An organisation has critcised the fact primary schools are providing access to a new book that teaches children they could be born into the wrong body.
Commenting on ‘Introducing Teddy: A gentle story about gender and friendship’, Lucy Marsh, from the Family Education Trust, told GB News: “Teddy bears in particular aren’t indoctrinating children, this book is being used as a vehicle about the false concept that you can be born in the wrong body.
“This has no place in schools. Primary schools should not be used to indoctrinate young children.
“It’s not appropriate, it’s a contested ideology that has no basis in scientific fact and it shouldn’t be in schools.
“It’s actually harmful to say that children are transgender, and we certainly don’t believe that this is something that exists.
“There is so much evidence that there is inappropriate sex and relationship education in schools at all levels – primary and secondary schools. So much of this is taught to children under the age of legal consent. It is inappropriate.
“Teachers are not therapists, they are not doctors. Teachers should not be teaching children about explicit sex acts and about sexual pleasure. It is inappropriate in schools and it shouldn’t be happening.
“The majority of parents don’t want it and parents are the primary educators of their children. It’s not up to teachers and it shouldn’t be up to the state to decide who teaches children about explicit sex acts. It’s unnecessary in schools and it’s harmful.
“I think that what we actually need is the government to restore the right for parents to withdraw their children from relationship and sex education. At the moment they can withdraw their child from sex education but the problem is they can’t withdraw them from relationship education, which is where a lot of this indoctrination and sexualisation of children is coming in.
“We need to have that option back so that parents can withdraw their child from that because parents don’t want their young children to be taught that they could be born in the wrong body and they don’t want their child being taught dangerous and harmful sex acts that children are just too young to understand the risks that are involved.”
Also taking part in the debate was campaigner Peter Tatchell, who said:
“I can assure you this book is not about indoctrinating or propagandising children in school.
“It’s about encouraging understanding, tolerance, acceptance and respect. It’s designed to tackle the bullying of trans kids in our schools which no parent I think would approve of.
“We don’t want any child, trans or otherwise, to be bullied or teased or to feel unsafe or unincluded.
“This book is simply about love, kindness and friendship. It’s about accepting people who are different from yourself and the basic principle applies across the board. Accepting people of different faiths or races, of different cultural backgrounds. It’s a story of tolerance not of indoctrination.”
“We know from surveys that most parents say they want their children to be educated about relationships and sex in schools; that they themselves don’t feel able and capable of doing it.”
“I don’t think you’ll find that any young children are being taught about those [graphic sexual] issues. What may happen is that older children, 16+, may have those issues raised.
“There may be one or two examples but it’s not representative of what’s happening in the vast majority of schools. All the teachers I know say very clearly that for young children, particularly primary school children, there is nothing being taught about sex, it’s all about love, different families and relationships.
“It’s about letting young kids know that some people will have two parents, a mum and a dad, some will live in extended families with perhaps grandparents or cousins or aunts and some people will live in same sex families. That’s not about sex it’s about the reality of modern British family life.”
“The purpose of relationship and sex education in schools is to protect young people against abusive relationships, against dangerous diseases like HIV and bad relationships where one person bullies and controls the other. It’s all about promoting the health and welfare of young people.”
