Scottish Union for Education - Newsletter No28
Newsletter Themes: RSHP consultation, captured childrens’ charities, and the problems with a Human Rights Act
Last week Robin Harper wrote a letter of resignation to the Scottish Greens. Among the complaints made by the 82-year-old Green Party campaigners and the UK’s first Green parliamentarian was the fact that the party had ‘lost the plot’. ‘You will ... be aware of my serious concerns about the way we are handling the situation with the trans community. ...hopefully the Scottish parliament will return to listening mode when the Cass and Sandyford reports [on gender identity development services] have been published. I believe that a complete overhaul of the way our child and adolescent mental health services are working is essential and urgent.’ (The Times 03/08/2023). Harper’s letter captures the frustration that many of us feel with a political class that is not listening. While we are all eagerly awaiting the findings of the Cass and Sandyford reports, we also recognise that this is an urgent issue. In this week’s Substack Stuart Waiton, Chairperson of SUE, writes about the content of the latest consultation on relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) education. We are urging all SUE members to go online and respond to the consultation. Over the next few weeks, we will discuss the failings of the policy in more detail. Meanwhile the campaign to stop LGBTQ+ charities and lobby groups from teaching children about sex and gender is gaining momentum. Rachael Hobbs, a parent who works in the education sector, has done some research on the outlook of key children’s charities and their promotion not of rights, but of transgender ideologies. Finally, principal teacher Colin Smith raises some serious concerns about the Scottish Government’s plans to produce a Human Rights Act.
The RSHP protection racket
Stuart Waiton, Chairperson of SUE, urges all readers to contribute to the new consultation on RSHP education.
New Guidance on the Delivery of Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood (RSHP) Education in Scottish Schools is now available, and parents and others are being encouraged to have their say about RSHP education in schools. At first read, what is notable about the RSHP approach is how unsuitable it is for parents. Or at least, how unsuitable it is for parents who aren’t human rights lawyers or human resource managers or specialists in rights-based legislation. And I thought schools were about education! However, what is most striking about the document is the extent to which it is a product of identity politics and the preoccupations of ‘experts’ with discrimination and the management of interpersonal relationships.
Apparently, children going to RSHP classes and being taught how to have ‘healthy’ relationships (including ‘healthy’ sexual relationships) will help to ‘reduce domestic abuse [and] gender-based violence’. According to the document, the Equality Act 2010 informed us all that schools have a ‘legal duty ... to prevent unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation in their schools’, and as a result, children are being taught to develop an internalised toolkit to allow them to manage their personal lives in an ‘appropriate’ way.
The rights of parents are noted, and parents should attempt to use this to have their say within the RSHP framework. But much of the enthusiasm about involving parents is about ‘including’ them, so that they, like their children, learn the ‘correct’ way of thinking about relationships. By engaging with (rather than questioning) the government and education authorities’ approach, ‘Evidence indicates’ that parents will become ‘more confident about speaking to their children’ about sexual health, relationships and so on.
Notably, although you can withdraw your child from RSHP lessons, RSHP education, we are told, is ‘embedded’ in pupils’ learning experiences by means of a ‘whole school approach’. This approach includes the ubiquitous ‘LGBT inclusive education’. The emphasis here is really on the ‘T’ rather than the LGB, in an education system that increasingly focuses on transgenderism. In the document, for example, we now have an entire section on issues to do with children with variations in sex development (VSD). The atypical sex characteristics of the incredibly small number of children with VSD (around 1 in 5000) are often misrepresented as evidence for sex existing on a spectrum, and the conditions themselves, when referred to as ‘intersex’, have been presented to children as a ‘third sex’ and conflated with transgender identity, despite having little or nothing to do with the transgender debate. ‘Intersex children don’t need to be ‘‘fixed’”, we are informed, ‘they are perfect just as they are!’
Of course, the entire framework of the RSHP education curriculum, as the name suggests, reflects a growing preoccupation with the personal, sexual and relational dimensions of children – with their intimate and private lives. It is assumed that the private lives of our children are something that needs expert intervention to ensure that they are all ‘healthy’ and having ‘appropriate’ relationships. The message has a relentlessly caring feel to it but begs the questions, What space is left for children to grow with their peers? What happened to the idea of rites of passage? When experts or teachers decide to colonise the private and personal worlds of children and adolescents, when will these young people get the opportunity to learn from their mistakes?
I’ll come back to this issue later this month, but for me at least, there is something a bit creepy and weird about the growing adult-expert preoccupation with the nascent sexual development of children. And let’s face it, relationship education is not ‘education’ in its true sense; it’s more like religion, or a new ethics code being developed for children, and indeed, for parents.
