The promotion of transsexual policies in schools is leading to “confusion about gender identity” in children, a prominent educationalist has warned.
Author and lecturer at the University of Kent, Dr Joanna Williams, made the comments at The Telegraph Festival of Education.
She criticised campaigners for seeking to change school policies on gender, and forcing children to “unlearn” the difference between boys and girls.
…schools do neither boys nor girls any favours.
Dr Williams said: “We are increasingly reminded that schools are struggling financially. Yet the time, effort and money that goes into producing and monitoring Transgender Policies is out of all proportion to the tiny number of trans children currently in British schools.”
She added: “Children – encouraged by their experiences at school – are beginning to question their gender identity at ever younger ages.
“In doing more than just supporting transgender children, and instead sowing confusion about gender identity, schools do neither boys nor girls any favours”.
Dr Williams went on to criticise schools which blur subject knowledge with “the promotion of particular values”.
“The role of the teacher becomes policing the values, thoughts and language of children to bring them in line with one particular ideological position”, she said.
In April, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) called for two-year-old children to be taught about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual issues. At the NUT annual conference in Cardiff in April, delegates passed a motion calling for compulsory teaching of LGBT issues “throughout all phases of state education”, including in nurseries.
Ciarán Kelly, Head of Communications at The Christian Institute, described the NUT’s plans as “shocking and immoral”.
The issue of transsexualism – wanting to change physical sex because you feel you are ‘in the wrong body’ – has become increasingly high profile.
To aid understanding in this area, The Christian Institute has produced a briefing with key information and theology on the subject.
Transsexualism – wanting to change physical sex because you feel you are ‘in the wrong body’ – has become an increasingly high-profile issue. People in the public eye have ‘changed their sex’, and the media normalises transsexualism. There has been a corresponding push for greater transsexual rights. This briefing introduces some of the issues at stake.