Susan's Place Transgender Resources

'Gender inclusive' school district says drop 'boys and girls,' call kids 'purple penguins'

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/10/09/gender-inclusive-school-district-says-drop-boys-and-girls-call-kids-purple/ (http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/10/09/gender-inclusive-school-district-says-drop-boys-and-girls-call-kids-purple/)

Published October 09, 2014
FoxNews.com

"Don't use phrases such as 'boys and girls,' 'you guys,' 'ladies and gentlemen,' and similarly gendered expressions to get kids' attention," reads a handout from the Lincoln Public Schools that was given to teachers.

The handout was part of an effort to educate teachers and administrators about transgender issues, educators told the Lincoln Journal Star.

"The agenda we're promoting is to help all kids succeed," Brenda Leggiardo the district's coordinator of social workers and counselors told the newspaper. "We have kids who come to us with a whole variety of circumstances, and we need to equitably serve all kids."

So instead of asking boys and girls to line up as boys or girls, teachers have been encouraged to segregate the children by whether they prefer skateboards or bikes, or whether they like milk or juice.

"Always ask yourself, 'Will this configuration create a gendered space?'" the handout stated.

The handout, provided by Gender Spectrum, a website which "provides education, training and support to help create a gender sensitive and inclusive environment for children of all ages" does not explain what to do if all of the children like juice or skateboards. But it does suggest teachers "create classroom names and then ask all of the 'purple penguins' to meet at the rug."

Wow, the writer of this article is kind of sad. However focussing on the good part, I think it's positive that attention is paid to gender-aware teaching in schools. Just as long as they don't try to push it to far into genderneutral.

Yeah, Todd Starnes, a real pissa. From Wikipedia:

"Starnes' strongly conservative views, which he likes "to spice it up a little bit" to generate reader interest, have also generated controversy.[9] In 2013, he became the focus of controversy when CNN, among other news outlets,[10] leveled accusations of racism against Starnes. A series of Twitter comments he posted online, followingNina Davuluri becoming the first Indian American winner of the, as Starnes called it, the "Miss Politically Correct America", Miss America Pageant were the basis for the reaction.[11] Starnes denied the accusations.[11]"

At first I was pleasantly surprised that Fox News was talking about something like this but I should have known they would be bitter and judgmental as always. Oh well, at least it's being talked about. It seems like a great idea to me and I don't know why it's not just a normal thing that all schools do by now. :)

Instead of all this psychedelic stuff, purple penguins and pink elephants, wow. Why don't they let the individual students decide whether boy or girl, lady or gentleman? "Hey guys" is simply an encompassing term for everyone. I'm crazy, in a good way but sometimes I really wonder, but calling kids purple penguins sounds kind of insane to me even. How about letting the individual decide?

I remember being addressed as "class"   Oh, wait, maybe I'm remembering this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa3HXdqNWIM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Kids, people, class, students, humans, folks, y'all, etc etc. etc. I didn't use the words "boys and girls' most of my last year of teaching. Didn't really miss it.
(Though are kids humans? LOL)

I think most of the efforts are to try to encourage teachers to line kids up in some other way than "boys on one side and girls on the other).


--Jay

Quote from: aleon515 on October 11, 2014, 07:08:36 PM
Kids, people, class, students, humans, folks, y'all, etc etc. etc. I didn't use the words "boys and girls' most of my last year of teaching. Didn't really miss it.
(Though are kids humans? LOL)

I think most of the efforts are to try to encourage teachers to line kids up in some other way than "boys on one side and girls on the other).


--Jay

Yeah I watch Fox News. (ducking now). But they were discussing this and had a psychologist on there that pretty much said what I said earlier. Instead of taking people humanity away, how about letting them choose who they are. If someone called me a "purple penguin" when I was in middle school, I would have been in the Principal's office shortly after. I would have really had some fun with that one. I have made more than one teacher feel frustrated through my school years. >:-) I think there needs to be a lot of Pee tests from the school board on down in that school district.

