Is this the book you were speaking of, Stella? https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/647974/bodies-are-cool-by-tyler-feder/ My friend gave this book to my daughter at a picture-book-themed baby shower before my granddaughter’s birth. My daughter threw it away. She couldn’t bear to put it in a Little Free Library to influence some other young mind. At the shower, my friend said her two girls liked to have it read to them together at bedtime and choose which “different” body they would each be that night. One of those daughters, now 8 or 9, uses the pronoun “they.”
I’m a teacher in CA (as well as a psychotherapist). I currently have two children in different classes that have clearly adopted a trans identity (I teach theatre arts across elementary school grades). It appears clear these are cases approved and possibly encouraged by their parents.
I have not been tested to use any particular speech. I often say “boys and girls” to highlight reality for the children in my classes, and because it’s what teachers say and have said forever. However, this interview made me consider I may be tested at some point: asked to refer to either child in a particular way I’m not willing to do. What would I do then, I wonder?
I’ve not been tested with wrong sex pronouns in my role as teacher yet. This is my last semester teaching, as I’m retiring from this role this very June. I realize I need to carefully consider my response in the case one becomes necessary this last semester.
Is this the book you were speaking of, Stella? https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/647974/bodies-are-cool-by-tyler-feder/ My friend gave this book to my daughter at a picture-book-themed baby shower before my granddaughter’s birth. My daughter threw it away. She couldn’t bear to put it in a Little Free Library to influence some other young mind. At the shower, my friend said her two girls liked to have it read to them together at bedtime and choose which “different” body they would each be that night. One of those daughters, now 8 or 9, uses the pronoun “they.”
That’s so unfortunate for those girls. So glad your daughter knew to discard it.
They're super loving parents, and both brilliant people. I do think they're slowly figuring things out.
I’m a teacher in CA (as well as a psychotherapist). I currently have two children in different classes that have clearly adopted a trans identity (I teach theatre arts across elementary school grades). It appears clear these are cases approved and possibly encouraged by their parents.
I have not been tested to use any particular speech. I often say “boys and girls” to highlight reality for the children in my classes, and because it’s what teachers say and have said forever. However, this interview made me consider I may be tested at some point: asked to refer to either child in a particular way I’m not willing to do. What would I do then, I wonder?
I’ve not been tested with wrong sex pronouns in my role as teacher yet. This is my last semester teaching, as I’m retiring from this role this very June. I realize I need to carefully consider my response in the case one becomes necessary this last semester.