Ele Ludemann: Govt pushing gender activism on schools

Did you know that the Education and Workforce select committee is considering the Education and Training Amendment Act (3)?

And did you know that it includes this requirement for appointments to school boards?

• updating the criteria for co-opting and appointing board members to reflect today’s school communities, by adding the genders, sexualities and sexes of the school’s students and of the school community, and disabled students at the school and the school’s disability community.

Education Minister Jan Tinetti mentioned this while speaking on the first reading of the Bill:

The bill also expands and modernises the school board member co-option criteria. School boards must have regard for these criteria when deciding to co-opt a board member. The bill updates the criteria to ensure that boards take into account the genders, sexualities, and sexes of students and school community, as well as the disabled students and the school’s disability community when deciding on members to co-opt. This change reflects this Government’s commitment to upholding equity and diversity within our schools.

Speak Up For Women is making a submission against this with concerns which include:

• The length and timing of the submission period, denying many Boards and Board members the ability to consider the changes and submit;
• The continued creep of gender ideology into New Zealand law without adequate consideration;
•  Age appropriateness, especially for primary and intermediate schools (children aged 5-13) of making assumptions about children’s gender identities and sexualities;
• Practicality – how are Boards intended to ascertain the genders and sexualities with their community without making harmful assumptions or asking people to disclose sensitive personal information; and
• Privacy – including how Boards can be expected to collect and protect this sensitive information and for what purposes it can be accessed and used.

This will be criticised for being transphobic and homophobic.

It’s not.

It’s showing justified concern about the infection of gender activism which is spread through the school curriculum about which Alwyn Poole writes:

Just when you thought things could not get any worse we have one document working its way into “Relationship and Sexuality” education in Years 1 – 8 (2020) which features statements such as:

. . . In English, ākonga can:

• critically explore how the diversity of families, schools, and communities is represented in texts

• explore and critique the representation of gender roles and relationships in texts

• co-construct ground rules for engaging in critical discussions about text content

• create oral, visual, or written texts about the roles and relationships within their whānau or family

• engage in dialogue and debate in the context of provocative online posts linked to relationships, gender, and sexuality

In science, ākonga can:

• consider how biological sex has been constructed and measured over time and what this means in relation to people who have variations in sex characteristics

• consider variations in puberty, including the role of hormone blockers

This is for children between 5 and 12 years old (Year 1 – 8). There is no way they are going to be allowed to be kids. They get the worries of the adult world thrust down upon them and, for the record, I have always felt the sex and sexuality education belongs in the home. . .

Education is in crisis.

The government should be concerned about the high rate of truancy – when half of all pupils aren’t attending school regularly – and poor levels of literacy and numeracy and the need for schools and their boards to be focussed on addressing those issues.

It should not be aiding and abetting gender activism, especially to very young children.

Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE