Pressure on Early Childhood Education centers to push gender ideology on preschoolers…
A parent who is also an ECE (early childhood education) teacher told us at a recent parents’ meeting that there is pressure on ECE centers to push gender ideology on preschoolers. What we found after some research should concern every parent. Gender and sexuality ideology is starting way earlier than you possibly thought, and as some people have warned, they’re coming for your kids. It’s time to push back.
TRANSCRIPT:
PERSONAL PRONOUNS FOR PRESCHOOLERS
When I recently spoke to a large group of parents who had invited me to speak about the radical gender and sexuality ideology being rammed down in schools, (and we’ve been doing lots of meetings like this around the country recently) a parent who is also an ECE (early childhood education) teacher told me quietly that there is pressure on ECE centres to push this ideology also on pre-schoolers.
I had always assumed that ECE and pre-schools and kindergartens would be protected from this indoctrination – but this discussion spurred me to do some research. And I was alerted by another teacher to a charitable organisation called The Education Hub.
According to their website
The Education Hub was launched in 2017 with a mission to bridge the gap between research and practice in education in order to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for children and young people. Our work is focused on providing early childhood and school teachers and leaders with access to high quality, reliable, and practical evidence from both research and practice to support them to enact meaningful change in their contexts of practice.
Now to be fair, The Education Hub does some good research and professional development around positive eating, visual arts, nature play and music,
Although I did notice a page entitled “social justice in early childhood education” which is classic Critical Theory 101.
Including statements like
“Early childhood is a critical time for children to begin understanding and exploring gender. As children navigate gender and their gendered lives, it is important to examine discourses around gender. There remains a persistent tendency in early years settings for gender to be binarised in everyday and subtle ways… Teachers can engage in anti-bias and gender-expansive practices which acknowledge the gendered nature of early childhood and seek to address gendered issues in meaningful ways. This can include challenging assumptions which stem from a binary and conventional view of gender…”
Don’t you dare say “boys and girls”.
There’s also comments about
“Decolonisation of education spaces, which focuses on acknowledging colonisation and its continued impacts, while seeking to disrupt and reconceptualise colonial understandings…”
Did I tell you this is for pre-school facilities and kindergartens?
If you want to read more about why critical theory in our education system, read our Fact Sheet which is available at criticaltheory.nz
There’s even this important stuff for your 3 year old
“Climate change and sustainability, which are matters of critical concern where children deserve a voice and can make a difference – for example, by exploring ‘weathering-with’ pedagogies (go-G) which foreground connectedness between children, weather, and the world”
No wonder our toddlers need an afternoon nap. I feel like a nap after reading this.
But… I’ve been distracted. Back to the topic of this McBlog.
As part of professional development for early childhood teachers, there’s a section on…..
Talking about gender non-conformity in early childhood education
In the training webinar, a Professor Mara Sapon-Shevin (Syracuse University, USA) a Professor of Inclusive Education focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion and how we teach children, how we prepare teachers, and how we help adults become active allies in resisting oppressive language and behaviour (ok – so there’s a massive bunch of woke buzz words there – and her website is full of red flags for parents) discussed how early childhood teachers can approach gender non-conformity. As well as dealing with gender stereotypes like ‘girls can’t be doctors’, it’s also about teaching very young children (pre-schoolers) about gender diversity.
On her website, she says
Gender expression can be quite fluid, and just because a child chooses to express themselves in one way now does not mean that they have to remain with that gender identity for the rest of their lives.
No – that’s not gender identity. That’s personality. That’s expressing your likes and dislikes. Girls can be more masculine-like. Boys can be more feminine-like. Girls can be doctors. Boys can be nurses. But that’s nothing to do with choosing your gender, chemicalising and castrating healthy bodies, and ignoring biology.
But she also wants ECE teachers to become activists – saying
Children usually embrace… ideas about trans-gender identities, and the shift in pronouns readily when these are positively modelled. Most resistance comes from adults, with young children usually demonstrating very little resistance.
