I teach at a large Toronto private school, and my children attend school in the York Catholic Board. Here are some thoughts:
1. The polarization of the woke movement has created such a significant divide that any dissent or questioning of the ideology results in immediate aggressive backlash. The York Catholic board voted DEMOCRATICALLY not to raise the pride flag. None of these news organizations or the ETFO took a second to consider why an entire school board might vote this way. Instead, they are labelled akin to a hate group.
2. The parents at my kid's school are like the readers of this Substack. We're not hateful of the LGBT community; we just don't think that gender ideology MUST be taught in elementary schools, or ideally, any K-12 school.
3. What I'm noticing as a teacher in middle school is this weird situation where students are highly immature for their age due to over-coddling. Yet, their bodies begin puberty right on schedule. Add access to unlimited porn into the mix, and you have an enormous pile of kindling ready to be lit by any Woke activist. Students just don't have the capacity to maturely deal with these issues.
4. Parents can do more than they think. Protesting at school boards is essential, but not as having open and frank discussions with your child about what is happening at their school. Kids have a built-in will to rebel against the mainstream ideas of the day. They're not as influenced by this ideology as you think, especially when it comes from teachers. I can't tell you how many times students pushback against the woke celebration of the day when us teachers are forced to promote it. Just the other day, a student raised their hand and said, 'Why does our school spend so much time talking about Pride?'
5. Find teachers like me in schools. There are more of us than you think. Unfortunately, most stay silent (see #1) or simply tow the party line. When I finally raised my hand to complain about the increasingly activist approach to discussing these issues at school, I was shocked to see how many people openly agreed. Even the head of the LGBT club said it had gotten out of hand. She just wanted a place for gay kids to hang out at lunch, and it turned into a club where students with different pronouns planned protests against specific teachers.
Keep up the great work. People are tired of the whole thing and begging to feel more comfortable speaking up. I know I am!
Thank you for your post! It echos what I feel most parents, and many students I meet, are saying.
Again, thank you for speaking out anonymously. I read several other anonymous teachers. Sadly, why this anonymity is needed is also a topic for discussion. What happened to respectful, reasoned conversation?
Thank you Shannon for another edifying article. Looking at Stats Can demographics it appears that those who identify as LGBTQ2 represent only 4% of the Canadian population with the trans group even less, at 0.33%. By what bizarre sense of logic should the deviant views of a small minority be forcibly imposed on the normality of the majority??? Inclusivity isn't achieved by forcing schools or other public buildings to fly a symbol representing a sexual anomaly. Such tactics simply reinforce a medieval principle that might equals right. This is indoctrination not education. In the words of Thomas Sowell:
“Education is not merely neglected in many of our schools today, but is replaced to a great extent by ideological indoctrination.”
Noam Chomsky adds the appropriate epilogue to this when he states, “the indoctrination is so deep that educated people think they’re being objective.”
Shannon’s insight is deep: “Teachers Unions openly declare their objectives to indoctrinate children with Social Justice Ideology and turn them into activists.” I’ve been waiting four months for my union, the BCTF, to decide whether it will defend me after I was dismissed for ideological nonconformity. Still waiting, which is highly prejudicial to me.
“When your rainbows and your slogans fly on banks and schools and state buildings, when the government declares four months of the year are dedicated to you, you are not oppressed victims, you are the establishment” - this absolutely correct. The Establishment is fully captured. Anyone on the other side (including me) is a genuine rebel.
Excellent work. I have written the OCDSB to encourage them to use accurate and non-prejudicial language to describe parent concerns. Anyone is free to borrow and adapt to their own needs:
Subject: Request to use accurate language to describe parent concerns
Dear Director Giroux,
You are no doubt aware of the upcoming Parental Rights Day of Action
(PRDOA) planned for June 9, 2023. I am not an organizer, and I won't be
involved in any potential rallies, but I am an interested parent and will
be paying close attention to what transpires. I will be paying particular
attention to how the media frames the events.
Any parents I know who have issues relating to gender ideology are good
faith actors. They believe that transgender/transsexual persons deserve
full human rights, and to be treated with respect and dignity. Yet they
also have legitimate concerns about various gender policies enacted by
government institutions, including the OCDSB.
