Share Your Experience:

I am a preschool teachers assistant and I'm concerned over the latest gender equality assessment tool and legislation being forced upon us and the literature being brought in by some staff to read to 3 and 4 year olds.

Example

An ABC of Equality written by Chana Ginelle Ewing

C is for Class.

F is for Feminism.

G is for Gender. Be yourself! "Gender is a category that describes the inside feeling of being a boy, a girl, both, neither and everything in between"

L is for LGBTQIA. "LGBTQIA is a short description of a range of identities to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex, asexual. It's ok to be whoever you want to be"

O is for Oppression. "Oppression is when the rules are unjust or unequal and human rights are treated unfairly on an ongoing basis"

P is for Privilege. "Be aware of your advantages". "Privilege is when a human being receives benefits and advantages based on a category like gender or class or an ability like seeing and hearing".

S is for Sex. "When a baby arrives, the doctor will say it's a boy or girl depending on their understanding of the baby's body. This is their sex".

T is for Transgender. "You know best who you are!" "Sometimes the sex given by the doctor at birth might not fit with how that person feels. A 'male' baby may have been assigned the 'boy' category but their feeling inside may be that of a 'girl', or perhaps no gender assignment at all".

X is for Xenophobia. "Xenophobia is when a person is afraid of someone who has immigrated to their country. Sometimes human beings are scared of what they don't know or understand".

Z is for Ze. "Get to know she, he, zir, they and more". "Ze is a way to refer to someone instead of using 'he' or 'she'. Because there are lots of different genders, there are lots of ways of describing someone including he/she/they/ze and more"


How did it make you feel and why?

I am highly concerned for the children being taught things they do not need to be taught at a young age. It makes me feel extremely angry and worried.


Was there any followup with this experience?

We have to use a reflection tool at preschool for gender equality

What outcome do you want to happen?

We get rid of the literature supporting such legislation.