There is one particular sentence that stands out in the guidance document: ‘All children and young people should be treated in the same way and one group should not be favoured over another’. It’s a single sentence that seems to go against almost everything else about RSHP education.
The guidance document, for example, frames everything around the issue of ‘protected characteristics’ and even ‘sex characteristics’. It’s clear that identity concerns and political anxieties are being imposed on children. The children are looked at and assessed according to adult categories of ‘discrimination’ and ‘harassment’. Issues to do with ‘transphobia’, ‘racism’, ‘hate crime’ and ‘gender based violence’ are all presented as core concerns for children; these are political concerns that are repackaged through the moralised language of mental health and ‘wellbeing’.
The divisive obsession with identity, and with the sense of childhood vulnerability, is dumped onto kids, and a new type of ‘protection racket’ is developed. This racket is founded on the flawed perception that we need to free children from those around them. Sometimes the message is explicit, at others it is hidden in the therapeutic word games about ‘inclusion’. But we should be quite clear about the message. Girls need to be protected from boys and the ‘gendered’ world. LGBT kids need to be safe from the ‘cis’ kids. Black children need to be protected from the white. And all children need to be protected from those parents whose values don’t fit with the ‘liberal’ sex and sexuality framework.
Within the document there is mention of the need to ‘enable multiple views and values to be discussed’ and the importance of ‘freedom of expression for all’. But those who have been reading this Substack will have seen how parents and even children who question the RSHP script are treated by the authorities. As we know, the term ‘inclusive’ rarely means the inclusion of different opinions. ‘Inclusion’ is shorthand for accepting without question the new values framework that champions diversity and identity. As this document shows, this approach means creating divisive labels and vulnerable categories for children, who in turn are portrayed as needing protection from the ‘harassment’ and even the ‘unconscious bias’ of other children and their parents.
The world, according to the RSHP script, is one where inequality is ‘embedded’ throughout society, and where violence and harassment are endemic and stem from those who lack the ‘correct’ values. You may recognise this world. Personally, I don’t. Framed as a form of correct and ethical behaviour, the RSHP education is training children in social justice values – values that are increasingly challenged by many parents who would rather schools spent their time on education, not indoctrination. We will be looking into this guidance and the RSHP education over the next few months and would suggest that anyone with concerns about it fill out the consultation document by the deadline of 23 November 2023.
Children’s charities are a threat to your child
Rachael Hobbs, a parent who works in the education sector, has carried out some research on the outlook of key children’s charities and their promotion not of rights, but of transgender ideologies.
Stonewall and (LGB)TQ+ have long demonstrated the art of linguistic reframing when it comes to sex and biology, promoting distancing from facts, and we have stopped noticing words disappearing. Amendments are readily accepted that signal how we are rapidly checking out of our minds, let alone our bodies. It is normal for mainstream institutions, even education, to make the serious error of presenting sex and gender from the ideological position of trans activism, rather than a neutral one. The same happens when advisory and frontline organisations come into play. The most grating line repeated parrot fashion across all of them is the specific reference to sex being something ‘assigned at birth’. From here on in, know when you read these fateful words that you are entering a world of prescribed ‘guidance’ from the TQ+ lobby. This phrase is used in all descriptions of how we come to be. No media is left untouched in making sure we are all singing from the same assignment hymn sheet that is now the peril of birth.
The implication is that sex is ‘assigned at birth’ (by a bunch of creepy bureaucrats perhaps?) and at some point might need to be overturned. It’s this repeated assigned/registered-at-birth business which provides subliminal detachment from that fact of sex being recorded as the sex that each of us are. I wonder if the trans lobby aren’t so comfortable simply saying that people want to ‘change sex or gender’ because it doesn’t sound as if it’s much of a right, so it has to be a linked to something further back or more essential.
‘Assigned at birth’ – it’s an outstanding sentence of cognitive dissonance. It can be found within the websites of national children’s charities in their advice on ‘gender identity’; many go the distance in their adoption of full-on trans terminology. What follows is a lot of non-neutral advice that promotes ‘exploration’ rather than talking about gender dysphoria or the utter normalcy of rebelling against, or even abandoning, gender stereotypes.
For those who can bare to read it, see below the content from our various ‘trusted’ charities and their dismal teaching on sex and gender, which has been cut and pasted straight from the work of the TQ+ lobby.