Should the board feel compelled to issue public statements regarding the
PRDOA, I would urge the board to accurately describe the nature of the
parents' concerns, and to refrain from using inaccurate or prejudicial
language, including words such as 'hate', 'anti-trans' or the neologism
'transphobic' (unless in the unlikely event that legally defined
hate-speech is expressed)..
The use of inflammatory language to describe good-faith opponents of gender
Thank you Shannon for leading, update greater Essex County District School Board no published articles but the 2SLGBTQIA + starting to talk, one School only had 10% of students show up June 1st, and comments of huge absence on June 1st at all other schools
What we are witnessing is a regime coup by its social administrators to secure their faltering hegemony and legitimacy by attacking their own historical roots and capturing the upcoming child cohort in a web of destabilizing sexual fantasies that they do not have either the experience or independent knowledge to deal with.
This is a straight-out pre-emptive power grab prompted by the seismic collapse of the social infrastructure this administrative ascendancy has presided over since the 1960s, as a result of its deregulatory and privatization drives to discredit social authority in favor of marketing, as part of a larger push to transform an economy and culture based around disciplined needs and wants into ones of fantasies of desire and immediate satiation, that over time would blur and then demolish the boundaries of knowing fancy and unknowing delusion, and inhibit the formation of adult behavior and templates by institutionalizing adolescent narcissism as the social norm.
The game looked cool at the time, but like so much else in relation to Indulgence Capitalism, unsustainable. In the end, the punters begin to smell a rat, and while perhaps unable to determine where the smell is coming from, know that they have been had and the institutional mandarins who now control the means of social reproduction are the culprits.
The rise of the modern equivalent of a peasant revolt in the form of hayseed ideologues like Donald Trump, has been the result, and the present ruling class is doing what it aways does, which is to crush it by any means....which is what is going on as we speak.
What is a flag, and why should we submit to raising it under threat, fear, or indeed "bullying?" A rainbow is not a country, it is not a "safe space" or state, nor do a majority agree on the terms of its use. It is an ideology, foisted upon citizens within a country, province, state, who have duly elected representation in a democracy. It is a "false flag" signaling division where there is none. No one is special. We are equal as a unified country and people. All are treated with respect. We do not need parades and flags or entire months to "celebrate" any group of self-proclaimed special people because in the history of mankind, there are no differences in biology or needs beyond that of the rest. Therefore, the constant coming-of-age and perpetual need for the "spotlight" is resented en masse, not celebrated. It has arguably become a burden to progress and society in my view. The special interest groups are surely "powerful" for their "lobbying", indeed campaigns of fear and demands. 'Raise our flag, paint our sidewalk, put our stickers on class windows prominently or else...' face the "mob" of neo-fascism!
Yes, in deed and word, that is the comparison drawn by many. Where in history have we seen this mentality reach epidemic psychosis in proportion before? Marches in the street, chants, cat-calls, businesses and organizations forced to conform and capitulate for fear of reprisal: losing funding, clients, fans, colleagues, friends. A life led in secret where only guarded discussions are held in the privacy of rooms without phones. 'How long before the mob comes for you, Anne? I heard on social media you made some Frank views on your children's safety at the Ice Cream Social last week... And now you are being called before a tribunal and inquest into your use of pronouns.'
We need to stand up for our country because no one is safe if we are being made to feel we are not free in "Our home and native land."
The EFTO is participating in the agenda of division, and destruction of the family. One flag for all, the Canadian flag, which Canadians fought and died for, stands for all Canadians. The pride flag does not, and does not belong at our schools, any more than biological men belong in women's sport or women's washrooms. The backlash is nothing but division. Canada is a very tolerant county. The only thing that isn't tolerated is intolerance, such as the intolerance of the woke when pushing division. You know you are doing the right thing, when this is the reaction. Stay strong.
