[Photo - from the book ‘Red: A Crayon’s Story’ by Michael Hall]
Resources that present gender identity theory as fact are now peppered throughout the Irish education system. What started off as an important effort to tackle bullying and other challenges experienced by homosexual and gender distressed children has morphed into an ideological drive that sees a contested theory presented uncritically with little to no space for alternative or diverse views. No apparent risk assessment was carried out to ascertain the ramifications of teaching students that everyone has a gender identity and insufficient attention has been given to the potential consequences of socially transitioning children.
The Irish Government’s two national LGBTI+ strategies, drawn up in consultation with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), are key to understanding the current focus on gender identity in Irish schools. The LGBTI+ National Youth Strategy 2018-2020 included many recommendations for educational settings, and the more expansive National LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy, published in 2019 (and ongoing), has in its action plan: ‘Include LGBTI+ matters in the Relationship and Sexual Education curriculum review’.
The Irish Government, in 2018, announced a national review of the Relationship and Sexual Education (RSE) curriculum that is taught as part of Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE). Following an initial review of RSE, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment[1] (NCCA) established two development groups whose job was to develop and publish interim guidance in the form of online toolkits. These two small RSE working groups included individuals who have strong links to Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI):
· Catherine Cross worked for TENI from 2015 to 2019 before taking up a position with the National Parents Council. She was appointed to the national working group for the primary school RSE development group.
· Aoife Neary of the School of Education in the University of Limerick has carried out a number of research projects in collaboration with TENI including one published in 2020 and another in 2018. She was appointed to the RSE working group for secondary schools.
The SPHE/RSE toolkits area is a mine of information indicating the NCCA’s (and the Government’s) adopted stance on gender identity but, before outlining some of the unearthed gems, it’s important to point out that the roll-out of gender ideology is also taking place in early childhood settings.
EARLY CHILDHOOD
Aistear is the early childhood curriculum framework for children from birth to 6 years. Síolta is a national framework for the same age-group with a focus more specifically on early childhood services. These frameworks complement each other. The ‘Aistear Síolta Practice Guide’ has New Resources including a list of inclusive picture books aimed at children aged 2.5 to 6 years:
· Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love (which won a 2019 American Library Association Stonewall Book Award) is about a boy who wants to be a mermaid.
· 10,000 Dresses by Marcus Ewert and Rex Ray is about a boy called Bailey who ‘becomes the girl she always dreamed she’d be’.
· A Fox Called Herbert by Margaret Sturton is about a rabbit who wants to be a fox.
· Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall is about a blue crayon that is mistakenly labelled as ‘red’.
Although these books seem benign, they subtly suggest that it is possible for a child to be born in a ‘wrong body’ and that a child’s sex might be incorrectly labelled at birth.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS
The primary school curriculum is also being redeveloped at the moment. The SPHE/RSE Toolkit section has, however, already been updated with optional resources for teachers including material that covers the topic of gender identity. One booklet, Gender Equality Matters, for example, includes the following scenario:
· Chloe’s older brother Séan has been thinking about his gender for a long time and has now asked his family to use the female pronoun (she) and to use Shauna instead of his birth name. His school and part-time employer are slow to make the changes asked for…
This scenario suggests that it is better to quickly affirm a child’s gender identity and to support a social transition. However, socially transitioning students is not a neutral intervention and can have profound psycho-social consequences [see the final paragraphs below].
One of the more contentious resources in the primary school toolkit section is the Busy Bodies booklet developed by the Health Service Executive (HSE). This booklet, aimed at c.10-13 year olds, states: ‘We all have a gender identity’. This is incorrect. Not everyone has a gender identity. Children going through puberty, who already dealing with the physical, emotional and mental changes that come with the rush of pubertal hormones, do not need the added pressures of trying to work out their internal subjective sense of a gendered self.
