Joanne Herman
Posted: January 9, 2011 12:40 PM

Should We Introduce Children to the Concept of Transgender People?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanne-herman/should-we-teach-children-_b_805133.html?ref=fb&src=sp#sb=1383001,b=facebook

Should we introduce children to the concept of transgender people? The answer is yes according to an article published in the December 2010 issue of the peer-reviewed Graduate Journal of Social Science.

The article by Natacha Kennedy and Mark Hellen, entitled "Transgender Children: More Than a Theoretical Challenge," was developed from a paper presented at the November 2009 conference "Transgender Studies & Theories: Building Up the Field in a Nordic Context" held at Linkoping University in Sweden.

Critics will cry that introducing all children to the concept of transgender people will cause children to "become transgender." But the authors found that schooling has little impact on gender identity development in children. In fact, children who develop a transgender identity seem to do so in spite of often unwitting but nevertheless pervasive efforts by schools to enforce gender conformity.

This reminds me of an antiquated eskimo custom I learned of when I was in elementary school.

Before eskimos started adapting to "modern" society, it was customary to keep dogs out of the igloo (or other living quarters).
There was a fear that, if dogs were allowed indoors, children would start behaving like dogs, maybe even become dogs...

Times have changed much.