I teach at a large Toronto private school, and my children attend school in the York Catholic Board. Here are some thoughts:
1. The polarization of the woke movement has created such a significant divide that any dissent or questioning of the ideology results in immediate aggressive backlash. The York Catholic board voted DEMOCRATICALLY not to raise the pride flag. None of these news organizations or the ETFO took a second to consider why an entire school board might vote this way. Instead, they are labelled akin to a hate group.
2. The parents at my kid's school are like the readers of this Substack. We're not hateful of the LGBT community; we just don't think that gender ideology MUST be taught in elementary schools, or ideally, any K-12 school.
3. What I'm noticing as a teacher in middle school is this weird situation where students are highly immature for their age due to over-coddling. Yet, their bodies begin puberty right on schedule. Add access to unlimited porn into the mix, and you have an enormous pile of kindling ready to be lit by any Woke activist. Students just don't have the capacity to maturely deal with these issues.
4. Parents can do more than they think. Protesting at school boards is essential, but not as having open and frank discussions with your child about what is happening at their school. Kids have a built-in will to rebel against the mainstream ideas of the day. They're not as influenced by this ideology as you think, especially when it comes from teachers. I can't tell you how many times students pushback against the woke celebration of the day when us teachers are forced to promote it. Just the other day, a student raised their hand and said, 'Why does our school spend so much time talking about Pride?'
5. Find teachers like me in schools. There are more of us than you think. Unfortunately, most stay silent (see #1) or simply tow the party line. When I finally raised my hand to complain about the increasingly activist approach to discussing these issues at school, I was shocked to see how many people openly agreed. Even the head of the LGBT club said it had gotten out of hand. She just wanted a place for gay kids to hang out at lunch, and it turned into a club where students with different pronouns planned protests against specific teachers.
Keep up the great work. People are tired of the whole thing and begging to feel more comfortable speaking up. I know I am!
Thank you for your post! It echos what I feel most parents, and many students I meet, are saying.
Again, thank you for speaking out anonymously. I read several other anonymous teachers. Sadly, why this anonymity is needed is also a topic for discussion. What happened to respectful, reasoned conversation?
i recently saw that 13% of the highschool i went to in Ottawa is either trans or non-binary now
13% of my highschool doesnt know what gender they are. Think about that. This should be a national emergency!
Thank you Shannon for another edifying article. Looking at Stats Can demographics it appears that those who identify as LGBTQ2 represent only 4% of the Canadian population with the trans group even less, at 0.33%. By what bizarre sense of logic should the deviant views of a small minority be forcibly imposed on the normality of the majority??? Inclusivity isn't achieved by forcing schools or other public buildings to fly a symbol representing a sexual anomaly. Such tactics simply reinforce a medieval principle that might equals right. This is indoctrination not education. In the words of Thomas Sowell:
“Education is not merely neglected in many of our schools today, but is replaced to a great extent by ideological indoctrination.”
Noam Chomsky adds the appropriate epilogue to this when he states, “the indoctrination is so deep that educated people think they’re being objective.”
Shannon’s insight is deep: “Teachers Unions openly declare their objectives to indoctrinate children with Social Justice Ideology and turn them into activists.” I’ve been waiting four months for my union, the BCTF, to decide whether it will defend me after I was dismissed for ideological nonconformity. Still waiting, which is highly prejudicial to me.
“When your rainbows and your slogans fly on banks and schools and state buildings, when the government declares four months of the year are dedicated to you, you are not oppressed victims, you are the establishment” - this absolutely correct. The Establishment is fully captured. Anyone on the other side (including me) is a genuine rebel.
Excellent work. I have written the OCDSB to encourage them to use accurate and non-prejudicial language to describe parent concerns. Anyone is free to borrow and adapt to their own needs:
Subject: Request to use accurate language to describe parent concerns
Dear Director Giroux,
You are no doubt aware of the upcoming Parental Rights Day of Action
(PRDOA) planned for June 9, 2023. I am not an organizer, and I won't be
involved in any potential rallies, but I am an interested parent and will
be paying close attention to what transpires. I will be paying particular
attention to how the media frames the events.
