Georgia school board fires teacher for reading a book to students about gender identity - eviltoast

A Georgia school board voted along party lines Thursday to fire a teacher after officials said she improperly read a book on gender fluidity to her fifth grade class.

  • CanofBeanz@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    18
    arrow-down
    108
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    I just don’t understand why 5th graders should even be exposed to that that early. For kids that haven’t even gone through puberty yet I think gender identity is a pretty mature topic, and I don’t think I’d want a teacher being the one to discuss it with my child.

    And before someone says that I just want to suppress the info keeping it out of school, what about the flip side where a nut job teacher decides 2 genders is part of the lesson plan?

    Edit: Never been so dogpiled about a comment before. In MY OPINION I just think 5th grade is too early. According to the hive mind I am wrong.

    I also get nervous having government agencies (schools) involved with anything lgbtq+. We all know the government and our courts always side with the compassionate and accepting side. And would never suppress people’s rights. /S

    Some of you are out of control, I never thought that comment would cause people to assume my gender, orientation, political affiliation, hell one of you assumed my race (wtf)

    • Whismora@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      106
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      5th grade seems like an appropriate time to start educating students about this as part of their health curriculum. That’s the grade when they gave us the puberty talk in my old school district.

      Some early bloomers absolutely start puberty during or before 5th grade.

    • itsJoelle@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      65
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      My sister “knew” she was trans when she was around 8. Granted, we didn’t have the terminology back then so…

      That being said, how is it a “mature” topic? We teach children the concept of “this boy” and “this girl” much earlier than that. And I’m confused how the concept has anything to do with puberty either.

      • Phoebe@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        ·
        1 year ago

        Same with my younger sibling. It was very obvios early in their life, but we didn’t had words for it either. Didn’t understand and didn’t took it that serious.

        I had my period with 11 years, but suffered till i was 30. Cause it was a tabu to talk about that. I need to Suffer, i was told. BS.

        It is crucial to give kids knowledge that they are not wrong. That they are not weird. That they know everything is okay and their parents are here guiding them. AND they need to know that other people are not weird so they can learn empathy.

    • HopeOfTheGunblade@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      38
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Said it in another thread on this:

      I’m trans.

      I figured it out, literally in the fifth grade.

      It’s not too early. It’s not too hard. It’s not bad for them. Not having proper knowledge of things has made my life harder and worse than it had to be. If you want to help kids, teaching them things is how you do that. Hiding things from them hurts trans kids, and it makes it easier for predators to predate on kids. If you want to hurt kids, that’s on you, but say it with your fuckin’ chest. Don’t hide behind this line that you know is false.

      Oh, and re nutjob teachers:

      We teach evolution in school, because the data backs it. We don’t teach creationism in school, because the data doesn’t back it. It’s not that hard, this argument is pointless chaff.

      • HuddaBudda@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        ·
        1 year ago

        As someone who grew up on the home school christian cult side of things.

        I’ve done the abstinence only teaching, to the point I was in my teens and thought all girls had a penis.

        Ya, ya, laugh it up.

        Only thing I can say is, it doesn’t work, it never did. Once body changes start happening kids have tons of questions and when the answer to those questions is “Do nothing”, that’s not going to be enough.

        Especially when we grow up in a society that encourages asking questions and giving answers. Until it gets into this one topic.

    • DessertStorms@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      38
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      “I’m privileged enough to have been born cis and straight in this cis-heteronormative world where my gender and sexuality have been openly discussed and supported (if not enforced) since birth, but when those who are trans and/or gay want to talk openly about how they’ve also known their gender and orientation for just as long, it’s suddenly a sensitive topic I don’t think children are ready to hear”

      And you know what that says about you?
      That you’re not as tolerant or progressive as you like to tell yourself you are.

      • CanofBeanz@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        24
        ·
        1 year ago

        Jesus Christ I just thought 5th grade was too young. I think your reading my comment a little too deep.

        • DessertStorms@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          23
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          No, I’m really not.

          Because I guarantee that you have no issue with cis-heteronormative fairy tales being told to kids, nor cis-heteronormative gender stereotypes enforced on them, from significantly younger than the 5th grade. I also guarantee that you don’t give a shit about how those who aren’t cis or hetero are impacted by only ever learning about those who are.

