{"id":10111,"date":"2015-07-06T15:44:29","date_gmt":"2015-07-06T22:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=10111"},"modified":"2020-01-23T09:54:52","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T17:54:52","slug":"nebraska-school-stop-calling-students-boys-or-girls-to-be-gender-inclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/nebraska-school-stop-calling-students-boys-or-girls-to-be-gender-inclusive\/","title":{"rendered":"Nebraska School: Stop Calling Students Boys or Girls to be \u2018Gender Inclusive\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Homosexual<\/a> by Deena Winter –<\/p>\n

A Lincoln middle school staffer gave teachers training documents<\/a> advising them not to use \u201cgendered expressions\u201d by calling students \u201cboys and girls\u201d or \u201cladies and gentlemen,\u201d but to instead use more generic expressions like campers, readers, athletes or even purple penguins to be more \u201cgender inclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n

A handout called \u201c12 easy steps on the way to gender inclusiveness\u201d advised teachers to avoid separating students by gender, but instead by birth dates or preferences. For example, they could ask students whether they prefer skateboards or bikes, milk or juice, dogs or cats, summer or winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways ask yourself, \u2018Will this configuration create a gendered space?\u2019\u201d said Step 1<\/strong> of the handout.<\/p>\n

Or they could \u201cCreate classroom names and then ask all of the \u2018purple Penguins\u2019 to meet at the rug,\u201d the handout said. <\/p>\n

Step 5:<\/strong> \u201cWhen you find it necessary to reference gender, say \u2018boy, girl, both or neither,\u201d the handout said. \u201cWhen asked why, use this as a teachable moment. Emphasize to students that your classroom recognizes and celebrates the gender diversity of all students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Step 7:<\/strong> \u201cLook for examples in the media that reinforce gender stereotypes or binary models of gender (it won\u2019t be hard; they\u2019re everywhere). When with others, call it out and interrogate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Step 8:<\/strong> \u201cBe intolerant of openly hostile attitudes or references towards others\u2026 on their statements about gender. Being punitive may stop the behavior, at least in your presence. Being instructive may stop it entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Step 10:<\/strong> \u201cAvoid using \u2018normal\u2019 to define any behaviors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another playful handout called \u201cThe Genderbread Person\u201d said gender isn\u2019t binary, it isn\u2019t either\/or and encouraged kids to define their gender based on how much they align with \u201cwhat you understand to be the options for gender\u201d such as \u201ctwo-spirit\u201d and \u201cgender\/queer.\u201d The options for expressing gender ranged from butch to femme and androgynous to gender-neutral. The handout was written by \u201csocial justice comedian\u201d Sam Killermann.<\/p>\n

Lincoln Superintendent Steve Joel told KLIN Radio\u2019s Drive Time Lincoln show Wednesday he was \u201chappy\u201d and \u201cpleased\u201d with the training materials because the school district wants all children to be successful and not feel like outcasts or be afraid to go to school. He said the school district needs to be inclusive and educate and understand all children and address bullying.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t get involved with politics,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t get involved with gender preferences. We\u2019re educating all kids\u2026 and we can\u2019t be judgmental.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kids who are \u201cliving an alternative lifestyle\u201d or have a \u201cgender difference\u201d are going through an \u201cemotionally traumatic time,\u201d Joel said, and other students \u201cdon\u2019t understand what that child represents\u201d so the school needs to help students understand \u201cdifferences are OK\u201d and \u201cwe\u2019re all there to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al Riskowski, executive director of the conservative Nebraska Family Alliance, said his group has supported legislation to combat bullying, but the training materials go \u201cway beyond trying to teach someone how to respect another individual\u201d or understand gender identification or sexual orientation to a \u201cwhole new idea of boy-girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a reteaching of \u201cgender spectrum philosophy,\u201d he said. While he knows it\u2019s hard to be a teacher and school administrator these days and important to address issues, Riskowski said the idea \u201cyour biology at birth doesn\u2019t designate who you are,\u201d but instead you\u2019re on a \u201cgender spectrum\u201d is at odds with the beliefs of \u201calmost everyone in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joel said the materials were only distributed at Irving Middle School and won\u2019t be disseminated district-wide, because it\u2019s up to each school to determine what their needs are.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow obviously there might be a school where this isn\u2019t a conversation and maybe doesn\u2019t need to be a conversation,\u201d he said. \u201cTo Irving\u2019s credit, they have children that represent what the discussion points are and they\u2019re helping their faculty understand, give definition.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for teachers who may be offended by the training material, Joel said they should \u201cmeet with their principal and talk through that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joel said his email inbox is filled with feedback ranging from those who thanked him for being inclusive to \u201cthe other side,\u201d but he doesn\u2019t expect the school district will change course. A parent with a student at Irving Middle School sent emails alerting others to the training and asking them to join her and address the issue with the school board Oct. 14.<\/p>\n

Joel said in a rapidly growing, diverse school district with 39,000 students \u2014 30 percent of them \u201cchildren of color,\u201d 43 percent living in poverty and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students throughout \u2014 the school district can\u2019t say \u201cwe need kids to look like this, or act like this or talk like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no one size fits all approach to this,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can\u2019t turn a deaf ear to that. We have to understand it. (That) doesn\u2019t mean we have to approve of it, but certainly we can\u2019t be judgmental inside our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether the Lincoln Public School district has a policy for transgender students \u2014 such as how they use locker rooms and restrooms \u2014 Joel said yes, but that it\u2019s a relatively new \u201cwork in progress\u201d that is individualized and worked out between administrators and families. He said \u201cdeterminations are being made in the best interest of the child,\u201d but they won\u2019t be made public because it\u2019s an emotional, confidential issue.<\/p>\n

Riskowski said students should respect each other and not be judgmental, but the school district shouldn\u2019t have to re-educate the 99 percent who aren\u2019t transgender about \u201cthe entire idea of boy-girl.\u201d He noted the materials seemed geared to very young children, with references to calling kids purple penguins and getting in line.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s not aware of similar training in other Nebraska schools, and a sister organization that works on such issues nationwide told him it\u2019s \u201csome of the most radical material we\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irving Principal Susette Taylor told the Lincoln Journal Star she held a staff session on the issue, and the handouts were given out by a staffer on a \u201cdistrict equity team.\u201d She said they were meant for teachers, not students or parents, and were suggestions, not rules, on how to make students feel comfortable.<\/p>\n

HT: The Imaginative Conservative<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Deena Winter – A Lincoln middle school staffer gave teachers training documents advising them not to use \u201cgendered expressions\u201d by calling students \u201cboys and girls\u201d or \u201cladies and gentlemen,\u201d but to instead use more generic expressions like campers, readers, athletes or even purple penguins to be more \u201cgender inclusive.\u201d A handout called \u201c12 easy … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[95,72,142,176,181,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homosexual-indoctrination","category-leftism","category-leftist-tyranny","category-lgbt-activism","category-lgbt-tyranny","category-political-correctness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}