From ‘assignment at birth’ to pronouns, social transitioning, binders and packers, social media as a ‘safe space’, and scattered inferences to things a child cannot trust – i.e. their parents. At no point are gender and sex presented from a neutral, or dare I say normal, position. Everything is slickly communicated through the seemingly caring trans tick box process of bypassing everything authorities should be saying, and children are reading something that sends them off further into an anxious abyss. It is appalling.
Stonewall and the TQ+ lobby operate so well by stealth. They have permeated all mainstream media and made sure this includes places where children seek advice. It needs to be called out. What can we do? Write to the Charity Commission to demand review of the sites’ impartiality. If enough of us do this, who knows – it may lead to change.
Here are exerts from different charities:
NSPCC
‘What is gender identity?’
For many people, their gender identity corresponds to the sex they were registered at birth. For others, it does not. Some people see gender identity as more of a spectrum, rather than a binary.
There are many other expressions of gender identity, including non-binary and genderfluid, and for some people, the concept of gender isn't relevant to their identity.
Gender identity is a personal feeling, and a child or young person will be the best person to know what identifier matches how they feel. Children and young people can also question or feel unsure about their gender identity or find that their gender identity changes over time.
How to support a child:
Encourage your child to explore and express their identity at their own pace.
For some children or young people, their gender identity may stay fixed. But your child may also be questioning their gender, and it's important to understand that their gender may change over time.
Ask about pronouns and names
Young people may want to use pronouns that reflect their gender identity such as ‘she’ and ‘her’, while others may prefer gender neutral pronouns such as ‘they’ and ‘them’.
They may also want to change their name. Try to use the correct pronouns and name or ask if you’re unsure. You may also want to ask your child if they’d like you to speak to extended family or their school about the pronouns they prefer, or about a name change.
Get support if your child is being bullied
It can be really upsetting if your child is experiencing transphobic bullying or being bullied because of their gender identity. This can include things like deliberately refusing to call them by their new name or pronoun.
Gender Dysphoria
Transitioning
Some young people who experience gender dysphoria may decide to transition. Transitioning is the journey someone takes from presenting themselves as the gender which corresponds to the sex they were registered at birth, to presenting themselves as the gender they feel they are.
A child or young person’s transition may involve changing the way they look or dress. For example, they might want to wear makeup or shave their facial hair. Some children may also want to visit the doctor to get support or discuss their options for medical treatment. Your GP should be able to provide advice and guidance about what options are available to support children and families.
Types of gender identity
Some of the terms a young person or child might use to describe their gender identity.
Trans or transgender: this is when someone feels their gender is different from, or doesn't sit comfortably with, the sex they were registered at birth.
Non-binary, gender diverse and genderqueer: these are umbrella terms for people whose gender identity doesn't sit comfortably as man or woman. Instead, they may identify with some aspects of one or both of these identities or identify with neither. Additionally, some people may identify as genderfluid and see their gender as flexible, rather than a fixed identity.
Cisgender: this is when someone’s gender identity is the same as the sex they were registered at birth.
CHILDLINE (NSPCC sister charity)
Things to remember:
Some people’s gender identity doesn’t match what’s recorded at birth.
You’re not alone, and there are ways to cope and feel comfortable with yourself.
You have the right to be protected from discrimination and bullying based on your gender identity. Childline is here to support you.
What is gender Identity:
When we’re born people have to record whether we’re a boy or a girl. This is usually based on looking at our sexual organs, but for some people their gender identity can be different.
Lots of things make up your gender identity, including:
your body and biological sex, for example your sexual organs
how you feel about your gender and how you identify yourself
your gender expression, for example how you dress or act.
Gender identity isn’t just male or female. Some people can identify as non-binary, and how people identify can change over time.
For many young people, feeling unsure about their gender is part of growing up. But for some these feelings continue for longer.
Coming out:
Coming out means telling people how you feel about your gender. Telling people can help you to be able to express your gender identity. But only you can decide when the right time to do it is.
If you’re not sure how or when to come out, we’ve got lots of advice to help.
Changing how you look or dress:
Some people can feel pressured to look or dress a certain way. But letting go of that pressure and making a change to what you wear can help you to feel more comfortable.
You might want to change how you look at home first. Or with people you trust. If you want to change your school uniform or how you look at school, it’s important to speak to a teacher you trust for support. There are lots of ways to express your gender with your appearance. If you’re not sure where to start, you could try changing or cutting your hair, or wearing more gender-neutral clothes.
Some young people want to use binders, gaffs of packers to hide feminine or masculine parts of themselves. It’s important to remember that these can sometimes be uncomfortable or dangerous, and that you should speak to a doctor before using them.