          You’re only clutching your “think of the children!!1” pearls now because you’ve been socialised to other trans and gay people and to believe that their entire existence revolves around the act of sex, so in your mind teaching kids about gender (something we all have an experience of, even if we conclude we don’t have one, and are aware of from as early as infancy) is the equivalent of somehow exposing them to porn or some other “immorality” (when the book literally just teaches kids about accepting others).

          So you can keep telling yourself whatever you like to make yourself feel better, but the reality is that you are buying in to, and actively perpetuating, transphobia and homophobia.

        • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          17
          ·
          1 year ago

          Most of these discussions don’t really get into the details of it. It isn’t like a 5th grade teacher is going to go into exactly how the surgery and hormon injects work. It is a pretty top level PG rated discussion. I agree if that strawman was happening it would be if nothing else very strange.

          There is a difference between telling a kid that two guys can marry and showing a kid a hardcore gay porno.

    • ExpensiveConstant@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      1 year ago

      I mean I remember taking biology that went over reproductive anatomy in 6th grade. I feel like gender identity isn’t any more mature of a topic than penises and vaginas. Maybe my school was an outlier though? Either way I think letting kids who might not feel comfortable with their gender know that their feelings are valid is important enough to warrant mentioning in elementary school

    • Floey@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      1 year ago

      Except gender is a much less mature topic than sex and sexual attraction, something that should be taught around 5th grade if not earlier, before children have confusing feelings and their bodies undergo confusing changes. The media atmosphere already leaves impressions about sexuality in the minds of children much earlier, so there isn’t much harm for parents or teachers to discuss the topic in a much healthier way.

      Gender on the other hand is something impressed upon and experienced by even toddlers, so the topic of gender isn’t all that mature, it’s only treated as mature because of the social taboos regarding trans individuals.

    • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      1 year ago

      People are gender non conforming from a young age, not after puberty. Making them wait to learn about it just means they will be confused about it for longer, whether it’s themselves or their peers

    • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      1 year ago

      You can easily talk to preschoolers about this stuff. A little bit of information about the world they live in doesn’t hurt them in the least.

    • MagicShel@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      My daughters went through puberty at 9 and almost 9. That’s 4th grade. The older one knew she was gay by 11. I had sex ed starting in 5th grade back in the fucking 80’s.

    • itsJoelle@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      In response to the edit: I notice you pivoted from it being a function of “maturity” and placement relative to puberty, to now wrapping it in concern of the gov’t - some how - surpressing “lgbtq rights” by teaching about their existence, which is a contradictory stance, but w.e.

      Look, my sister’s trans, my mothers are gay, and I’m the straight dood in my family. I’m not in a hivemind, and my experience watching them wade through life informs my thoughts. Your appeal that people who disagree with you are in one is troubling, to say the least.

      Heck, you didn’t even address a few anecdotes of people being precisely in the age range you had issue with, and instead chose to take a different tact – instead doubling down you are correct.

      • CanofBeanz@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        I didn’t “pivot”, i didnt brink up the age aspect because it is pretty apparent that i’m in the minority (at least on here) with my opinion, The government / school aspect was before the edit if you look again. I only brought that back up because I felt i could expand my train of thought on it, i didn’t feel there is anything to add about the age when such education is appropriate, especially when me and the other commenters disagree so strongly that nothing will come of it.

    • WhereDoIPutMyToaster@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      I think it’s common to conflate Gender Dysphoria and sexual maturity since hormone therapy is a common treatment. Here is a study from the nlm about the age transgender adults first experienced symptoms of GD. It’s only one study so maybe do some additional reading.

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8766261/#:~:text=Gender%20dysphoria%20history%3A%20Of%20the,among%20their%20earliest%20childhood%20memories.

    • WalrusDragonOnABike@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      What does puberty have to do with the topic? Should we wait til puberty to teach people that the flu or covid exists? It’s a topic connected to many deaths, so surely it’s a mature topic. Otoh, gender is a pretty basic topic parents force onto children, often before the child is even born. Why do we allow such inappropriate behavior towards literal children?

    • snooggums@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      Well, some kids in 5th grade will start to wonder about themselves so it sounds pretty age appropriate to be taught differences exists.

