Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Parents angry over transgender teacher
This is just nuts.
http://www.kcra.com/cnn-news/17714619/detail.html
An excerpt:
A teacher's gender reassignment surgery has caught the attention of some parents who want to know why the school district didn't notify them ahead of time about the change.A music teacher at Foxboro Elementary School, who was formerly a woman, returned to school as a man at the beginning of the school year.The teacher, who was not identified by KCRA 3, is now being addressed as "Mister."
Some parents told Travis Unified School District that they feel like their rights to know were violated
IBSYS.ad.AdManager.registerPosition({ "iframe": false, "addlSz": "", "element": "ad_N2C28", "interstitials": false, "beginDate": "", "endDate": "", "getSect": "yes", "name": "square", "qString": "", "width": "300", "height": "250", "section": "", "useId": "17714619", "interactive": false, "useSameCategory": false, "topic": "", "swSectionRoot": "", "useZone": "", "type": "DOM" });
Their rights to know what? That a teacher had an intensely personal surgery and transition? He's living as a man. He looks like a man. He isn't hurting the students.
The worst part, imo:
So far, 23 students from 15 different families have transferred their children out of the music class and into a physical education class.
Re: Parents angry over transgender teacher
they should have just said it was a different teacher. I don't see how its anyone's business.
Mommy, why is Ms. Smith now Mr. Smith?
You're taking PE instead.
Is that really the Parent of the Year answer?
To play devil's advocate, if this teacher teaches students at multiple grade levels, I can see how it would be confusing for students to have a class with "Ms. Smith" in, say, 3rd grade, and then come back the following year and have a class with "Mr. Smith," who is obviously the same person. I think the kids would start asking questions. But parents should address the issue by explaining the situation to their kids, not by transferring them out of class.
my read shelf:
I'm sorry but no matter how much parents may want to shelter their children, (as if this is that horrible) this stuff exists. Best to greet it with maturity, even if it seems creepy to the parents.
But I mean, I see why they were upset; he's obviously going to recruit their kids, right?
This is my deal with Prop 8 too. There's this big push by the Yes campaign about how gay marriage will be taught in schools. (complete with commercials with a little girl telling her mommy about how she could marry a princess) Well, gay marriage exists. Would you rather we lie away the gay? Its like evolution even. I will never understand some parents' assertion that knowledge somehow hurts their children.
Is no one else concerned that you have the choice of PE OR music? Shouldn't you been having to do both at that age?
I'm ignoring stupid parents. My life is happier that way. So that's why I'm only addressing the curriculum.
Totally agree because we are talking elementary school kids.
LOL I was kind of thinking the same thing.
I do agree with LMW though. I would like the opportunity to explain it before the sixth graders on the back of the bus do.
I don't think they are chicken-shit. I think they are protecting the privacy rights of their employee.
Personally, I would have chosen to trasnfer to a different school to avoid these kinds of issues, but I don't think they should have made him do that. I'm glad they are so supportive of him. I mean, if people are trasnferring their kid out of his class, how would it have been different if they had notified them ahead of time?
Yes. But that doesn't impact his ability to be a good teacher.
Again, personally, I would have made the choice to go to another school, so that it was less of an issue with current students. But I don't feel like it's worth a broadcast, panicky message to all parents, implying that there is something to be alarmed about.
Yes, it's kinda weird. But it's not really that bad, once the initial shock is dealt with. And if parents are going to be such sh1ts about it, I fully support the choices made by the school.
It's not exactly private in the sense that the teacher can't hide it. Let's face it, the teacher is going to look different. I completely agree that the district shouldn't be giving out personal information. Honestly, I think the teacher should have told the parents, allowed the school to tell the parents some info, or left the school. I don't think the district should have pressured the teacher to, but I think it would have been best. The teacher should know the kids will likely notice that Mr. Smith looks a lot like Ms. Smith and she's no longer here. They will ask questions that most parents would like to answer for kids that age and it will be confusing. I just don't think that's a situation that you could go by just hiding it.
Now if Mr. Smith was a new teacher who had the surgery I don't think there is a reason to tell the parents.
I think we're overthinking this. ?Kids think differently than adults. ?The parents have creepy thoughts about this because they're adults. ?They're all, "Eww, I bet he has new weird hormones, I wonder who he dates, I wonder if his d*ck works, I wonder how he has sex," etc. ?With kids, here's how it goes:
Kid: Mom, why is Mrs. Rogers now Mr. Rogers?
Mom: He's happier as Mr. Rogers. ?Sometimes that happens. ?He's still the same, he's just a man.
Kid: Oh, is that okay? ?Is it normal?
Mom: It's uncommon, but it happens. ?It's not creepy.
Done.?
Kids will accept all sorts of things. ?I remember truly believing that Bert and Ernie were a married couple as a preschooler. ?I just assumed. ?They had kind of a joking/contentious relationship, they lived together, they shared a room (with twin beds like Lucy and Ricky). ?It didn't seem weird at all to me. ?It's adults who give them those weird hang ups.?
BB, you rock.
That's my point. The parents are making too big a deal of this, and they are the ones making it into a mess -- not the school.
Thanks!! ?You rock, too!!?