Gender Confusion In The Kindergarten?

[cmotherofpirl]

Gender Confusion in the Kindergarten?
Posted: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 at 4:16 am ET

Some cultural developments represent massive shifts in consciousness and worldview. These developments can only be explained by a dramatic reshaping of our moral sense and understanding of basic reality.

Such is the case with news coming from both coasts indicating that "transgendered children" are now enrolled in kindergarten programs.

From The Miami Herald:

One little girl entering Broward County kindergarten this fall is actually a boy.

Few will know this genetic truth, because the 5-year-old's parents and school administrators have agreed that it's in his best interest to blend in as a female.

Mental health professionals have diagnosed Pat -- not his real name -- with gender dysphoria, a condition in which a person believes that he or she is the opposite gender. After two years of examination, they have determined that he is not simply effeminate or going through a phase.

More:

The soon-to-be kindergartner looks quite feminine, cartwheeling around the yard and playing with dolls. Pat says he hates his penis, and he refuses to wear boys' clothing.

He and his three older siblings -- two girls and a boy -- live in a middle-class Broward County neighborhood with their father, an attorney, and their mother, who has a master's degree in counseling.

Pat's parents had never heard of gender dysphoria until they took their child for treatment. He was insisting that he was a girl, and often tried to hide his penis between his legs.

From The San Francisco Chronicle:

Park Day School is throwing out gender boundaries.

Teachers at the private Oakland elementary school have stopped asking the children to line up according to sex when walking to and from class. They now let boys play girls and girls play boys in skits. And there's a unisex bathroom.

Admissions director Flo Hodes is even a little apologetic that she still balances classes by gender.

Park Day's gender-neutral metamorphosis happened over the past few years, as applications trickled in for kindergartners who didn't fit on either side of the gender line. One girl enrolled as a boy, and there were other children who didn't dress or act in gender-typical ways. Last year the school hired a consultant to help the staff accommodate these new students.

"We had to ask ourselves, what is gender for young children?" Hodes said. "It's coming up more and more."

Park Day's staff members are among a growing number of educators and parents who are acknowledging gender variance in very young children. Aurora School, another private elementary school in Oakland, also is seeing children who are "gender fluid" and hired a clinical psychologist to conduct staff training.

Let's be honest here -- these stories represent a breathtaking shift in the way human beings view sex, sexuality, and gender. The whole transgender issue, now a major focus of public interest, is proof of this. But the fact that these two articles deal with "transgender children" diagnosed with "gender dysphoria" at the age of 5 represents something altogether more shocking. "Gender fluid" children in kindergarten?

The urgent question is this: What worldview makes such a proposal plausible? The assumption that gender is a fluid category is rooted in the belief that gender is a socially constructed reality, not necessarily related to biology and anatomy -- a central tenet of postmodern theory. The idea that the self is autonomous and must serve its own impulses and sense of reality is rooted in the ethos of autonomous individualism that now dominates in our culture. The idea that this self bears a moral duty to express itself without external repression is rooted in the therapeutic assumptions of modern society.

The fact that this set of assumptions is now directed to five-year-olds is a revolution in itself -- and so is the expectation that kindergarten programs must accommodate such developments. As one of the "authorities" cited in the reports argued, five-year-olds need "a place where children can express what they want to." She was not talking about art, you understand.

Christians must look to persons struggling with what the therapeutic community now calls "gender dysphoria" with genuine compassion. This has to be an excruciating struggle. Nevertheless, we cannot accept the assumptions that support this concept of gender, sex, and the self. These assumptions are antithetical to the biblical worldview, and can only be explained by a deep rejection of God's gift of sex and gender -- a gift that is for His glory and for our good.

"Transgender children" in kindergarten? We can only wonder what can come next. The logic cannot stop at age five.

[Guest T-Bone]

The APA needs guidelines to help these children, not cater to thier delusions.

[curtins]

yeah laura ingrham had a thing about this like ahhh 3 montsh ago

[track2004]

[quote name='T-Bone' post='1097101' date='Oct 20 2006, 03:27 PM']
The APA needs guidelines to help these children, not cater to thier delusions.
[/quote]

The APA won't let these kids have surgery or anything until way after puberty, but honestly forcing your kid to act a way he doesn't want to isn't going to be a good thing, especially if he is 5 and throws tantrums. Granted if the kid changes his mind now his life will not be good. The APA tries to help these people as much as possible, and evidently all the research has shown that acting the opposite gender helps the most.

---

I think there is a lot of stuff that kids don't need to and in fact shouldn't learn about gender when they are five. I have really distinct memories of wanting the "boy's" toy in my Happy Meal even though I am not a boy. I also hated wearing dresses and had short hair and didn't like Barbie as much as my best friend (a girl). The only thing I think boys and girls need to learn differently is how to pee at that age. Kids don't even notice a difference in the sexes until age 5 or so, and then we just overemhapsize it too much. Boys aren't that different than girls and why we insist on treating them so differently I'll never know.

I am fairly androgynous, so I'm baised about all of this. I guess I just think that most of gender is a construct you teach kids and it isn't always the best thing for them to learn.

[Church Punk]

[quote name='T-Bone' post='1097101' date='Oct 20 2006, 05:27 PM']


The APA needs guidelines to help these children, not cater to thier delusions.
[/quote]

I agree

[Guest T-Bone]

[quote name='track2004' post='1097135' date='Oct 20 2006, 03:08 PM']
The APA won't let these kids have surgery or anything until way after puberty, but honestly forcing your kid to act a way he doesn't want to isn't going to be a good thing, [b]especially if he is 5 and throws tantrums.[/b] Granted if the kid changes his mind now his life will not be good. The APA tries to help these people as much as possible, and evidently all the research has shown that acting the opposite gender helps the most.
[/quote]

Tantrum throwing is a sign that an individual does not have the maturity to make a decision such as this. Acting in another gender role is fine for adults who understand the consenquenses of such action. Children do not understand how this will effect them now and later in life. Well meaning people are damaging these innocent children.

