok to confess to” oh and also these people you confess to have a history of one of the most vile abuses of power you can imagine. (Not all priests/nuns, etc. but plenty of them let it happen without saying a word)
Like people need to be educated neutrally on what it is to be trans so that when they go out into the world and meet a trans person they have a neutral view on which to accept/reject them on and not whatever biased view they recieve from a transphobe.
These comments are so interesting. I have an 11-year-old daughter and we just watched a fashion show where one of the contestants was a trans man and they did a great job explaining his struggle with identity and transition. I loved that she got to see it in a loving positive way. I made a comment about it being great that he gets to be who he truly wants to be; she now knows she can come home and be accepted for whatever she wishes to identify as.
I don’t see the problem. At some point kids are going to meet transgender or non-binary people and it’s natural for them to be curious.
As with many people, my first childhood exposure to transgender people came through harmful stereotypes from the likes of Family Guy and The Hangover. The t-word was a favourite of playground bullies. And that was long before the TERF movement took off. Counteracting the hate early with a basic explanation of why some people reject gender labels or change their gender might make the next generation a bit kinder.
People get so weird around stuff like this. I’d imagine the school will go into the very, very basics of this.
I remember Nadia winning Big Brother in 2004 when I was 6. It wasn’t too hard for me to grasp at 6 that some people are born in the wrong body. They’ll be grand.
The lack of proper SPHE at primary level is the issue here imho.
No issue with this being taught at primary level, children don’t magically become sentient beings after primary school level. They have thoughts and feelings and curiosities. They are being educated regardless online, better that there is at least something that is part of a well thought out, age appropriate curriculum.
Just another reason that religion should be completely removed from education.
Don’t they already know? I was in primary school 20 years ago and we knew what a transgender person was by 3rd class. Not officially from the teacher obviously but we knew what it meant.
Why does the Catholic church still have such a say in our school systems. We should have a proper separation of church and state. So no catholic control of our schools, leave them just any private schools for people who want a specific catholic education.
Back when I was in national school we had the local parish priest drop in a few times a week. Turns out a few years later he was convicted for abuse. How many times has that sentence been said by different people who attended primary school in Ireland, I wonder?
So my question is, why are the church permitted within a 100m of a child in 21st century Ireland?
They never even taught me wtf anal was in Christian brothers let alone anything in relation to homosexuality and I had my last sex education class in 2015
Only reason this is making headlines is because it involves the scapegoat minority of the week.
We also had a screening of the silent scream and a abstinence only yank lecture played in the same year because they hate us
Going by what I hear other parents say the hostility towards this has very little to do with religion. Unless all of them are secretly attending mass and I wasn’t aware of it.
Had a sex ed class in 6th class where they covered the fundamentals , took up the evening portion of one day , put it in with that if you’re going to have it. Would be seriously opposed to their usual teachers talking to them about anything remotely sexual at that age.
This fucker is really determined in pushing his agenda. Leave the kids have a childhood ffs.
The article discusses concern that this is a psychogenic epidemic.
Psychogenic contagion is likely the source of the statistical explosion in the number of individuals claiming transgenderism.
Transgender individuals were historically mostly male to female.
The number of cases of transgenderism has exploded in recent years. The huge increase is mostly female to other gender (female to male, non binary etc etc).
It’s also noteworthy that a large number of autistic females are claiming gender dysphoria in recent years.
Psychogenic epidemics also are said to affect biological females more.
Intense media coverage seems to exacerbate outbreaks.
Self harming and some eating disorders etc have well researched evidence of being Psychogenic epidemics.
I’m not saying some people don’t have classic gender dysphoria they obviously do but many new cases have all the hall marks of a psychogenic epidemic.
So it’s questionable if teaching all young children about this is a good idea. I don’t think we have nearly enough research to claim that this initiative will be a net good to society.
How about we focus on improving literacy and numeracy skills
I’m an atheist but I agree with them