Ethical question- now that I have to work with a child with special pronouns, I'm worried that I'm going to slip up or refuse to play nice. I have zero poker face.
I'm obviously rehearsing various scenarios in my head. One is 'in for a penny, in for a pound'- I'm just going to let rip my views but I'm going to claim to be a lesbian.
I am not a lesbian. But I have short hair and don't wear makeup and I think no one would question it.
So.... is that so terrible a lie?
Now the teachers' union has sent a map to gender diversity in cultures around the world. It's by PBS if you care to search it up.
"Terms such as transgender and gay are strictly new constructs that assume three things: that there are only two sexes (male/female), as many as two sexualities (gay/straight), and only two genders (man/woman).”
I don't know where to start with this sentence.
Update from the education trenches this week:
Covered for a grade 7 teacher who told me the kids should introduce themselves with pronouns 'properly'. I skipped introductions and just took roll call.
At another school, have encountered a child aged 10 or 11 with a male name who looks like a girl with short hair and who hangs out exclusively with girls. Not sure if I should inquire more into this.
So many teachers with pronouns in their emails or displayed in their classroom.
During the 2020 lockdown times, I would listen to podcasts while I made art. I listened to hours and hours of Robert Sapolsky's lectures on human behavior. He mentions that TIPs brains match the brains of their identified gender. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QScpDGqwsQ
I have so many thoughts I don't know where to start.
I thought there was a study on like...11 brains from dead males and it wasn't clear if they were the gay or straight kind of trans.
I think Sapolsky says elsewhere that gay men have one tiny part of the brain that looks like more like a female brain.
It is my understanding that there are small differences, general trends, between male and female brains but you couldn't 100% identify the sex of a dissected brain.
Sapolsky's lectures are all about differences in male and female behaviors especially around reproduction.
I teach kids and I think boys and girls are wired differently but also hate the idea of 'ladybrainz'.
Is Sapolsky a sellout because that's what it takes to keep a top spot at Stanford?
To give more context, high schoolers are doing interviews instead of exams at the end of the year.
Is this a kinder, gentler education that works for more students, or are we creating people who don't have the discipline to study and can't handle stressful situations?
Please weigh in.
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