There is a difference between sex and sexual orientation or identification.
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Most do. Those who don’t just happen to be loud and often obnoxious. Yes, as teachers we would prefer they just pulled out or went elsewhere TBH. 'Tis a discussion we sometimes have around the lunch table (with fellow teachers, not students).
We have a lot of great parents.
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Then I am not sure why PA has such a teacher crisis.
It’s the loud and obnoxious ones teachers complain about, and they make the local newspaper.
There are more of them now than before, but they’re hardly a majority.
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I’d say that the parents that are the most “afraid” of their authority being usurped by teachers often practice the most authoritarian parenting style and don’t have nearly the influence over their child that they think they do because they haven’t built a trusting relationship with them. The first chance they have to open up to someone that will really listen, they do. In that case, they are probably best off sending their child to another school that has the same authoritarian practices lest their child be exposed to something they don’t agree with.
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Could very well be. But given that you are in a public school open to all the public, those parents have a right to be there and dealing with unhappy “customers” is just part of your job. I am glad they are a minority and that you have supportive parents mostly. But there will always be some unhappy public. If that amount is increasing some self-reflection may be in order.
I don’t think the number is increasing. I think the volume is. what is also increasing is political support via legislation for the desires of a vocal minority.
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Well, in Creekland’s case the state of PA didnt suddenly become conservative. It has
solid blue elected state officials representing it.
In Florida’s case I am not sure it is a minority position at all. If so it would be easy to defeat.
This isn’t really accurate for much of PA.
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Florida is different. Even people who don’t agree with the legislations aimed at schools don’t make that the priority in their voting. As pointed out earlier, the population is older. If you don’t have kids in school, or even if you do and just don’t think this will really affect them, disagreement with this policy may not be a deal breaker.
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It’s sort of like when you have that one kid that derails your class and all the others are missing out. You do your best to try to form a relationship and meet their needs so that they don’t act out while you also don’t allow them to wreck it for everyone else. But, you also do a happy dance in the bathroom the day you find out they are moving. Usually to Florida.
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A requirement that would not only violate students’ trust but put many of them at risk. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for children to be thrown out of their homes due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Research has shown that while only 4.5% of the general population identified as LGBTQ, as many as 40% of the homeless youth population identify as LGBTQ, nearly ten times higher.
https://ocfs.ny.gov/programs/youth/LGBTQ/research.php
If parents are worried that their child is speaking with a teacher or school counselor about these issues while keeping them in the dark, they may do well to examine their views and ponder why their child does not feel comfortable opening up to them.
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Adults’ views are complicated on whether or when controversial issues should be discussed in schools.
Exactly. As a high school teacher who isn’t in a place to rock the boat, that is the hill I will die on. If a high school kid doesn’t want to tell their parent about their orientation, there’s a reason for that.
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That’s where the misconception is. Teachers are not teaching “how to be gay” or “have you considered transgender.” But those kids, and parents, and family and friends are existing in the world. Gay marriage is legal. Getting rid of books or history that contain same sex couples isn’t going to make them go away or push them back in the closet.
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Students are speaking out…
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So is this a new line on the report card? Since they don’t see anything beyond gay and straight, will there be a choice for “other”? Do we have to determine if they are “really” pan or “just” bisexual? The same people that want this reporting done would froth at the mouth if these were even options.
Or will there be a measure for “normative sexual identity/orientation” under a standards-based learning model? I can only guess the criteria for each category. Might be a fun committee to volunteer for. I think we’d have to meet at a bar.
One thing that has changed is that loud politically active adults who do not have children in public schools or any knowledge about what actually happens in the classroom show up to school board meetings to make accusations and demands. That didn’t happen before.
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Just a guess but I bet that was a big issue in the school prayer debates too
You want schools to be responsive to and funded by the public-well, can’t complain when the public shows up
My issue with the law is that it bans “sexual orientation and gender identity” as topics in high school classrooms. Some supporters say that lessons and discussions involving those topics, such as gay and gender-bending characters in literature, women’s rights, Title IX, the AIDS crisis, Obergefell v Hodges, etc. are not included, but the law says they are. Are teachers supposed to try including these topics, and lose their job/license if a parent objects?
As far as I know, the only concrete example of a problem this law is designed to prevent is the case of the Littlejohn family, where the child was 13. Parents want a heads up from the school if their child chooses to go by a different name/pronoun, or use a different bathroom. In order to achieve this objective, they need to ban the entire subject of gender identity, plus same-sex orientation, for all public school students through 12th grade?
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