Using Different Pronouns
Pronouns are the words people use to describe you, for example someone might refer to a person as “she” or “her”. Some people prefer to use gender neutral pronouns, like:
They and their
Ze and zir
Zey and zem
Asking people to use a different pronoun can be scary sometimes, so it can help to start by telling people you feel comfortable with.
Changing your name
Some trans or non-binary people find it helps to change their name to better reflect their gender.
LGBTQ+ Terms (too long to list here but a must read if you have a week to spare)
https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/your-feelings/sexual-identity/lgbtq-terms/
ACTION FOR CHILDREN
Gender identity is a person’s internal, deeply held sense of their own gender. There are lots of terms associated with gender identity, and you can find some of them in our Gender Identity Guide.
Here are some common ones you might come across. But don’t get too hung up about knowing them all, as the terms are fluid.
Trans persons
An umbrella term for people whose gender differs from, or does not sit comfortably within the gender they were assigned at birth.
Non-binary
Some people don’t identify as man nor woman, but somewhere in between. Some may also identify as a mix of man and woman.
A non-binary young person may prefer a pronoun that doesn’t relate to male or female gender, such as ‘they’ or ‘zir’.
Gender fluidity
Gender fluidity is when people move between gender identities or expressions. Such fluidity may not be permanent.
Children and young people with additional needs
Some children and young people may need extra support to understand and accept their identity. They may also want to learn about people who are different to them, and understand that difference should be respected and celebrated.
A child or young person with additional needs is just as likely to question their gender identity as any other person. Make sure a child or young person’s words or actions aren’t automatically attributed to their additional learning needs.
For example, clothing types or hair length shouldn’t just be seen as a sensory need, or behaviours described as a new special interest, fascination, curiosity or phase.
Getting it wrong
If you make a mistake, like using the wrong name or pronoun, it’s important to acknowledge it. The best thing to do is apologise to the young person and anybody else present, correct yourself and move on.
It’s also helpful to correct others too, so that everyone is working together. If the people involved in the young person’s life use their preferred name and pronoun all the time, rather than only when in their presence, it will make a significant difference.
THE CHILDREN’S SOCIETY
Gender identity vs sex
So, let’s get the definitions out of the way. ‘Sex’ and ‘gender identity’ are two different things. ‘Sex’ is assigned at birth based on physical characteristics. ‘Gender identity’ is how a person feels about themselves and how they want others to see them.
Gender identity is often a divisive and confusing topic when it really doesn’t need to be. A lot of children and young people feel comfortable with the gender they are given. But for others it isn’t so simple. For some children, the match between their assigned gender and gender identity is not so clear.
A young person might identify as cisgender, transgender, non-binary or intersex. Whatever they choose is up to them. It is our job to listen, educate ourselves and be as open as we can.
Why pronouns are important.
Some adults might shrug off the idea of stating a pronoun. The same arguments time and time again – there are too many to remember, they can’t keep up with different titles, they don’t see why it’s so important. But they are missing the point.
It might feel like a small thing but stating pronouns normalises the idea that not everybody identifies the same way. Nobody should assume a person's pronoun. By teaching children and young people, the importance of this we can build a more inclusive generation.
Social media’s safe space
Social media has become essential to young people, especially Gen Z. It is a place for young people to connect, keep up with the latest trends and get their voices heard.
Sometimes young people are targeted and bullied but social platforms can also be a safe space for communities, such as LGBTQ+. They allow young people to explore who they are without being judged.
YOUNG MINDS (signposting to heavily ideological trans groups):
What is gender identity?
Gender identity is how a person describes their gender. For example, they might identify as a woman or girl, non-binary, transgender, a man or boy, gender fluid, or something different.
Gender identity is different to sex, which describes physical and biological body parts (like the penis, vagina, different hormones or breasts).
A child's sex is usually assigned at birth on the basis of these physical body parts, but their gender may be different to the sex they have been assigned.
BERNARDO’S
Video link: Includes if you can bare to listen to the excruciating softly spoken woman churning out the words ‘safe spaces’ in every other sentence and an interesting take on faith communities:
‘Positive Identities’ service: ‘Everyone should be free to be themselves’: commissioned by LGBTQ+.
https://www.barnardos.org.uk/what-we-do/supporting-young-people/lgbtq
Beware of politicians bearing gifts of human rights
Colin Smith is principal teacher of English at an independent school in the West of Scotland. He’s concerned about the plans for Scotland to adopt a Human Rights Act.