Ah – pesky parents eh
She says
Families of children may not always be comfortable with teachers’ support for a range of gender identities. Teachers may find it helpful to have a specific policy on their approach to teaching about diversity,
So basically if parents object to their little children being indoctrinated, the pre-school teacher just says “well it’s a specific policy of this place”. There seems to be no acknowledgement of engaging with the community to find out what they want. You know – what parents actually want for their children.
So there’s a checkpoint if you currently have children in ECE. Ask what their policy is around gender identity and pronouns etc.
It goes on…
There are many useful resources to support teachers to learn about the experiences and preferences of those who identify as trans-gender and non-binary, or who are gender non-conforming. Finding out about and using people’s preferences for pronouns is important. ‘They’ can be used to replace ‘he/she’ and can make using language much simpler… Understanding that every small step towards dismantling oppression and stereotypes is a step, and that no one can do it all, can help reduce feelings of overwhelm. Not to do anything, however, reinforces dominant stereotypes and injustices for people who are non-conforming.
So what are these “useful resources”?
There’s some suggested books which examine the range of activities that girls and boys can enjoy, with the intention of decoupling activities from their usual gender stereotypes. So yep – boys can like ballet. Girls can like rough and tumble game of tag or rugby. Or trucks!
That’s about personality. Nothing to do with being born in the wrong body or being transgender.
But then there’s this book – where the gender ideology indoctrination comes in full steam – remember, for pre-schoolers
What are your Words? A Book about Pronouns by Katherine Locke.
Let’s have a look at some of the pages
My uncle lior is coming to visit today. I can’t wait to show them around my neighbourhood. And I can’t wait for all my neighbours to meet them.
Um – I can guarantee that the little children are gonna say – meet “them”. You said it was just uncle. Is aunty coming as well. Some smart kid will say “that doesn’t make sense, miss”
They have many colourful hats. They are a biologist…
I learn a lot from uncle lior, like that people can be described by more than what they look like or what they do. In fact, there are lots of words to say who people are and how they feel. Some of those words are pronouns. Pronouns are words that can take the place of your name, like I, me, you, she, he or they.
Sometimes I know my words right away. He / him. She / her. Ey / em.
Based on qualities – which seems to be stereotyping – which is slightly ironic.
Sometimes I just use one set of pronouns. Sometimes I change my pronouns. Sometimes I use all the pronouns I can think of.
So it’s pretty clear that there’s a strong indoctrination of gender ideology going on here with this key book recommendation for preschoolers
And then there’s songs that pre-schoolers will love – the Trans and Nonbinary Kids’ Mix,
but you probably won’t if you have a little child at these institutions.
So here’s some examples. The first one –
TOTALLY KNUTS
And then
CALL THEM THEY
You can call me they – yep, real logical
And finally
Gay BC’s
There’s always more we can add to the list, Yep we know that – although lipstick wasn’t a gender that I was previously aware of. So does that make it 113 genders now?
Further websites are recommended genderspectrum.org which says everything just by its title.
learningforjustice.org is rife with gender ideology & sexual identity, and then there’s welcomingschools.org which is part of the LGBTQIAA+- focused Human Rights Foundation in the US,
and one thing that this site also talks about neo-pronouns. Heard of them? You have now!
Neopronouns are also pronouns, and include those pronouns besides the ones most commonly used in a particular language. As one’s pronouns are ultimately a reflection of their personal identity, the number and types of (neo)pronouns a person may use is limitless. Examples of neopronoun sets include: xe/xir/xirs, ze/zir/zirs and fae/faer/faers.
Yep pre-schoolers really need to know all that eh
So there we have it.
If you find personal pronouns and gender identity confusing, imagine how 2, 3 and 4 year olds will cope.
ECE pre-schools and kindergartens should stick to allowing children to be children – and not polluting their minds with confusing and radical sexual and gender ideology.
But as you can now see, the gender and sexuality ideology is starting way earlier than you possibly thought. As some people have commented, they’re coming for your kids.
Maybe it’s time to check on your local pre-school or kindy just to make sure that they aren’t serving up the woke cool-aid, and still understand biology and truth and respect your role as the parent.
Your children and grandchildren deserve it.
