LGBT history

I think it a stupid suggestion, but I did say it was said at the Pink News awards so guaranteed applause

It is so heartening that most people don't give a flyer about people's sexual orientation

well that's clearly not the case if people associate visibility of LGBT characters in with the hetro characters as being age inappropriate for children and unnessesary

There's nothing grotty or hyper-sexualised about presenting some characters as gay/trans, trans anyway has nothing to do with sex, and saying that someone is gay isn't saying anything about their sex life any more than saying that this man loves that woman does.

Iam68now there are other communities, too, with children in our schools who are likely to be extremely offended by lessons of this nature. Are they expected to exclude their children from these lessons? Roses was right. He was obviously pandering to his audience. There will be a lot of people in his inner circle with their heads in their hands I should think!

if children have homophobic parents then their children need it in schools more than anyone

Unless racists children should be exluded from the anti racism/anti bullying lessons too?

If children have homophobic parents they could be distressed and or confused .

And kids whose parents are bullies? shouldn't be exposed to anti bullying lessons incase they get distressed or confused?

I don't know that I want children to be "presented with" anything really - they are growing up in an increasingly tolerant society and they will hopefully absorb that. Making a big deal of it just makes it sound something particular or over and above everything else that goes on around them. Why would we want to do that?

Really notanan all your posts on any thread continue to be tedious rants at all and sundry.

Exactly Luckygirl well said.

No, I don't think LGBT history should be taught as a separate topic in history, although it has a place in social history alongside attitudes to women, children and ethnic minorities, which isn't really taught in schools. The history of equality is reserved for university students.

Young people are much more accepting of LGBT than older people. In my experience, it's some of the teachers who have a problem. I can't really imagine that Oscar Wilde would be studied in primary schools, so that's not going to be an issue.

Exactly daphne, even the most professional of class teachers would find it a hard topic to introduce and discuss whatever their own views.

Fine, if Mr Corbyn decides to train and employ knowledgeable "experts" to deliver this sensitive area of the curriculum to the children. But hang on a minute, that will cost even more money?

cant children just be allowed to be children, why do they need to be taught about anyones's sexual orientation until they are in their teens. FGS we have too many children leaving school unable to read, write or count, shouldnt we be concentrating n that !

For goodness sake what do you really want notanan ? for story books to be re-written to include every diffent kind of sexual urientation? For Santa to show up at the school Christmas party with his boyfriend wearing a feather boa and a tu-tu? I don't mean to be flippant but I can't see what's wrong with things as they are. Children learn from things they see and hear. My DGC regularly see a lesbian married couple. They love them for who they are. Yes they have asked awkward questions and they have been answered honestly. Like most children my DGC are very well adjusted just as they are.

I don't think I've ever come across a child who left school at 16 unable to read, write or count. That's nonsense!

It would be interesting to know what exactly Corbyn meant by 'LGBT history'. If he thinks it should be a specific topic, then no, but I also think that it should not be considered as abnormal. If the topic arises and an understanding is vital to understanding a pice of literature or some other topic, then teachers shouldn't shy away from it. Homophobic bullying should also be dealt with. I doubt very much whether the idea would be to teach children about LGBT. Most of them already know, unless they avoid all forms of media.

Sorry, but I don't think notanan is ranting. She's made her point, which she's perfectly entitled to do.

Is 'tedious' today's new buzzword or something? I certainly find your posts tedious at times, rosesarered.

If this does come into effect, who is going to teach it? Will teacher trainees be given a course as part of their training? If so, by whom?
I remember there was once an idea to have Arabic taught in schools, a useful subject, but not enough people qualified to teach it (outside of Muslim schools.)

Daphne, what does- included in the school carriculum mean to you as you don't know what he meant by - history of GLBT to be included in the school carriculum

"Included in the school curriculum" includes everything which a school aims to teach: 'subjects', values, behaviour, etc. At university level, it's possible to study the history of feminism, equality, LGBT, children's rights, etc etc, but I don't know if that's what Corbyn meant. I seriously doubt it.

Is bullying part of a schools carriculum?

For goodness sake what do you really want notanan ?

Proportional visibility embedded into all subjects! That is what I want.

For example, if the topic is science, I want teachers to make an effort to embed some diversity and not just teach about white male inventors, even though they may be the easiest to find, make a bit of effort to find out a bit about women or black inventors and present them along with not instead of the usual suspect white male inventors.

No I don't think we should "make" santa gay, I do think we should have other diverse characters as well as the hetronormative ones to balance it out a bit. If it's okay and not "sexualising" children to teach that X person in history was married to/in love with someone of the opposite sex, then it's not sexualising them to say that Y person from history was in love with someone from the same sex.

It's so hypocritical to think that it's too "sexual" to mention someone is gay if you think it's okay to mention that someone straight had a relationship with someone of the opposite sex. Why is it grotty and all about sex and not "age appropriate" if it's a gay relationship, but "normal" and fine if it's about a MF relationship/prince&princess etc?

It's not enough for children to have met at gay couple if all they're being taught in History and Science and English is that nobody gay (or black, or female) ever did anything great!

cant children just be allowed to be children, why do they need to be taught about anyones's sexual orientation until they are in their teens.

well they are already taught that MF couples are the norm/the default. MF relationships are discussed with young children all the time, as per my previous examples: princess&prince, Santa& Mrs Claus, mummies & daddies stories etc.

So actually we already talk about sexuality to children a hell of a lot, but we're talking about hetrosexuality so we don't even notice we're doing it most of the time

But for the most part we disproportionately only talk about hetrosexual norms, and that's the problem.

I mean talking about all of King Henry 8ths wives is talking about his sexuality not his sex life isn't it?

Children always picked up more than their parents ever imagined , better leading by example instead of emphasising and over thinking stuff . Answering questions truthfully instead of fudging , but it can be counterproductive to "teach" correct thinking .

I think you are confusing gender with sex

but it can be counterproductive to "teach" correct thinking and also pointless if it's just "taught" as a stand alone lesson and not embedded into all topics.

Kids'll get how hypocritical/shallow and meaningless it is if they have a "diversity" class then go back into history or science or english and that's still hetro-centric & white centric & male-centric in all examples!

If a prince hasn't married a prince, not a lot anyone can do about it is there

I think you are confusing gender with sex
Im not, I mentioned gender as another aspect of diversity that needs to be conscientiously made more visible.
There's lots of aspects of diversity that need to be better embedded in all topics in schools.