Damian Wilson
is a UK journalist, ex-Fleet Street editor, financial industry consultant and political communications special advisor in the UK and EU.
is a UK journalist, ex-Fleet Street editor, financial industry consultant and political communications special advisor in the UK and EU.
New woke-sick guidance on transgender pupils issued to Scottish schools pushes gender theory cobblers that pits teachers against parents with secretive and unqualified support for youngsters who say they want to change sex.
The UK has largely resisted the more looney liberal ideas about gender identity that originated on the West Coast of America, but ever determined to blaze a trail, the devolved Scottish administration has embraced this nonsense wholeheartedly.
In a total capitulation to the gender theorists who believe the biological sex of an individual can be untethered from their gender identity so the two need not align, the Scots are actually promoting this rubbish throughout the education system.
Scottish primary school teachers have received government guidance that means even four-year-olds who decide they want to switch gender must be supported and listened to in school and, oh, by the way, no need to tell their mum or dad that wee Isla now wants to be known as wee Ian. Lord knows how this idiocy will go down among the parents. If they ever find out.
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I’m no psychologist but I am a parent and encouraging children to live a separate life at school which they hide from their parents at home doesn’t sound like wellbeing management to me. In fact, this ‘our little secret’ endorsement is actually kinda creepy.
Kids say and do the craziest things – look at TikTok or YouTube if you’re in any doubt – but being an adult responsible for the wellbeing of children either as teacher or parent, you need to make them aware of the consequences of their words and actions. So if Jimmy announces that he wants to be Spider-Man and insists on eating flies instead of school dinners, then a teacher or other responsible adult would make the case for a rethink.
In Scotland, it seems, this would be frowned upon.
What really makes the mind boggle here is that there is no mention of the need for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria before teachers, or the dinner ladies, decide that the infants in their care are equipped to make decisions that not only have a tremendous impact on their own lives but on those of the other pupils around them.
Seeking a professional opinion is bog-standard procedure with young people in this situation, and to simply bypass any sort of expert input is grossly irresponsible and culpably negligent. The guidance only suggests seeking support ‘if required’. But there’s no mention of who should make that call.
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No matter what the guidelines say, going along with a child’s assertion that they are transgender simply reinforces the idea, rather than addressing what might have given rise to the claim. Next stop: puberty blockers and other powerful drugs, followed by body mutilation and a lifetime of doubt about the validity of their decision. It’s not a step to be taken just so woke-sick education officials can trumpet their progressive ideals.
Teachers have been told to ask what pronouns they would like to use, before the child has even learnt what a pronoun is – let alone what the difference between boys and girls might be.
The guidance also says schools should include books featuring transgender people – good news for sales of David Walliams’ ‘Boy In The Dress’ – on the curriculum and give pupils the freedom to chose which changing rooms or toilets they use. Oh, and while they’re at it, what about a gender-neutral uniform? Kilts all round!
We all know the Scots like to cut from the herd, but this time, they’re simply wrong. And it’s daft for Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville to claim that “this guidance outlines how schools can support transgender young people while ensuring that the rights of all pupils are fully respected.”
Tell that to the teenage schoolgirls who are asked to be OK about teenage schoolboys sharing their toilets and stripping off in front of them in the changing rooms. This guidance sought to tick all the boxes in this new age of gender identity.
The only one left unticked was that requiring common sense.
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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
