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.
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.
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.
For people outside the US how old would 5th graders actually be?
11 usually
Nowadays a lot of girls at that age already menstruate. It is not only appropriate, you might even argue it is a tad late.
Isn’t that a bit late to be starting basic health education? For girls, that’s above the average age of beginning puberty and for both, it’s years after the cutoff for it being consider precocious.
It is a bit late, but for what it’s worth, we started the puberty lessons at 10 years old and I was one of the older kids in class. Most were 9.
That seems like a perfectly reasonable age to introduce a person to a topic like puberty.
Like I’m pretty sure I was taught the basics of it and what it does to your body when I was that age.
Maybe it’s just how I was raised or taught, sex ed didn’t start till 7th/8th grade for me, and looking back seemed like an appropriate age to me.
But this isn’t sex ed. Discussing gender doesn’t mean discussing having sex.
Except 1.) you’re not an expert 2.) that doesn’t mean we can’t do better.
Of course I’m not an expert, that’s why I’m on this site having a discussion. Wasn’t aware being an expert was required to comment here.
deleted by creator
Notice how i didn’t say, “And thats the age it should stay” i said to me it SEEMED appropriate, that is my opinion, I never claimed my life experience should dictate how all children should be taught. Im not arguing in bad faith, merely expanding on where my thoughts and opinions come from.
The teacher was fired for teaching gender theory, not sex education. Those are very different things and I suspect you know that.
Yes they are two different things but they are related. Puberty can be devastating to a child who isn’t comfortable with their body. In some cases puberty blockers are prescribed to delay the physical changes for children with gender disphoria. So educating gender identity along with puberty isn’t a bad idea.
And yes, some children do start questioning their gender before they start puberty.
But this is all speculative. We don’t know what the context for this teacher reading the book, but calling it inappropriate for their age is wrong.
I think it’s wrong. Gender theory is pretty radical. It has no factual basis. Reinforcing delusions is universally destructive in psychology. As long as those delusions aren’t reinforced, most kids reconcile without intervention. This study found that only 37% of children still identified as dysphoric five years later. This study found that 88% had desisted (they were no longer dysphoric). This mirrors other historical research into various areas of child psychology. Children frequently change identity and beliefs around identity.
As for puberty blockers, they don’t just delay puberty. They also have devastating side effects, including osteoporosis and diabetes. That is why puberty blockers for gender dysphoria have now been banned in Sweden, the United Kingdom, and other European nations.
This topic is rather personal to me, so I’ve researched it to the best of my abilities. I’m happy to concede this isn’t settled science, but must reinforce that this isn’t settled science. It’s not clear that affirmation is beneficial, and in fact, research indicates the opposite.
deleted by creator
Google tells me that NYRAG stands for the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers. I’m sorry but I don’t understand how that relates.
deleted by creator
You think the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the Front Psychiatry journal, and the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry are “Russian and Conservative propaganda”?
Lol.
deleted by creator