As a matter of fact all three of the people they were discussing it with said the same thing as the psychologist. One even went as far and said that is diversity and being gender inclusive does not promote diversity or the respect of diversity even.

BTW I was watching Fox News this morning and they had one guy that supported gay marriage and someone for the family something or other council (it was repeat of a how yesterday) and the guy from Fox News actually argued against the opposition by talking about interracial marriages 50 years ago and comparing them to gay marriage now. He was actually challenging the family council guy. Is this a good thing? Who knows? But with the three for diversity in schools and seemingly on the side of gay marriage. Hmmm. Interesting.

Quote from: Jess42 on October 10, 2014, 05:26:11 PM
Instead of all this psychedelic stuff, purple penguins and pink elephants, wow. Why don't they let the individual students decide whether boy or girl, lady or gentleman? "Hey guys" is simply an encompassing term for everyone. I'm crazy, in a good way but sometimes I really wonder, but calling kids purple penguins sounds kind of insane to me even. How about letting the individual decide?

Yeah. If I was a kid now and an adult suggested that I be called a frickin' purple penguin, pink elephant or a rainbow trout, I would call them an idiot.

From the article I assumed they were referring to class totems or team names.

Quote from: Laura Squirrel on October 13, 2014, 03:28:08 PM
Yeah. If I was a kid now and an adult suggested that I be called a frickin' purple penguin, pink elephant or a rainbow trout, I would call them an idiot.

LOL. Idiot would probably be one of the nicer things I would call them. >:-) Of course I called my principal by his first name. I spent about as much time in high school in his office than in class I think. :-\ I think the only reason I graduated is because they wanted to be rid of me for good. :-X

First day of school after the ninth grade, every teacher I had except for one, sent a paddling slip home with me to have my dad sign instead of every time I got into trouble. Maybe I should sue that school district for turning me into a sado submissive. :-\ Id o know it used to make them a little angry when I asked if I could have 1 more after the five or so that they would give. One poor teacher I almost gave a stroke for asking that question. Or his face turned really red at least. Hmmm. :P

IMO this is awful. My opinion of Gender Spectrum went down even lower than it was before.

98+% of kids have no problem being called a "boy" or a "girl" and when we tell schools to stop referring to them as such because there are a few of us who aren't comfortable with that, we look ... well ... nutty.

Better would be to make sure teachers understand that there will be students who aren't comfortable with the gender implied by their birth sex and give ways to accommodate us, rather than make everyone change what they do.

In the long run, this sort of thing will harm us, not help us.

I don't totally agree, Suzi. I think gender equality is well served by not using gender to separate kids where it isn't necessary. The boys to the right and girls to the left for in class game or such is unnecessary and just makes things more difficult for those who feel wrong when made to be in the wrong line. It doesn't hurt anyone when you make groups based on things other than gender and then there is no risk to hurting, even emotionally, a possible trans kid.

I don't care that they separate the boys and the girls. I just wish I had gotten to be in the girl group instead of the boys. That would have made me waaaay happier than just being lumped into one big group or called a purple penguin. I don't even like penguins. Or skateboards. Bicycles are okay, though. :P

This sounds pretty silly to me, TBH.

I was under the impression that they were just stressing the point of using a group name for the children rather than assigning them to groups that everyone here knows can be the wrong group. I didn't think it literally meant purple penguins.

Quote from: Devlyn Marie on October 14, 2014, 10:46:53 AM
I was under the impression that they were just stressing the point of using a group name for the children rather than assigning them to groups that everyone here knows can be the wrong group. I didn't think it literally meant purple penguins.

Yeah, this is the impression I get as well, but it sounds like conservative media is spinning it to sound like this is done on an individual level. The whole purple penquins thing is probably just referring to groups of students either divided up by classes or as a whole. Many schools have done something similar for years without having a policy in place. The college I attend typically does this in mass emails saying something like, "Hello Wild Cats!" (I go to Kansas State). So, it's not as silly or as difficult to do as it sounds, and to my knowledge they don't have a policy saying this. It's done because it's fun and makes everyone feel like part of the college's society.