JUNIOR CYCLE
The Junior Cycle caters for students aged roughly 12-15 years and includes a 100 hour short course - Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE). A brand new curriculum for SPHE was published this month (May 2023) that gives a definition of gender which is at odds with Irish legislation. The curriculum has a footnote on page 14 stating that the Equal Status Acts prohibit discrimination on the grounds of gender. This is correct. However, the Equal Status Acts state that the gender ground is: ‘that one is male and the other is female (the “gender ground”)’. This is a biological ground. This compares to the SPHE curriculum which states that gender is ‘social and cultural factors’ - ‘the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women’.
The area where gender ideology is most evident in NCCA material is within the SPHE/RSE toolkit section. Although the resources are optional, the fact that the material is linked to the ‘curriculum online’ and is available via direct links from the NCCA website indicates a level of state sanction.
There is a level of cognitive dissonance apparent throughout the materials as, on the one hand, it states that teachers ‘should show respect and understanding for diverse views’ and in another resource recommends: ‘When you greet your students for the first time, announce your name and pronouns (e.g. “My name is Ms Murphy and my pronouns are ‘she/her’).’ Not all students will subscribe to gender ideology and students who have detransitioned or desisted may experience discomfort when teachers adopt this type of ideologically associated introduction.
Other sections where gender ideology is evident include:
· In one resource, ‘What makes an inclusive SPHE/RSE classroom?’, teachers are advised to ‘Avoid unnecessary grouping students on the grounds of gender… For example, you could replace “boys and girls” or “lad and ladies” with phrases like “everyone” or “folks” and you can use “parents and carers” instead of “Mums and Dads”’.
· A link is provided to a website called BodyWhys where there is a section on LGBTQIA+ And Body Image and the claim: ‘There is evidence to show that when individuals are able to access gender affirming healthcare, e.g. hormone treatment, there is generally a decrease in body image concerns.’ (No citation is included to indicate where this research has come from or how recent it is).
· The booklet ‘Being LGBT in School’ advises the school to use ‘the correct gender, name and pronoun’ and states that the school ‘should be alert to the use of the original name and pronoun as a means of name-calling and harrassment’.
· The Stand Up Awareness Week resource includes a toolkit that gives details of neo-pronouns ‘including xe/xem, ze/zir, and fae/faer’ and states that ‘For those who use pronouns (and not all people do) they are not preferred, they are essential’.
· NCCA guidance published this year states: ‘teachers and students are advised to respect the language and terms that young people use to identify themselves as this is one way of creating an inclusive environment and supporting students who identify as LGBTQ+.’
These resources indicate an uncritical adoption of gender identity theory within the Irish educational system. This has potentially profound implications. Resources suggest that schools should affirm a child’s gender identity and should aid social transitioning, but do teachers have the necessary qualifications to oversee such a profound psycho-social intervention? There are wider implications for changing areas and toilets that require consideration.
Research that is currently available already advises caution on the social transition of children and adolescents. The Dutch study that pioneered the use of puberty blockers for children with gender dysphoria, in 2012 recommended that pre-pubertal young children should ‘not yet make a social transition (different clothing, a different given name, referring to a boy as “her” instead of “him.”’ Research published last year, by Dr. Hilary Cass, in her interim report on the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Services (GIDS) stated that it is important to view social transition as ‘an active intervention because it may have significant effects on the child or young person in terms of their psychological functioning’.
Dr. Cass wrote that it is important to acknowledge that social transition is not a neutral act and that better information is needed on outcomes. Meanwhile, a recently published review on the two Dutch studies that gave rise to affirmative care, points to numerous problems with the original studies and highlights the problematic outcomes experienced by many of the young people who transitioned.
In sum, the Irish education system is embarking on a pathway that embeds gender identity theory as uncontested. Research on the long-term impacts of socially transitioning children and adolescents is still lacking but indicators suggest that social transition is a powerful intervention with potentially life-long consequences. Is the NCCA, the Irish Government, the Department of Education and the Education Minister Norma Foley, rushing headlong into a pathway for which insufficient research has been carried out? When it comes to the colonisation of the Irish curriculum with gender ideology, I suggest that caution is needed.
Step on the brakes.
[1] The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment advises the Minister for Education on curriculum and assessment from early childhood to the end of second-level education.