Any parents I know who have issues relating to gender ideology are good
faith actors. They believe that transgender/transsexual persons deserve
full human rights, and to be treated with respect and dignity. Yet they
also have legitimate concerns about various gender policies enacted by
government institutions, including the OCDSB.
Should the board feel compelled to issue public statements regarding the
PRDOA, I would urge the board to accurately describe the nature of the
parents' concerns, and to refrain from using inaccurate or prejudicial
language, including words such as 'hate', 'anti-trans' or the neologism
'transphobic' (unless in the unlikely event that legally defined
hate-speech is expressed)..
The use of inflammatory language to describe good-faith opponents of gender
ideology is counter-productive.
Respectfully,
Could you do me a huge favor and email me, I have a request
will do
Thank you Shannon for leading, update greater Essex County District School Board no published articles but the 2SLGBTQIA + starting to talk, one School only had 10% of students show up June 1st, and comments of huge absence on June 1st at all other schools
What we are witnessing is a regime coup by its social administrators to secure their faltering hegemony and legitimacy by attacking their own historical roots and capturing the upcoming child cohort in a web of destabilizing sexual fantasies that they do not have either the experience or independent knowledge to deal with.
This is a straight-out pre-emptive power grab prompted by the seismic collapse of the social infrastructure this administrative ascendancy has presided over since the 1960s, as a result of its deregulatory and privatization drives to discredit social authority in favor of marketing, as part of a larger push to transform an economy and culture based around disciplined needs and wants into ones of fantasies of desire and immediate satiation, that over time would blur and then demolish the boundaries of knowing fancy and unknowing delusion, and inhibit the formation of adult behavior and templates by institutionalizing adolescent narcissism as the social norm.
The game looked cool at the time, but like so much else in relation to Indulgence Capitalism, unsustainable. In the end, the punters begin to smell a rat, and while perhaps unable to determine where the smell is coming from, know that they have been had and the institutional mandarins who now control the means of social reproduction are the culprits.
The rise of the modern equivalent of a peasant revolt in the form of hayseed ideologues like Donald Trump, has been the result, and the present ruling class is doing what it aways does, which is to crush it by any means....which is what is going on as we speak.
What is a flag, and why should we submit to raising it under threat, fear, or indeed "bullying?" A rainbow is not a country, it is not a "safe space" or state, nor do a majority agree on the terms of its use. It is an ideology, foisted upon citizens within a country, province, state, who have duly elected representation in a democracy. It is a "false flag" signaling division where there is none. No one is special. We are equal as a unified country and people. All are treated with respect. We do not need parades and flags or entire months to "celebrate" any group of self-proclaimed special people because in the history of mankind, there are no differences in biology or needs beyond that of the rest. Therefore, the constant coming-of-age and perpetual need for the "spotlight" is resented en masse, not celebrated. It has arguably become a burden to progress and society in my view. The special interest groups are surely "powerful" for their "lobbying", indeed campaigns of fear and demands. 'Raise our flag, paint our sidewalk, put our stickers on class windows prominently or else...' face the "mob" of neo-fascism!
Yes, in deed and word, that is the comparison drawn by many. Where in history have we seen this mentality reach epidemic psychosis in proportion before? Marches in the street, chants, cat-calls, businesses and organizations forced to conform and capitulate for fear of reprisal: losing funding, clients, fans, colleagues, friends. A life led in secret where only guarded discussions are held in the privacy of rooms without phones. 'How long before the mob comes for you, Anne? I heard on social media you made some Frank views on your children's safety at the Ice Cream Social last week... And now you are being called before a tribunal and inquest into your use of pronouns.'
We need to stand up for our country because no one is safe if we are being made to feel we are not free in "Our home and native land."
Very well said.
Thank you.
The EFTO is participating in the agenda of division, and destruction of the family. One flag for all, the Canadian flag, which Canadians fought and died for, stands for all Canadians. The pride flag does not, and does not belong at our schools, any more than biological men belong in women's sport or women's washrooms. The backlash is nothing but division. Canada is a very tolerant county. The only thing that isn't tolerated is intolerance, such as the intolerance of the woke when pushing division. You know you are doing the right thing, when this is the reaction. Stay strong.