It sounds to me like the school board is trying to do the best it can. Now, if they're calling individuals 'purple penquin' ... yeah. I gotta think they're going too far. But I'm not sure that's the case.

The whole idea is to not use gender to separate people, use something else. There is a group in CA that goes around to different schools showing them how to do things without possibly triggering a trans child. That is all this is.

I think the problem I have with this kind of thinking is that it seems to be missing the point for me. My social dysphoria was caused by not being able to be included with the girls. By not being seen as one of the girls. If they had just seen me as my correct gender, I could have lived a happy childhood as just another girl. All this business of eliminating gender from the equation just makes me feel... depressed, honestly. It feels like we're taking the easy way out so we don't have to make the teachers treat trans kids as their correct gender.

Well, that's just my perspective. Maybe it would help others feel better. But certainly not me. But that's irrelevant now. My childhood has long passed.

How do you help a kid that hasn't come out or even figured it out themselves yet?  Instead of rubbing it in that they are in the wrong line, there is no wrong line.

Quote from: Pikachu on October 14, 2014, 01:19:13 PM
I think the problem I have with this kind of thinking is that it seems to be missing the point for me. My social dysphoria was caused by not being able to be included with the girls. By not being seen as one of the girls. If they had just seen me as my correct gender, I could have lived a happy childhood as just another girl. All this business of eliminating gender from the equation just makes me feel... depressed, honestly. It feels like we're taking the easy way out so we don't have to make the teachers treat trans kids as their correct gender.

Well, that's just my perspective. Maybe it would help others feel better. But certainly not me. But that's irrelevant now. My childhood has long passed.

You say correct gender, but only encompass two, the two binary extremes. I'm part girl, part boy, what side of the class should I stand on?

Quote from: LordKAT on October 14, 2014, 01:31:19 PM
How do you help a kid that hasn't come out or even figured it out themselves yet?  Instead of rubbing it in that they are in the wrong line, there is no wrong line.

Quote from: Devlyn Marie on October 14, 2014, 02:19:44 PMYou say correct gender, but only encompass two, the two binary extremes. I'm part girl, part boy, what side of the class should I stand on?

There are ways of helping a youngster explore their gender issues without preventing mention of everyone else's binary gender. A little gentleness and acceptance of the kid whereever they are, are both far less drastic than denying the existence of binary gender.

After all, even if the child discovers they are non-binary, they will be living their lives in a world where binary genders dominate, and will IMO be helped by considering early on how they can fit into it.

They aren't denying any gender, just not using it to separate the kids.

My supportgroup does schooltraining and for a work for school I investigated on gender-aware schools and teaching, which despite the very effective distracting and sensationalising the author uses is what this is about

. First things first is that it's not 'for' gendervariant children, it's for every kid. Splitting classes up by gender is one part of it, and is simply not needed. The reason why they'd prefer not to do that is because it encourages the stereotypical thinking about boys and girls (not beneficial for anyone, including perfectly binary non transgender kids) and because you're then constantly encouraging boys to only mingle with boys and girls with girls. But it goes further then this and is most important in the younger years, start early! It's also about not making every girl-thing pink, about using books that don't always talk about the lady who is a stay at home mom and de man who works in building... About not avoiding stereotypes but being aware of it. About being inclusive of all diversity, of girls that like technical stuff and boys that like sewing.

From the very beginning kids are being pumped full of ideas about girl/boy and not suprisingly this effects them greatly in life choices, behavior, clothes... Gender-aware teaching isn't about changing the school for those few kids that are gendervariant. It's about changing schools to a system that is beneficial for every single kid!

Another last point is that it isn't about avoiding boy/girl either, not pretending there's no such thing but being aware that a lot of the splitting we do is simply not realisitic and that we as adults are confining our children in our own little boxes when it's simply not necessary. In Belgium this is being promoted for kindergarden but I'm not sure US has that? 3-6 years old? This is pretty much THE age to start teaching kids stereotypes are just that, stereotypes. It also goes into further diversity like skin colour, different views, different looks... It just allows kids to grow up less confined by their gender and more about who they are and what they're good at. Gender is only part of that but in our current society everyhting is seperated by this, it's even on our ID's.

