The transgender lobby is smart. They’re not just an ever-increasing presence in culture, but schools, because they know that’s where to influence the people who are soon going to be influencing society. However, this attempt to invade the educational aspect of our children — which for many engulfs them from pre-school until college — is both dangerous to them and costly to society.
The Tallahassee Democrat reported Chloe Bressack, a math and science teacher recently hired at Canopy Oaks Elementary in Tallahassee, Fla., sent a letter home with her fifth-grade students letting their parents know she would be asking the kids to use gender-neutral pronouns. The letter, “About Mx. Bressack” read in part:
One thing that you should know about me is that I use gender-neutral terms. My prefix is Mx. [pronounced Mix]. My pronouns are ‘they, them, their’ instead of ‘he, his, she, hers.’ I know it takes some practice for it to feel natural, but students catch on pretty quickly. We’re not going for perfection, just making an effort! Please feel free to reach out to me or administration if you have any questions. My priority is for all of my students to be comfortable in my classroom and have a space where they can be themselves while learning.
One parent posted the letter in a Facebook group and debate ensued; parents seem to differ on the letter based on political views.
I don’t blame parents for being concerned. As a mother to a fifth grader myself, I’ve noticed this age is unique: While not overly concerned or even yet aware of their sexuality, they’re still observant and smart enough to see what goes on around them, to want to fit in, and to respect authority. Essentially, this is the perfect age to try to snow kids into believing they need to legitimately call their teacher the pronoun she “identifies” as, even though she was born (we assume) with female body parts.
Some students will likely accept it with some hesitation or at least questions; others may reject it entirely, and still, others will go for it completely, depending on the child’s personality. If she wanted to be identified as “Bressack the Big Beluga Whale” would that be okay? Why not? It would be an interesting psychological experiment on one of those late-night talk shows, except this teacher isn’t doing one. She’s requesting kids refer to her as something she isn’t “with effort” — teaching children to deny the reality before them.
That’s not education; that’s an agenda.
The school’s principal, Paul Lambert, said he and the school back Bressack. “We support her preference in how she’s addressed, we certainly do. I think a lot of times it might be decided that there is an agenda there, because of her preference — I can tell you her only agenda is teaching math and science at the greatest level she can.”
Rocky Hanna, the district’s superintendent, said, “I can assure you that teachers in our district will not be allowed to use their influence in the classroom to advance any personal belief or political agenda. At this time, I do not believe that is the case in this instance.”
Bressack, a biological female, may not believe her desire for students to refer to her as “neutral” pronouns as advancing a personal belief or political agenda but if she has “female” on her birth certificate, how is she not advancing a belief? She’s certainly not communicating what is her biological, natural reality. She is, for reasons probably due to either psychological factors, or the thrill of being politically progressive, denying her own reality, her own innate biology, in favor of believing herself to be something other than she is, and forcing young students to do likewise.
This is not only unacceptable to do on taxpayer’s dime no less, but in an environment where adults have chosen to mold the minds of young people. There is too much at stake to combine a fifth-grade class with a psychological experiment that may spark confusion about reality, sexuality, and psychological well-being. Asking students to refer to you as a pronoun other than the one you literally are is to ask students to dip into the well of your own psychological issues, your own politically, progressive agenda or belief system, and to deny reality as you have done.
This is absurd and abusive — it’s certainly not an education — and it needs to be stopped.
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator’s Young Journalist Award.
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