I remember how it was -- JR
How trans ideology took over our schools
Concern with what schools are teaching about sex, gender and relationships has been growing. Parents worry their children are being exposed to inappropriate sexualised content and that they are being taught to question their gender identity. Some even report discovering their children are using new names and pronouns while at school without their knowledge or consent. Yet these fears are frequently dismissed as reactionary parents trading in anecdotes and panic. Nothing to see here, has been the message from schools and campaigning organisations alike. Until now.
A report from Policy Exchange reveals the extent to which gender ideology is being promoted in schools and the shocking ways in which this puts children at risk. In Asleep at the Wheel: An Examination of Gender and Safeguarding in Schools, Lottie Moore uses hard data to expose the true proportion of schools that are leading children down the transgender path.
More than a quarter of schools allow male pupils to use the same toilets as girls
This research shows that an astonishing four in ten secondary schools now operate a policy of gender self-identification. This means that teachers ignore all records of a child’s biological sex and instead treat pupils as whatever gender they declare themselves to be. The safeguarding risks of this approach should be immediately obvious. Policy Exchange has the statistics: at least 28 per cent of secondary schools are not maintaining single sex toilets, and 19 per cent are not maintaining single-sex changing rooms.
In other words, at a time when concern about sexual harassment among teenagers is rife, more than a quarter of schools allow male pupils to use the same toilets as girls. And almost one third of schools now teach pupils that a person who self-identifies as a man or a woman should be treated as a man or woman in all circumstances, even if this does not match their biological sex. Presumably such moral lessons hold true when that person seeks to undress next to you in a changing room. Shockingly, girls are being instructed not to have boundaries or to expect privacy when it comes to their own bodies.
Sadly, it is all too easy to see how this situation has arisen. When faced with seemingly competing demands to safeguard pupils and to adhere to a contested gender ideology, headteachers and school governing bodies have taken the politically easier option and decided to appease transgender activists. But this may leave schools in breach of the law.
Take another shocking statistic the research has uncovered: only 28 per cent of secondary schools are reliably informing parents as soon as a child discloses feelings of gender distress. They allow pupils to adopt a new gender while at school and conspire to keep this from their parents. It is difficult to square this practice with Article 8 of the Human Rights Act which sets out the ‘right to respect for private and family life’.
Schools argue they are having to deal with a growing number of children presenting with gender distress and have, not unreasonably, sought help from external agencies on how best to handle this new problem. But this overlooks the role schools have played in promoting gender distress in the first place. Asleep at the Wheel reveals that 25 per cent of schools are teaching children that some people ‘may be born in the wrong body’ and almost three quarters of schools teach that people have a gender identity that may be different from their biological sex.
This makes it abundantly clear that it is not one or two activist teachers promoting regressive stereotypes over biological facts but that such ‘lessons’ are being repeated in the overwhelming majority of schools. This is in contravention of Sections 406 and 407 of the Education Act 1996 which dictates that schools have a legal obligation to be politically impartial and that where political viewpoints are raised, children should be offered a balanced presentation of opposing views.
In attempting to address a problem at least partially of their own making, schools end up exacerbating confusion about gender still further. More than two-thirds of secondary schools insist that all pupils affirm a gender-distressed child’s new identity, presumably by using their preferred name and pronouns. In this way, children are compelled to speak untruths, and schools yet again fall foul of the Human Rights Act 1998, which protects the right to freedom of expression.
The Policy Exchange research on gender and safeguarding is to be welcomed. Never again will activist teachers or political campaigners be able to deny the reality of what is happening within our schools. In an important foreword to the report, Labour’s Rosie Duffield is clear:
‘This government has failed children by allowing partisan beliefs to become entrenched within the education system. Meanwhile, the Opposition has failed to pull them up on it.’
This cannot be allowed to continue.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/03/how-trans-ideology-took-over-our-schools/
************************************************University of California Proposes Guaranteed Admission for Qualified Transfer Students
The University of California (UC) proposed a plan this week to guarantee admission to qualified community college students—but only for certain campuses.
UC officials presented their plans to state legislators during a March 28 state Assembly budget hearing.
To be guaranteed admission, students must be enrolled in a state community college and would need to complete general education courses required by UC and earn a minimum grade point average, according to UC officials.
Such transfer students may request the UC campus of their choice—and if they are not admitted, they are guaranteed admission to UC Santa Cruz, UC Merced, or UC Riverside.
Additionally, six of nine UC campuses already offer transfer-guaranteed admission programs—UC Merced, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, and UC Santa Barbara.
UC Academic Senate Chair Susan Cochran said during the meeting that the system hopes to simplify the process for transfer students so they don’t take more community college classes than they need to.
“The key to transfer is to ask students only what they need to do and not more,” Cochran said. “We think this proposal … is a positive step forward for simplifying transfers and helping UC meet its responsibilities to the people of the state of California.”
The proposal comes as UC transfer applications have fallen across all campuses—from 46,155 in fall 2021 to 39,363 for fall 2023—and total applications have dropped from 249,855 to 245,768 during the same time period.
As an incentive to increase enrollment, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a 5 percent increase in funding for both the UC and California State University (CSU) systems in his 2023–24 fiscal budget proposal.
The increases amount to $216 million for UC and $227 million for CSU and fulfill a pledge Newsom made last year to give the systems five percent annual budget increases for the next five years if they agreed to work toward improving graduation and enrollment rates, particularly among California residents.
Newsom also promised UC an additional $30 million as an incentive to boost enrollment among California residents.
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British Universities are accused of giving students the green light for cheating as they reject technology aimed at tackling AI plagiarism
Universities have been accused of giving students a green light to cheat after boycotting the rollout of new technology this week aimed at tackling an 'epidemic' of AI plagiarism.
Academics say they fear the implementation of the new software would be too close to exam season.
But last night, Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said the boycott was akin to 'aiding and abetting cheating'.
Some 98 per cent of universities already use existing software called Turnitin to check whether work has been plagiarised.
The firm has now updated the software in order to keep pace with rapid developments in cheating due to AI technology.
But UCISA – which represents universities in the tech sector – wrote to the company to say that 88 per cent of universities were opposed to introducing the updated version of the software.
Deborah Green, chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA), which coordinated the response, described the move to introduce it as 'completely unheard of' during the summer exam period and said that most universities opted out over fairness to students, some of whom will have already submitted work.
Experts have warned that the cheating epidemic is already at the point where AI can write entire projects, and then a different AI tool can reword it to make AI undetectable.
A spokesman for Universities UK said: 'Universities are absolutely committed to academic integrity and have become increasingly experienced at dealing with the issues raised by new technology such as AI.'
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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