If, like me, your nose has become accustomed to the waft of brimstone emanating from government policies, you may well have formed a moue at the announcement that Scotland is to have its very own Human Rights Act. You’ll have known instinctively that whoever’s rights it is intended to protect, it’s not yours. You may well wonder what the devil-to-detail ratio will be, and just what rights, exactly, need protecting that aren’t already protected in some way. You may even be baffled by the temerity of our politicians who think that rights are within their gift – then again, maybe not.
There’s an old Russian proverb that one should bear in mind when our beneficent leaders offer us something: power is a high and steep cliff to which only eagles and reptiles can attain. The chances of them doing something that is truly in the interests of the majority of hardworking, tax-paying, reality-based people are very small – we know this from observation and experience. So, what is this rights framework about? Why constitute and institute it in the first place, and who does it benefit?
It sounds paradoxical, but here is the reality: rights frameworks exist to remove rights and to focus power in the hands of the already powerful. Let me explain how that works with a simple example. I, as your elected representative in parliament, vote through a bill which gives you the right to breathe. But I already had that right, you say. You did, yes. But children already had the right to play and learn and do all sorts of other things before the United Nations codified those rights in their Conventions on the Rights of the Child. The point is that now that the right to breathe is enshrined in law, the government can really go to work on it; here are just a few ways that this new ‘right’ can be leveraged:
A panel of experts can be gathered to decide what it means to breathe: air quality must meet certain criteria (see LEZ’s and 15-minute cities); perhaps there’s a right to breathe pathogen-free air and dehumanising masks must be legally mandated every flu season; you can’t breathe if you’re suffering a panic attack, so online harm legislation must be introduced to prevent harmful ‘hate’.
Now that the experts have spoken and the media has churned out some alarming content, there’s a need for enforcement agencies and a Minister for Breathing to oversee it all, at great expense to the taxpayer. Punishments will be implemented in the name of tolerance and kindness, and the Minister will, on radio and television as well as in parliament, identify a group of right-wing anti-breathers who are hell bent on denying persecuted fringe minorities the right to breathe, breathing by now having become synonymous with the free expression of identity (gender and otherwise).
Once the right celebrities and brands clamber aboard the bandwagon, we’ll have arrived at an all-too-familiar place: someone else’s right to breathe is making your life a little more suffocating than it already was.
This sounds glib, fanciful even, but it’s how it works. Once a rights framework exists, it sets in motion the mechanics of government and inflames the machinations of the power-hungry. Bear in mind these words of Jean Baudrillard: ‘For any government official or despot, power over his own people takes precedence over everything else.’ Each so-called right is an opportunity, a soapbox, a refuge for rogues and scoundrels, a means to shame, coerce and control. It is becoming increasingly evident in the Western world that ordinary life and noticing things are anathema. Because so much of what happens is contrary to common sense and obviously absurd, it behoves our politicians and their ever-expanding cast of supplicants to prevent people from discussing things by controlling them. Each tranche of ‘rights’ conjures into existence experts who are only too eager to police what you say and think, to tell you that the evidence of your eyes and ears is incorrect, and to shut down debate as it’s injurious to some heretofore unknown minority group that requires state protection. The experts lay claim to special knowledge, obfuscating reality and making life esoteric, beyond the ken and understanding of lay people. Given how complicated they’ve discovered the world to be, how full of nuance, it’s unreasonable to expect the average person to understand the abstruse angles and dimensions of this newly complex Earth; better by far that the experts remove the burden of decision making from the overburdened and confused minds of the little people and take it on themselves.
The Human Rights Bill will incorporate four United Nations human rights treaties into Scots law. One of these treaties is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Just this one convention could make careers for some and trouble for many. Who decides how wide the legislative net must be to catch ‘All Forms of Racial Discrimination’? Will the shrill schoolmarms in the Scottish parliament zealously impose restrictions on speech and behaviour to show their virtue in this matter, while making their cosy berth in politics unassailable? You better believe it. The Bill also seeks to improve protections for LGBTI citizens ... as you just knew it would. Again, will the panjandrums in Holyrood use their new-found powers proportionately and look to include the views of people who are slightly sceptical about transgender ideology when it comes to legislating? You know the answer to that one as well. I hope I’m wrong, but I expect that the Human Rights Bill (if the UK government allows it) will be a totalitarian imposition on the speech and behaviour of the majority of people in Scotland. It’ll suck the remaining life out of public discourse and criminalise common sense and noticing things. Far from freeing people from the interference of government (which a lot of people desperately want) it will allow busybodies to colonise more of our lives.
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Colin I have changed it to 'Holyrood'