    • blackbelt352@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      I was in catholic school and started sex ed (well what counts as sex ed for a catholic school) in 5th grade. They told us about some of the most extreme cases of what some.of the worst sti’s do and we watched video of an actual birth so if we could handle hearing and seeing those things in a catholic school, I think 5th graders can handle learning about how people express their genders.

    • Wolf_359@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I think my teachers did a really good job discussing this when I was a kid. In fact, I think they did such a good job, that it should be the standard until we have a more agreed-upon understanding of gender fluidity. I mean, I’m in favor of teaching it but I understand not everyone is and it’s maybe not fully understood yet.

      Way back in 2005, my 5th grade health teacher essentially said this:

      "Usually men want to have sex with women and women want to have sex with men. But sometimes, men want to have sex with men, women want to have sex with women, and not everyone feels like they were born in the right body. Sometimes, men feel like women and women feel like men.

      You guys have probably heard a lot about gay marriage and homosexuality in the news. This is what they are talking about and adults don’t always agree on some of this. A lot of people think it’s okay to be gay or to change your gender. Other people think it goes against their religion. I’m here if you have any questions, but you can also ask your parents what they think about it."

      This was after he sent home a permission slip to talk about sex ed. in general. Every parent signed except for one Muslim girl in the class. She went and watched movies in the room next door because her parents preferred to talk to her about it in their own way.

      I thought it was a pretty uncontroversial way to handle this whole thing. We could probably go a bit farther today, but this was pretty progressive for 2005.

      I remember this so vividly because I could feel that there was tension around the topic and I could tell that my teacher was respectfully trying to share both sides of an issue. I remember thinking it was interesting that adults didn’t agree on this. There was a legal battle over gay marriage licenses in New York City going on in 2005 and it was all over the local news, so I remember it being a big deal.

    • Efwis@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      what about the flip side where a nut job teacher decides 2 genders is part of the lesson plan?

      They already do that in every school I know of. These idiot say they are indoctrinating kids to be homosexual or trans ( tbf not sure if there is a real difference besides body look) yet all “health” classes focus on the male and female reproductive system. I remember parents getting In an uproar over high schoolers being given condoms in the class.

      Yea some children are rebellious against the norma, however I truly believe that if the parents want to control the schooling so bad, then their asses should quit their jobs and home school. Otherwise they should all just STFU.

    • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Edit: Never been so dogpiled about a comment before.

      Let’s keep going. Hope you disabled notifications.

      In MY OPINION I just think 5th grade is too early. According to the hive mind I am wrong.

      Just cuz you had a bad take doesn’t mean we’re a fucking hive mind. I didnt even bother reading others’ replies before giving you my piece. But way to be condescending to cushion your ego!

      I also get nervous having government agencies (schools) involved with anything lgbtq+. We all know the government and our courts always side with the compassionate and accepting side. And would never suppress people’s rights. /S

      So you support government censorship as a tool to protect against… government censorship?

      Some of you are out of control, I never thought that comment would cause people to assume my gender, orientation, political affiliation, hell one of you assumed my race (wtf)

      Still haven’t read what others had to say, it’s probably quite disgusting yes

      Look you had a bad take and now you’re lashing out to protect your ego. its fine

    • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      You are 100% correct. Absolutely no reason to be bringing up any of this nonsense to 10 year olds.

      But good luck having a logical conversation with some about this - just because you don’t want 10 year olds exposed to this, they immediately (and quite wrongly) accuse of you being some bible-thumper or some right wing nazi or a MAGAt or someone along those lines. Maybe you just know your kid and know it is too early to discuss this stuff with them? This teacher forced the hand of the school board panel to fire her because she specifically pull this stunt against parent wishes.

      It is obnoxious to see that many on the far-left act the same way and use the same attack techniques as those on the far-right. They both are just as stubborn and just as closed-minded to altering viewpoints. What makes it especially bad is that liberals at least like to pretend that they are open-minded to differing viewpoints, but the reality is that for many, that is absolutely not the case.

      This shit has no business in schools, especially at this young age. Those who are stubbornly pushing this nonsense are doing way more harm than good to liberal causes. These people are painting a terrible picture to the country of what the far-left wants to do and that they will do it regardless of what parents agree to.

      You all are setting the movement back, not helping it move forward. You come off as clowns.