Roderic O’G: Transgender issues added to primary curriculum

Given the number of transgender people in ireland numbers in the single digit thousands i disagree that its typical or usual.

As for the transgenderism explaination - I think you leave yourself open to a hell of a lot of questions if thats how you explain it to a 2nd class kid.

A friends kid came out as transgender when our youngest was in the second half of 2nd class. My child asked why we were now calling "Mary" "Michael". I said "Mary felt that she really felt like more of a boy, and wanted to be treated as a boy and called Michael". My child's response was "ok".

Follow up question about 6 months later - "I wear a lot of boys clothes and like some of the same stuff they boys do, does that mean I have to be a boy" "No. Do you feel like a boy?" "No, I'm a girl". Conversation and topic ended, other than her occasionally correcting me when I accidentally use the wrong pronoun for a friend of her older sister.

I'm lucky that I have a fairly easy relationship with my kids where they will ask questions on stuff, but I'd like to think if the same thing had happened in school, the teacher would have been able to handle it in a similar way.

If it's not a problem, why spend any time on it?

I'd prefer to make the decisions around what ages and when I'd have those conversations with my kids to be frank. There's absolutely no need for it to be taught to young kids.

You're going around in circles saying it's not a problem on one hand but it definitely shouldn't be discussed on the other. You're not making any sense.

Why wouldn't society be set up to accept 95% of the population? It's not like some kind of decision was made where people elected to accept heterosexuality, it is normal by any reasonable definition of the word. Also the reason we're somehow protecting children from "gender identity" is because even a cursory glance at some of the crazed activist types who have made their way into the teaching profession in the USA for example, along with the 155% increase in children identifying as transgender also in the USA, means that parents have very good reasons to be incredibly wary of how this information is being conveyed and who is conveying with, along with their motivations.

Unless you are with your child 24/7 you don’t know when it might be relevant.

what if the child in the seat next to them in school comes in wearing a dress and wants to be called a girls name? You won’t be there in the classroom that day to ‘deal’ with the questions.

much better if it’s been covered in an age appropriate manner well in advance,

I think a certain teacher in the news again today needed some education before it became relevant for him as he clearly wasn’t up to speed in time.

Teaching cannot exist without an underlying philosophy or agenda.

Even if one confines teaching to supposed 'facts', the selection of which facts to teach is in itself an ideological decision.

Perfect for JI

maybe a bit more for those hitting puberty, they’ll have more questions.

Again, equating furrys with transgender people is absurd. Furrys don't actually believe they're animals. I hope you didn't swallow that ridiculous story about litter boxes in classrooms, did you?

Where do we draw the line. Irish teenagers are now identifying as furrys

Huh? Where and whom?

No, the State's schools provide education in areas where parents are happy for assistance to occur, as parents are the primary educators. The State has only ever had a supporting role in education.

It's the parents responsibility to teach about gender identity. Always has been and no compelling argument has been put forward as to why that needs to change.

I trust parents, do you?