SPHE Teacher's Interview - What Happens in the Classroom... - Mod Note Added to OP PLEASE READ

The gay people will be in the same classroom as the kids, not in a different house down the road.

What negative outcomes result from talking to kids about the existence of trans people and gay people? What specifically are you afraid of?

My point stands, not every parent is equipped to discuss LGBT issues and plenty are simply passing on their own bigotry. The very fact you're labeling discussing homosexuality in the classroom as politicising says plenty. On top of that, there are children who have same sex parents but your logic would be effectively to ignore this entirely. Children can even start to recognize they're gay in childhood so by avoiding mentioning it in the classroom, it's not good for them either.

The alternative is they'll learn about LGBT people from TV shows or movies. That's not politicization btw, it's just that LGBT people exist all around us.

Btw, gay was frequently used as an insult when I was in primary school. I'm guessing most children of my era and earlier were first exposed to the concept of gay people was actually homophobia. That was a major thing because we avoided talking about certain topics. But better not to mention it, eh?

The only reason the term is remotely political is because we historically limited their rights. We treated them as criminals, ignored crimes against them and expected them to remain closeted. By your logic, any group associated with a civil rights movement should be avoided cause they're inherently political.

I'd dread to think of how you handled a same sex couple marrying in your family. Clearly it would be too politicised to do such a thing. 🤣

Remember folks, as humans there are two genders, two sexes

Remember folks, there are ignorant people who will insist they know the facts, when they're demonstrably wrong.

Just for starters, and only considering physical biology, approximately 1% of the population is intersex, to some degree or other. There are people born with XX chromosomes, and there are people born with XY chromosomes, and then there are people born with XXY or XYY. ~ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sex-redefined-the-idea-of-2-sexes-is-overly-simplistic1/ https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/biological-sex-and-gender-united-states#:~:text=Individuals%20identified%20as%20males%20tend,develop%20a%20mix%20of%20characteristics.

That's before you even start thinking about culture (many cultures have recognised and celebrated more than two genders, for centuries), or gender dysphoria.

Ultimately, the SPHE curriculum is about teaching kids to teach others with respect. It's a pity some parents here think that's somehow a bad idea.

What's so terrible about providing them with information about the people in their classroom?

Again I ask, how do you know, given that both parents don't always attend at the school gate?

What has the SPHE curriculum got to do with the Green Party?

I'm not sure how you square up the point around "critical thinking" with the apparent parallel point around it all best being left to parents. If a topic is kept purely to parental-based learning, the "critical thinking" element is only as strong as the parents' abilities to actually encourage critical thought.

Even by what you say there about "filling children full of sh*t" — well — it doesn't sound like if you were the sole dispenser of education to your children on this topic you'd be teaching them to think critically about it at all. It sounds more like you would either just tell them it's a load of sh*t or you would just avoid the topic completely if you could. That's not critical thinking.

I mean — if critical thinking skills is a priority for you, then is it not the ideal scenario that children learn about the topic at school and then you teach them some alternative viewpoint thus presenting them with an actual balance point between two ways of looking at an issue?