[quote]

I think there is a lot of stuff that kids don't need to and in fact shouldn't learn about gender when they are five. I have really distinct memories of wanting the "boy's" toy in my Happy Meal even though I am not a boy. I also hated wearing dresses and had short hair and didn't like Barbie as much as my best friend (a girl). The only thing I think boys and girls need to learn differently is how to pee at that age. Kids don't even notice a difference in the sexes until age 5 or so, and then we just overemhapsize it too much. Boys aren't that different than girls and why we insist on treating them so differently I'll never know.

[/quote]

That's true. There is alot of stuff kids don't need to know.

I stand by this statement:

The APA guidelines for Gender Dysmorphia are not helping these children.

[HeavenlyCalling]

I agree with the agreers here, but this is what our world does. They have convinced themselves that nothing is 'bad' or 'abnormal' and bend over backwards to cater to minorities, they forget that as a Represennative Republic, we are a country of the majority, the majority decieds votes, the majority are the people on the street, but instead we have to make sure that no one gets their feelings hurt.

[Socrates]

Yet another example of the sick, ever-deepening morass relativistic "social liberalism" has created for us.

[MilesChristi]

Those disordered behaviors need to be corrected not reinforced. Children at that age are extremely impressionable. If they were consistently made to understand that boys behave in a certain way and girls in another, I think they would conform over time. As it is, by encouraging these disorders, the adults are ensuring a lifetime of psychological problems for the children.

[Ash Wednesday]

For crying out loud, the kid is FIVE and not even at the age of reason.

[Socrates]

[quote name='Ash Wednesday' post='1097323' date='Oct 20 2006, 08:02 PM']
For crying out loud, the kid is FIVE and not even at the age of reason.
[/quote]
Well, REASON is obviously a foreign concept for these infinitely-tolerant liberal folk!

[Fr. Antony Maria OSB]

What really bugs me about this is that children at the age of 5 know what being transgender is: I mean, I didn't learn about sex until I was in 5th grade, let alone know the sexual anatomy of the human person at the age of five. What did I care? I got to play The Big Bad Wolf (tag) on the playground during half day kindergarten. Now there are kids who want to be the opposite gender in kindergarten? Something has to be done about this: it'll only get worse if this continues.

Edited October 21, 2006 by NazFarmer

[Ash Wednesday]

And to think I pretended I was a boy sometimes and wore overalls at that age. Thank God nobody tried to permanently raise me as a man. Parents, watch out for your tomboys.

[MissScripture]

[quote name='track2004' post='1097135' date='Oct 20 2006, 05:08 PM']
The APA won't let these kids have surgery or anything until way after puberty, [b]but honestly forcing your kid to act a way he doesn't want to isn't going to be a good thing, especially if he is 5 and throws tantrums. [/b] Granted if the kid changes his mind now his life will not be good. The APA tries to help these people as much as possible, and [u][i]evidently all the research has shown that acting the opposite gender helps the most. [/i] [/u]
[/quote]

[b]That is quite possibly the worst logic I have EVER heard. So, is it a good thing for a parent to let a child go for weeks without bathing, because the child throws tantrums? Is it a good thing for a parent to let a child not eat anything but potato chips because the child throws tantrums? Is it a good thing for a parent to let a child play in the street with traffic going by because otherwise the child will throw tantrums? Is it a good thing for a parent to let a child run around with a knife, because that is the way the child choses to act and forcing the child to do otherwise will cause him to throw a tantrum?[/b]

[u][i]All of the research that they want us to know about has shown this. I would think that most of the research would be incomplete, anyway, seeing as how these children are very young and you can't really know the effects until they are much, much older! [/i] [/u]

My guess is that the child probably did something once and the parents reacted to it. The child got attention. In a child's world, attention usually equals good, therefore the behavior continued. I honestly do not think a five-year-old could come up with this on his own. There has to be something that influenced that child. And it is of no help to anyone to mollycoddle anyone, just because they have problems. Love them; definitely. Mollycoddle them; never!

Edited October 21, 2006 by MissScripture

[track2004]

[quote name='NazFarmer' post='1097383' date='Oct 20 2006, 09:55 PM']
What really bugs me about this is that children at the age of 5 know what being transgender is: I mean, I didn't learn about sex until I was in 5th grade, let alone know the sexual anatomy of the human person at the age of five. What did I care? I got to play The Big Bad Wolf (tag) on the playground during half day kindergarten. Now there are kids who want to be the opposite gender in kindergarten? Something has to be done about this: it'll only get worse if this continues.
[/quote]

If kids that age don't know what trans is then how could what they are doing is wrong or abnormal or any of it. I mean really it's a novel idea to them and this kid knows or thinks he likes being a girl.

I understand my tantrum bit wasn't good logic, just a quick response thing. Did anyone see that Adam Sandler movie where he raises a kid, Big Daddy? I guess I just kinda go by that logic of raising kids, they know what they want and they'll realize what is good and what isn't. Kids are pragmatic like that. My philosophy on rearing kids is liberal anyway for lots of reasons so I guess no one here will really agree with it. Granted I probably wouldn't let my boy dress in skirts, I'd let him play with dolls though and wear pink. If the kid was like 15 I'd let him dress like a girl though, because if you're going to be trans at that age, good luck.