Let’s be straight from the start. Danielle Smith’s policy changes on gender matters in schools has nothing to do with the good of students, little to do with the rights of parents, and everything to do with prejudice, bias, sexism, and plain old control. And of course, politics.
Anti LGBTQ+ andanybodyelsenotlikeus
As children move out from under the safety of the home, they use their peers, their teachers, and the school to provide them with the safety they need as they mature. Those who do not fall into the gender stereotypes are understandably in need of more safety and more protection while they work out their choices. In many unfortunate cases, this haven is needed because of unwillingness of the parents to give up control.
And now the Conservative Party of Alberta has callously decided to attack these vulnerable children, taking the side of the over-controlling parents in the old political power game.
Not Saving Anyone from Operations.
Several different sources have made the point that nobody can have gender-altering surgery unless they’re 18 years old. Anyone (ie. Ms. Smith) saying this legislation is “saving children” is setting up a smokescreen. They are speaking to people whose ignorance is only outweighed by their prejudice. People whose only solution to any problem is to take control.
Only Two Genders
These bigots want only two genders because that’s all their simple minds can handle. Since they have no empathy for anyone else, they cannot picture someone who wants to be a different gender. Therefore, people like that don’t exist. Therefore, anyone who says they are one of those people is a liar and must have a nefarious purpose. Sinful, even.
Control
Just as members of this group want to have total control over women’s procreational choices, they want to have total control over children. Their problem is that they are trying to control something that is natural and uncontrollable, so their drive for power cannot be the solution to the problem. Faced with such a no-win situation, they willingly fall under the influence of a politician who will promise them more control. No, I didn’t say they were logical.
“Teachers Are Not Qualified”
Teachers are asked to do a lot of jobs for which they have no written qualifications. The reason the system works is that any well-meaning and sympathetic adult has enough knowledge of life to help the average student, to give them the amount of psychological, physiological, sociological, first aid, personal safety, dietary and all those other forms of help that they need. And often don’t get from the same parents who are working hard to stay in control.
Except for the criminally insane, every parent wants to help their child grow and prosper. In order to accomplish this, they need a certain degree of control. In a normal family, this control fades as the children gain the maturity to provide it for themselves. Teachers play a supporting role, as the child moves from the safety of the parents’ concern to the wider safety of the school atmosphere.
The problem starts when the control goes off the rails. In a certain number of cases the parents, for whatever reason, are unable to balance the control. Children’s psyches are delicate entities, and it doesn’t take much misuse, applied consistently over a period of time, to cause what may be permanent damage. Sooner or later (usually too late) the child starts acting out, and the home situation deteriorates into a power struggle.
The teachers go to the front lines in this situation. It doesn’t take a psychology degree to recognize a parent who is concerned only with their own control, and to know that the worse the conflict becomes, the more the parent will focus on that control, ignoring the needs of the child.
Face it, when dealing with a power junkie parent, sometimes the only power the child has is control of information. Unhappily, a large number of children see the school as the only safe place in their lives. Children with gender issues want to explore their potential choices, and the school can be the place to do that. When it comes to something as simple but profound as a gender pronoun, most teachers will agree that it’s a safe experiment with little danger.
In the war zone of a violent home power struggle, the results could be fatal.
The Bottom Line
In the natural process of life, children move gradually from the control of their parents into the control of the school, then into the control of the ethical and legal rules of our land. Parents who cannot give up that control therefore attack the school. Politicians who want those parents’ votes are willing to lie, cheat, and ignore the rights of the children to give those parents the illusion that they have helped anything.
Winners: power junkies and Danielle Smith’s Conservatives.
Losers: Children, teachers, and most of all — the vulnerable ones who are at risk.