reading transgender children's book to KINDERGARTNERS>>MOD WARNING<<<

Don't be scared guy, it is just a book. If your so worried about America's youth why don't you take a look at rising obesity rates? Nothing is keeping kids from being kids more than not being able to get off of their asses. And that's what you're so concerned about right? Kids gotta be able to be kids.

 

good grief, have you never seen a gassy baby? sometimes they smile when they fart, geez i feel like i shouldn't have to be explaining this...

 

It goes way deeper than you can possibly imagine. Inundate the kids with gay propaganda early on and have them infiltrate the military to create an army of super fab fighters. Soon we'll elect our first gay president and start killing off all the straight white men. Fear us indeed.

WUT?
View attachment 34861

 

I'm not a guy, I'm a gal.....

Like what's fed into your child's brain, food is another issue for the parents to be in control of and this is one that they're failing miserably at.......

 

No explanation w/your post and........the devil made me say it.

Yeah, I had 3 gassy babies full of giggles and smiles........

 

Lord knows we can't leave it in the hands of the schools, but I digress. That's a whole nother topic.

 

I'm not defending anyone. You can attack anyone you want for something they actually did, even something they were alleged to have done, but if you're going to report completely false information you can't object when you're picked up on it. This kind of thread can either be a reasonable discussion about what was wrong with this whole incident or it can be an emotional hate filled witch-hunt. I think the latter tends to do more harm than good.

 

This seems a bit overboard to me. I am a man in his thirties, And i have a non hetero sexual identity, I have difficulty wrapping my head around transgenderism, and i have a masters in psychology. It confuses me, and I am trained not to make judgements based on my beliefs.

I have seen others say that if there is a child that is trans identified in the class it would prompt this, but why? Just tell the kids not to pick on the child. I doubt this is the case but should it be, why humiliate the hypothetical child by discussing all the things they are going through with every child in gross detail?

Perhaps people dealing with this should be allowed to deal with. I don't think chastising them helps anybody, so that behavior should be condemned. And in our country we have the freedom to choose how we live.

We don't need to go into detail, but we can live and let live.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you don't have kids. Because if you did, and you spent your days 'teaching' you 4 year old about transgenders, gays, pedophiles, drugs, kidnapping, death, murder, etc, etc, you should have Child Services called on you.

 

I can see this issue from two different sides. First, I think sex education should be left up to parents and any book like "I Am Jazz" should be introduced only after parents give their permission.

But, on the other side - I did a little research and this is a book written by a young person about his/her life. She (now) has a TV show and works to educate.

Personally, I'm not familiar with anyone who is a trans, but I remember when schools began mainstreaming children with "special needs." My grandfather, who was of the era when they locked up special needs people in "institutions," thought it was horrible that his grandchildren were going to be in school - side-by-side - with these individuals.

Of course, once the rest of the children understood and accepted the special needs kids, everything for the most part went smoothly.

If there ARE legitimate trans people out there - and I believe there probably are, perhaps some male we know who seems very feminine or a masculine girl, then our children are already exposed to these individuals.

It doesn't seem like there will be a great number of trans kids in the schools, but if we can reduce judgmental attitudes and increase compassion in society - is that really wrong?

I haven't found an actual copy of I Am Jazz yet so I can't really comment on the exact content. If anyone has a link - please share it. But, it's being described as very "mild" and just a story about a little boy who enjoys things little girls enjoy.

The teacher should have gotten the parents' permission. If I was a teacher who thought the book was a good idea, I'd have shown it to the parents at their childrens' conferences and gotten feedback first.

 

Here's a photo of the little gal who wrote the book. She looks pretty much like an average teen to me. I don't think I'd have guessed she was male at birth.

 

The problem is not the book or the topic. The problem is it was read to a class of 5 year olds. I have a 5 year old, and he doesn't have the mental faculties to understand where a baby comes from, let alone a kid with a boys body and a girls brain who dresses as a girl but acts like a boy or whatever. It's ridiculous and borders on child abuse IMO. If they want to touch on this subject in the high school sex education chapter in Health class, then I could see it. But in kindergarten? (*)(*)(*)(*)

 

I'm unclear if this is teaching about sexuality exactly.
Students at that age often ask very open innocent questions, so it might be a good time address "feelings", providing they are not related to "sex".

When my kids were young, they would ask about "little people" if they saw them. They might even comment on obese people. They didn't get that it was "un-PC" to point and mention something about them. I kinda put this in the same ilk. If questions are raised in a safe environment, then I think that's a good way of dealing with issues. If they see a guy with a beard dressed like a lady in the street, this might raise some questions to parents - some of which may not have any good knowledge on the subject.

Life is... sometimes LGBT. We have none of that in our family, but kids are going to see it more and more in today's society. I'm happy for my kids to be educated about many things in life.
That said, I haven't read what it's fully about. Talking about sex, regardless if its gay or hetero, is not on in kindergarten.

 

I agree with you. You, as a parent, should be the one to decide if you want your child exposed to something like this. No one should take that right away from you.

I'm just saying that "if" there are trans kids out there, since I don't personally know of any, this might make them feel better about themselves and it might make other children more compassionate. Perhaps a parent who suspects their child is a trans would appreciate a book like this that helps them deal with the issue.