I can't really make up my mind about the policy, because well, someone who really wants to make it very negative and ridicule it has written the article but some of the things he ridicules are defintely good things in my book. Also I'd totally want to be a purple pinguin! :p (sorry for my english, I'm belgian)

What's wrong with "all right children, let's get on the bus"? Why does there have to be some special word to show just how "gender inclusive" they are? I think this is stupid.

The point was how to separate them for various activities.  Saying children do this side and children do that side would be rather confusing.

My niece wasn't too keen when I called her a purple penguin. She's pretty open minded for a 12 year old and she thought it was a bit much when we saw it on the news last week. 

The purple penguin thing is more like a team name, not an individual name.

Quote from: LordKAT on October 15, 2014, 07:53:04 PM
The purple penguin thing is more like a team name, not an individual name.

Thank you, I thought everyone understood that, but it's become clear that isn't the case.

Quote from: LordKAT on October 15, 2014, 07:53:04 PM
The purple penguin thing is more like a team name, not an individual name.

I know that. But still its a bit much. There are already plenty of non gendered generics terms for groups already without getting silly.

I don't know about that, I have heard some pretty silly team names, also some very boring ones like red team vs blue and shirts vs skins.  Nothing wrong with silly when it is entertaining and not hurtful.

What I don't get is why we are all playing into the media coverage by focussing on the one thing that, I agree, might be a little silly. Okay so no purple pinguins, are we missing the rest of what they are doing? Or is the purple pinguin really the most important part of this new school policy?

I have worked with kids a lot. I have divided them into groups many, many times and never felt the need to divide them by boys and girls. When schools come to our facility we ask the teacher to have the kids divided into two groups and it's almost never a boys group and a girls group. And we hate it when they do that because those groups aren't well divided. A good teacher is dividing based on the kids abilities, personalities, etc. It's not about boys and girls.  If you don't know a group of kids, the easy way can seem to be boys and girls but it's nearly as easy to do something else- odd and even, birth months (jan-june and july-dec) etc. This really should be a non-issue.

And I agree with LordKat, many of these groups come with team names and many adult groups I work with give themselves team names and those can be quite... creative.

Pathetic. Guess what, I am a girl and my son is a boy and I will always use those pronouns and never put him in a school that spreads this kind of filth.

Quote from: Natalie on October 16, 2014, 02:45:15 AM
Pathetic. Guess what, I am a girl and my son is a boy and I will always use those pronouns and never put him in a school that spreads this kind of filth.

And will that response be the same should your son turn out to be your daughter?

Every school already does this to varying extents. Are you going to home school them?

Quote from: LordKAT on October 16, 2014, 04:55:03 AM
And will that response be the same should your son turn out to be your daughter?

Every school already does this to varying extents. Are you going to home school them?

What a banal question...

Quote from: LordKAT on October 16, 2014, 04:55:03 AM
And will that response be the same should your son turn out to be your daughter?

Every school already does this to varying extents. Are you going to home school them?

Ok let me start by saying I don't have any children. I really don't even know if I have a right to contribute to this or not. Another thing I was cursed with. ???  I have told nieces and nephews that if anything was bothering them or of the ever didn't feel right that they could talk to me. But I feel like I would end up being a second seat to the parents and grandparents. But if my "son" said he thought he felt like a girl I could definitely help him or her the best way I could to figure it out. If my "daughter" ever said to me she felt male I would help them the best I could. First I would direct them to this websight. Then I would find them a therapist. Then I would love them unconditionally no matter what. If they used to be my son, then they could be my daughter and if they used t be my daughter they could be my son.

PS. I never could have children so this is just a bunch of what ifs but I would like to think that is the way I would handle it and probably would. ???