Panorama On The Birmingham School Protests

[vetuste_ennemi]

Anybody seen this?

How do you think the issue about the teaching of sexual and family diversity is going to be resolved? Especially as the temperature will be raised further next year when it becomes a legal(?) requirement on all primary schools to instruct their pre-pubescent pupils about same-sex marriage.

It seems to me that there's an intractable contradiction in an educational policy which promotes the idea that homosexuality is "OK" to the children of parents who think it is not.

But I'm not that an imaginative person. The British have a gift for compromise (we are told). What's the likely British compromise here?

[Cloverjo]

I think, I don’t know but I’d imagine, children will be introduced to the idea that not all families have one mum and one dad, not all men are only attracted to women and vice versa.
They won’t be instructed in anything, just that people are different and it’s all ok.

[albaqwerty]

If a parent is against it, why not just let the child out of the class-room whilst the others are taught?
That way, at play-time, those excluded would be told what they'd missed by those who were told.

(I'm loathe to use the words 'taught' and 'instruct')

[vetuste_ennemi]

//They won’t be instructed in anything, just that people are different and it’s all ok//

Understood, CloverJo. That's the official line: OK means legal in today's diverse Britain, that there are homosexual partnerships and marriages, and that some have kids from previous relationships and some have adopted kids under the new laws and it's all about accepting this and not being nasty to the kid with two mum

But some parents will think that the bland, the tolerant, and the "who could possibly object?" inclusive OK (and the program behind it) means considerably more than just understanding English law, alternative life-styles and not being a bully.

Some might think that the "OK" is telling their children that homosexual relationships are morally right.

I'm sure that you understand how some parents might see it that way.

[vetuste_ennemi]

//why not just let the child out of the class-room whilst the others are taught? //

A good question, Albaqwerty.

We have a class of eight year olds where the one white girl is embracing diversity and the other thirty Muslim girls are somewhere else.

This worked when I was a kid and the one Jewish boy and the two Roman Catholics were excused school assembly or whatever, but it becomes a bit of a nonsense when an apparently legally prescribed part of the core curriculum is attended by 3% of the pupils.

[Mamyalynne]

It's clear that some parents are against this and would rather their children were shielded from the notion that the World doesn't operate like their own family.

There are clear and obvious reasons they feel this way and how on earth it's going to be resolved I don't know.

For my part I think it's important a child is aware about the society they are growing up in and learning tolerance along the way.

[Cloverjo]

I’m more concerned that the mums I saw protesting, on the news, were all bundled up in burqas. How do you explain to a child that some cultures oppress women in such a way? They should do something about that before worrying that their children will be introduced to a family with two dads, for instance.

[vetuste_ennemi]

I think your last post, CloverJo, puts the possible contradictions of "diverse" societies in an even clearer light than my original OP.

[sherrardk]

This news item has been going on for a while now. I personally feel that if the parents object that strongly that they should remove their children (not take them out for a bit in protest and then send them back). If you live here, regardless of if you were born here, what religion you are, etc, blah, blah then get over yourself and just let people be - if their not affecting your life then I don’t get what the issue is.

[Spicerack]

You'll be back-tracking on that post, Clover, when your fellow progressives explain why it's racist or something.

[Spicerack]

I'll put my money on the Muslims winning this.
They trump the gay lobby.
The Gov. will, of course, put a different spin on the outcome.

[Mamyalynne]

If the proposed programme is pulled, it is to be hoped that the majority of parents who weren't already teaching their children not to discriminate or bully because of differences in family life start to do so.

One can hope against hope.

[vetuste_ennemi]

//If you live here, regardless of if you were born here, what religion you are, etc, blah, blah then get over yourself and just let people be - if their not affecting your life then I don’t get what the issue is.//

The Muslim parents, SherrardK, rightly or wrongly, believe that their children are being taught that homosexuality is not sinful, and that homosexual couples can adopt children, and that children so adopted will grow up in a family which will be just as loving as the conventional man/woman family, and should not be bullied if homophobes think otherwise.

I agree with Muslim parents totally on the first bit of that. And with the creators of the "No Outsiders" program on the last. Nothing much in the middle, however.

[vetuste_ennemi]

//I'll put my money on the Muslims winning this//

Mamya agrees with you, Spicerack. And so will Jess Phillips - in time. At the moment her Birmingham constituency is a rich white suburb.

[Cloverjo]

I think ‘No outsiders’ is a wrong choice for a slogan.
I know what it means, but it doesn’t sound like that if you think of it in a different way.

[vetuste_ennemi]

I think I can guess at the get-around.

It's the referendum fudge: the core curriculum has been "decided on" at one level (the Parliamentary), but is only "advisable", and the responsibility for its implementation will be devolved to local head teachers who will make a decision based on their own specific community interests.

[sherrardk]

Yeah, it’s so much better to let children grow up in the care system rather than to be loved and cherished by two gay, trams, non binary, unicorn, mermaid people. Unbelievable that this sort of *** is ok - let’s blame it on the snowflake generation.

[vetuste_ennemi]

The point of the OP, SherrdK, is to see how different communities might see this. And what to do if you get strong opposition to a policy which they think is being imposed on them.

The OP invites suggestions to resolve these what I choose to call "contradictions" in the diversity narrative and its near universal endorsement.

Please offer yours.

[Mamyalynne]

My solution would be that parents should do the ruddy job of bringing up their children to be kind to others and not rely on the education system to do it for them.

Doubt there's much chance of that with all either.

[sherrardk]

Well it’s actually your OP and I suggest you get over yourself. I personally don’t think AB is a reflection of the wider community, I suggest it’s inhabited, in the main, by white middle class bored people (such as I) and the more insidious middle class, late middle age male - go figure (I have my own *** to deal with).

[vetuste_ennemi]

//My solution would be that parents should do the ruddy job of bringing up their children to be kind to others and not rely on the education system to do it for them//

Pardon my bluntness, Mamya, but that's an untypically confused post.

The "kindness to others" role (in the specific case of homosexual families) has been arrogated to itself by the state, hence the Damian Hinds enforcement of RSE(?) tuition for seven-year olds.

The objection of the Parkfield protestors is that the state sponsored curriculum is interfering with their moral education of their own children.

You do understand that point, don't you, even if SherrardK does not?