Kindergarten DOES seem like too young an age to broach a topic like this with children.

I'd really like to read the book, however, before I condemn it. Because, I read that it was very "mild" and didn't really broach the topic of sex at all.

 

My first day of school was sometime in September 1952. Oddly, I remember the day. The school was less than a half mile from my house so my mother and I walked there. I was five and starting the first grade. My mother kept chiding me for scuffing my new shoes on the sidewalk. When we got there I went into the classroom where there were chalk pictures drawn on a blackboard of various items- a birthday cake, a drum, a triangle, a circle etc. We were encouraged to copy them with a lump of clay that was on our desk while our mothers stood at the back of the class and then went into a another room out of sight to see who would cry and be judged too immature to be in school at that point. Having been a conservative since I was about a month old, I never even noticed when mom was gone. All the liberals were blubbering and they were soon gone to wait another year.

No one was expected to explore their sexual identity as I recall and there were no pictures on the blackboard of boys wearing dresses or girls lip locking each other in the woods. Those were simpler times when school was a place to teach kids the basic skills needed get by in society and hopefully become productive citizens in a civilized nation. Now the "professionals" have taken over our schools and are embarked on a crusading mission of social engineering apparently for some "greater good" that escapes most average people. The result of course is that we no longer live in a civilized nation. I never thought I'd ever say this but I miss the days of Truman and Eisenhower. Carry on.

 

I have no doubt that if there is a case where a trans kid was in that class, then yes this book would be appreciated by that individual.
Here are my contentions.....
Why the special treatment?
For one / handful of transgender kids the school is willing to go behind parents back and expose ALL children in the class to this material even though it does not concern their general education or circumstances

Why does the transgender kid / their parents not seek out assistance?
As would any other child that faces circumstances unique to them. The school just went whole hog and did guidance counseling on the cheap to young impressionable minds who did not need to be exposed to gender identity material.

Whether or not the age of 5 is even logical for children to be considering gender identity issues in the first place is a topic for a whole other thread

 

That's a good point. But, I think we do encourage our children to reach out to those who are different. We teach them to be compassionate to the child who comes to school in torn clothing and we tell them it's nice if they share their lunch with a child who has none. This is just part of raising compassionate children. Those kids aren't "deserving" of special treatment, we just like to make our children aware that being poor isn't something we use to judge someone by.

That's another good point. It truly is the burden of the parent of a child like that to seek out assistance. Most parents in that situation (I can only imagine how tough that might be) would probably want their child to be seen as "normal" and not excluded by the other kids.

I also agree that 5 year olds should not have to consider gender identity.

But, as I said - I'd like to read this book and see what it really covers before either condoning it - or condemning it.

And again, I support the idea that it's always a parent's choice as to whether their child is exposed to something like this. My kids are older now - so I don't have to deal with this, thank goodness.

 

Yes. Being transgender is a issue that can be spotted extremely effectively in very young children. If a child consistently, and insistently wants to be the opposite gender they are very likely trans. Obviously no one is suggesting surgery that young. But spotting it early can help tremendously with the condition later in life.

 

Yup. This is how I feel too. I don't think you need to talk about genitals or anything like that. Just say some girls only feel comfortable if everyone thinks they're a boy. Because they think of themselves as a boy. And some boys only feel comfortable if everyone thinks they are a girl. Because they think of themselves as a boy. I'd let them know that they are dealt a very difficult hand in life and they should be treated with respect and accepted for the person they want to be.

Nothing sexual about that. Just teaching basic respect.

 

Sorry not buying it.. Kids that young just do not think about such things.

 

Of course they do. It's a well documented thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity_disorder_in_children

 

Compadre.... dial it back on the sarcasm and the automatic defense mode for just a bit and re-read what I said.

Sure it is the internet, and I can't take for granted that readers will instantly follow what I am typing.
But jeez, I'm talking about you guys on the thread not raising any criticism over what is being reported here. Silently supporting these activites. yada-yada-yada
Didn't think I would need to water it down so much.

Of course general criticism has been raised.... That's how this thread was started in the first instance.

And way to go about making a joke out of this man....
This isn't about transgender kids falling through the cracks
This is about the LGBTQQ community creating a crack and sweeping young impressionable minds towards it

 

I hear ya.... good point
But mannnnnnnn.... this whole cluster#### could have all been avoided if the school just did what it was supposed to do.... Folloe the education curriculum

 

Oh that's what we're doing? Because I can do that too. I'm going to assume you listen to a lot of grateful dead and smoke way too much pot, but I don't care, that's your life and not mine, so do what you want. Also, good luck with that 5 year old. Hope no one calls CPS on you for making them listen to Casey Jones on repeat. That is the real crime.

 

The sarcasm has no limiter, I haven't learned how to turn it down since the 80's. And what criticism could I offer? You all see a problem to be afraid of where as I don't. Really it's as simple as that. I don't know what kind of indoctrination you were put through that you come up with all of this off the wall stuff but you don't make any sense. What cracks are being created? You act like the LGBT is some kind of sentient monster set on the destruction of everything you love. If you honestly believe that then we don't really have anymore to talk about. I can't nor do I want to stop you from living your life in fear of gay people. That is your prerogative.