Scottish Union for Education – Newsletter No35
Newsletter Themes: parents protesting in Canada, and Glasgow parents fight back
#1 million march 4 children, Ottawa, Canada
It is becoming increasingly clear that the way to challenge all forms of indoctrination in schools is to elevate the voices of parents and those who genuinely care for children in Scotland. This week we heard from a concerned parent and grandparent from Livingston, who have been battling with schools and councillors over the inappropriate nature of aspects of their children’s and grandchildren’s education. Amanda has had a poster in her window opposing the sexualisation of children, and as a result other parents have approached her to discuss what’s going on and a group of concerned parents and grandparents has formed in Livingston. Watch the video to see what can be done to raise your concerns.
Last week Kate Deeming met with a group of parents in Edinburgh and another in Kilmarnock. Next week we will be holding our second online Parents and Supporters Group, if you like to come along, or if you want to set up a local parents’ group, get in touch with Kate at PSG@scottishunionforeducation.co.uk.
SUE is delighted to present another new video, Stuart Waiton in conversation with Murray Allan. Murray was (in)famously thrown out of his class, aged 17, for daring to assert that there are ‘only two genders’. In the interview, Murray explains how he was expelled from the school but insists that teachers and schoolchildren need to speak out about what is happening. Murray understands that teachers are in a difficult position but is clear that those who know this is a dogma but continue to teach it need to stop. Teachers need to have the character and moral courage to stand against indoctrination in schools, he argues.
Like the parents and grandparents in Livingston, in Edinburgh, in Kilmarnock, and many other towns and cities across Scotland, Murray is now fighting back against the dangerous ideology that is taking over schools. Below, Stuart Waiton looks at the parent protests taking place in Canada and notes the largely liberal and progressive nature of these protests compared with the intolerance of the trans rights activists. Following this, we share a letter from Glasgow parents – parents who are also refusing to lie down and accept what councils are enforcing on schoolchildren.
With parents rising up in cities in countries around the world, it is time to make 2023 the Year of the Parent. To that end, join us at the Glasgow George Square Protest, today, Thursday 28 September, at 1.30 p.m.
The year of the parent
Stuart Waiton is Chairperson of the Scottish Union for Education
Within all the confused discussion about rights, there remains one genuine right that parents and communities can use. This is not a ‘right’ granted or guarded by professionals, nor is it a right ruled over by lawyers and judges; this is the right to protest.
Last week, in Canada, we saw protests, rallies and demonstrations across the country opposing the indoctrination and sexualisation of children. Protests took place in Ottawa, Halifax, Vancouver, Victoria, and many other cities across Canada, and in total, thousands of parents and concerned members of communities expressed their opposition to the enforcement of transgender ideology onto children.
In Ottawa earlier this year, protests took place outside schools, which is something that many people in Scotland understandably feel uncomfortable about. But this particular protest had been triggered by the local school board instructing teachers to refer to all children as non-binary, using they/them pronouns.
Those who celebrate the ‘diversity and inclusion’ of the trans ideological outlook often reject the idea that there is any indoctrination taking place in schools. Yet here, with the enforced use of pronouns, we can see it all too clearly.
As our new video interview with Murray Allan demonstrates, this indoctrination is not only an issue in Trudeau’s Canada but has been a serious problem in Scotland for many years. As in Murray’s case, we see that you risk exclusion from class and expulsion from school if you dare to speak up about this indoctrination.
At the Ottawa protest you can hear a parent asking why schools are teaching sexual orientation to six-year-olds. Adults can do what they like, another argues, but this is about children. A mother explains to the camera that kids can’t get a tattoo, but they can get hormone therapy behind the backs of their parents.
One thing is noticeable about these protests and the counter protests that have taken place: it is the parents and members of communities who are standing against the transgender ideology being taught in schools, while their opponents, the activists – few, perhaps none, of whom appear to be parents – are shouting, ‘We Love Trans Kids’. Whatever you make of that statement, these activists are not talking about their own children – they’re not even talking about any actual child – but in many respects, they are really talking about themselves and their ideology.
A Muslim woman at a protest in British Columbia is not talking about children in the abstract or any particular ideology when she says that her niece had just come back from kindergarten and asked her, ‘Auntie, am I a girl or a boy’? As she went on to explain, these children are being confused by their teachers.
A number of the protestors were Christians and Muslims, but many were neither, and you don’t have to be religious to think that confusing small children about their sex is wrong.
One of the banners at the protest read, ‘Teach Biology not Ideology’. This is not a demand for one ideology to trump another; rather, it is an appeal to objective, scientific reality: biology is real.
Predictably, these protestors were portrayed as ‘right wing’, ‘fascist’ and ‘anti-trans’, while the mainstream media in the UK ignored them. And while there are various individuals and groups with arguments that don’t work for me, the sentiment of one Muslim protestor rang true when he denounced Trudeau for raising the ‘Progress Pride’ flag, which incorporates the transgender flag designed by Monica Helms and implies that the original Pride flag was non-inclusive. He should have one flag, he argued: the Canadian flag, because it represents everyone. In contrast, one of the trans rights activists told a Muslim parent that if they didn’t support ‘trans rights’, they shouldn’t be in Canada.
An argument is heard between the two sides, with the trans rights activist repetitively demanding to know if ‘trans kids’ are human. Rather than engage in a discussion, this line was repeated as a mantra or used as a verbal club to beat down his opponent. Well, to answer the question: yes, all children are clearly human; they’re also clearly male or female children, boys or girls. They’re not children in the abstract, whom these activists apparently ‘love’. They are real; they are the children of parents who really love them, and despite the fantasy world of rainbows, blue hair, face paint, loud music and dancing, these children will remain male or female for the rest of their lives, however many surgical procedures they might undergo and injections or pills they might take. This is the real tragedy of this damaging and fantastical ideology.
Let’s leave the final word to one of the supposedly right-wing, crazed fascists in Ottawa, who expressed his mad idea about education, saying, ‘School is meant for teaching kids important things but not indoctrinating them... [You] want to teach history, math ... reading, writing, arithmetic. Let’s do that. Let’s not teach kids that there’s a thousand genders and they can choose it at will – that’s indoctrination’.
Glasgow parents challenge the inappropriate and ideological nature of education
A letter to the director of education in Glasgow City Council, signed by 30 parents
Glasgow, 18/09/23
Douglas Hutchison
Executive Director of Education Services
Glasgow City Council
Dear Mr Hutchison,
We are a group of parents with children of different ages in Glasgow schools, primary as well as secondary education, as well as supporters of parents with children in schools.
We are writing to you today in your role as Executive Director of Education Services with our serious concerns regarding the education our children have had, currently are having or are set to receive under the RSHP curriculum. In particular, we are concerned about the age-appropriateness and suitability of some materials used for sexual education, and the teaching of unscientific and unproven gender ideology as fact.
In the recent months, we have watched with interest the proceedings in the GCC Education, Skills and Early Years City Policy Committee. Some of us have written to a local councillor on the committee addressing issues – as we perceive them – with the regular update by the GCC officers tasked with equality reporting. We enclose copies of this communication. The questions in these communications have still not been answered. We will compose another letter to all committee members before the upcoming meeting on the 28th September, 2023.
It goes without saying that we are against bullying of all kinds and that no discrimination in our schools, based on whatever reasons, should be tolerated. Of course ALL children should be safe and supported at school.
Please allow us to outline our concerns below.
1. Sexual education as part of RSHP
We believe that some teaching on sexual education in primary schools is not age-appropriate. Some examples below.
This image was used in lessons and children in P5 (9 years old!) asked to label. This has caused upset, embarrassment, and children came home crying.
Above aimed at P5 (9 years old), for self-study; no involvement of parents or carers mentioned.
We would like to state that we believe a solid sex education is important for children, but this must be age-appropriate. We do not think that there is a need to go into the details of the sexual act and masturbation in primary school.
2. LGBTQ+ inclusive education
Again, we would like to state that we believe all children should feel supported, safe and included in schools. This of course also means children who grow up to be LGBTQ+. However, we do not believe that ‘exploring a sexuality’ has a place in a primary school (5- to 11-year-olds), as children are not sexually active at this age.
As you know, Glasgow schools are encouraged to engage with inclusive education delivery partners Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) and LGBT Youth Scotland (LGBTYS).
We take issue with these organisations for the following reasons.
LGBTYS:
is under criminal investigation for grooming and sexual abuse;
has in the past developed guidance which was incorrect and deemed illegal;
their renewed guidance has some obsolete facts in it;
their remit is 13+, but they develop materials for primary schools and even nurseries.
TIE’s approach is to embed LGBT-inclusive education into all subjects, which results in resources as this:
The LGBT character’s information seems ‘shoehorned’ and is not relevant for maths education. In fact, the surplus and unnecessary information will make maths learning difficult for pupils with short focus spans.
We are also aware that the founders of TIE:
do not have any qualifications in education;
their development of the organisation is based on personal experiences;
one of the founders speaks in schools openly about his suicidal episode, which may be in contradiction to guidance on communication on suicide. There may be danger of suicide ideation among pupils, or further trauma to those children who have experienced suicide in their family.
We are not clear about their success evaluation and baseline of this evaluation – from what data on anti-LGBTQ+ bullying do they start, and how do they measure success?
Both organisations unquestionably recognise that ‘a child can be born in the wrong body’, i.e. the concept of gender identity. They recommend resources and books on this topic. We believe that gender identity is an unproven concept and should not be taught as fact.
3. Different school approaches
Unfortunately, it seems that it is left to schools to choose what materials on the RSHP webpage they will teach. We are aware of cases where teachers took it on themselves to teach unevidenced gender ideology or read unsuitable books, encouraging children to discuss their identity. We are also aware that ‘Heartstopper’ books, which include not-suitable language and what can only be described as erotica, in a primary school library. (As you may know, ‘Heartstopper’ is popular among teens but we object to these being made available in a primary school [ages 5–11]).
4. Emotional and political
We are following the Equality briefings and reports as given regularly to the Education, Skills and Early Years City Policy Committee. We are under the impression that some decisions and contributions made in this committee are not made in view to deliver the best education to our children, but driven by party politics and personal experiences. We do not think it helpful when phrases like ‘parental backlash’, ‘bigoted abuse’, ‘culture war’ are used when discussing education in our city.
Following from the points above, we are aware that some parents decide to act on their right to exclude their children from RSHP lessons. Children therefore lose out on potential learning.
Therefore, we would like to ask you:
to share our concerns with the Education, Skills and Early Years City Policy Committee during the meeting on 28th September – perhaps even as an agenda point;
to let us know what other persons who influence education in our schools we should contact if this is not the right approach;
to encourage the Education, Skills and Early Years City Policy Committee to have a detailed look through the materials and assess them for suitability, learning value and age-appropriateness;
to clarify what monitoring is in place to see what different approaches are taken by different schools regarding the wide choice of materials approved by GCC for the RSHP curriculum;
to explore the option to develop further guidance and recommendations to ensure all schools take an approach to teaching RSHP and LGBT+ inclusiveness in an evidenced and age-appropriate manner;
to ensure that anything brought into our children’s classrooms is evidence-based, or taught as concepts only. Currently, there is no coherent evidence that a child can be ‘born into the wrong body’, nor is there a convincing definition for ‘gender identity’.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
(Names redacted)
News round-up
A selection of the main stories with relevance to Scottish education in the press in recent weeks, by Simon Knight
https://smithsmm.wordpress.com/2017/05/03/books-are-dangerous-powerful-and-beautiful-they-should-also-be-used-with-caution-making-careful-judgements-about-class-books/ Anonymous, Books are dangerous, powerful and beautiful. They should also be used with caution... Making careful judgements about class books. 03/05/17
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12529267/MOLLY-KINGSLEY-Schools-children-trans-Ministers.html Molly Kingsley, Schools have no idea what to do with the surge in children saying they’re trans. Ministers’ failure to publish guidance on it reeks of moral cowardice. 17/09/23
https://archive.ph/6T0m8 Nicola Woolcock, Covid and teacher strikes ‘made skipping school socially acceptable’ 21/09/23
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/21/calls-to-shut-down-bristol-schools-use-of-think-family-education-app-pupils-and-families Steven Morris, Call to shut down Bristol schools’ use of app to ‘monitor’ pupils and families. Exclusive: Think Family Education app gives safeguarding leads easy access to pupils’ and relatives’ contacts with police and child protection. 21/09/23
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/scottish-parents-live-fear-losing-28179151 Jessica North, Scottish parents ‘live in fear’ of losing child after social services get involved in gender care. Two parents, who have vulnerable girls with ASD, say their concern about using male pronouns for their daughter prompted social services to get a call. 09/10/22
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23803479.self-id-support-trans-change-birth-certificates-plummets/ Jody Harrison, Self-ID: Support for trans change on birth certificates plummets. 21/09/23
https://archive.ph/JoQdv Louisa Clarence-Smith, Academic who criticised teaching ‘white privilege’ in schools no-platformed from conference. Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert is told her participation on the panel would make other speakers feel ‘unsafe’. 22/09/23
https://archive.ph/Sc1qF Oliver Wright, Schools must provide changing rooms for pupils based on sex at birth. The equalities watchdog also said schools will not break the law by refusing to call children by chosen name or gender. 22/09/23
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-horrible-histories-gets-wrong-about-history/ Ed West, What Horrible Histories gets wrong about history. 19/09/23
Toby Marshall, How to Fight Indoctrination within Education. Evil Indoctrinating Teachers? 23/09/23
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Every parent must be emboldened in their moral duty as the arbiters of their children’s lives. We have not been paying attention- our abdication of responsibility to external sources will only bring harm to all children.
So glad people are pushing back against this insidious ideology.