NEWS AND VIEWS-UK: This is another episode in an ongoing trend concerning students – I believe to be relatively young students – who want to self-identify as animals and to want to be addressed as such to the point where one student at one secondary school in the UK answered questions in class by meowing rather than in the conventional way of the English language. Is this trend linked to the stresses felt by modern-day students particularly girls? I think it is. There is an increase in self-harming and suicidal thoughts among school kids. I think they want to opt out and becoming an animal achieves that goal. The adults are creating a world that is disliked by kids.
Are kids just messing around and fantasising about being a different animal (to the human-animal) or is there something more serious going on? I think it has serious connotations particularly as some teachers are supporting it. It can disrupt the classroom. The fact that teachers appear to be supporting this weird is unsettling. The Dail Mail article implies that it is mainly (or exclusively) girls who want to be furries. The boys find it weird.
The Times reports that secondary school pupils are being allowed to self-identify as animals including, as mentioned, as a cat, a horse and even a dinosaur. As is it endorsed by teachers the students have to accept it. It appears to be linked to non-binary self-identification as one girl identified as a male cat and has taken the name ‘kit’. She wants to be addressed as male. This feeds into the non-binary gender arguments.
This is disrupting the classroom. In one example a pupil at a secondary school in South West England insisted on being addressed as a dinosaur as reported by The Daily Telegraph.
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Another insisted on being addressed and identified as a horse. The female student who self-identifies as a cat is at a state secondary school in Wales in Year II. It is said that she “feels very discriminated against if you do not refer to them as ‘catself'”.
It’s reported that “When they answer questions, they meow rather than answer a question in English. And the teachers are not allowed to get annoyed about this because it’s seen as discriminating.”
The pupil who reported this added:
“It’s affecting other people and their education and everybody in their lessons. It’s distracting to sit in their lesson and have someone meow to a teacher rather than answer in English, especially at secondary school age.”
The story came to light after Dame Priti Patel now sitting in the House of Lords and a former Home Secretary accused an academy of left-wing indoctrination. The accusation came about because a teacher told a pupil that she would “go to a different school” because she rejected the idea that a classmate could identify as a cat.
That implies that some teachers are supporting students self-identify as a cat. There appears to be quite a woke movement in British schools. I would argue that this undermines education. It lowers standards. It creates a looseness and a lack of self-discipline in the classroom. Secondary school education requires self-discipline.
There is a secret recording of a year eight class at Rye College in which the teacher tells a girl student that she is “really despicable”. She told her that she was “very sad”. The criticism was made because the girl believed that gender is binary. The teacher said that she would report the pupil to a senior colleague. She said that the girl needed a “proper educational conversation about equality, diversity and inclusion.”
Patel believes that there is a left-wing indoctrination of young people at school which needs to be stamped out. She said that the “government must put the rights of parents first.”
The school concerned is reviewing its processes.
The government’s Department for Education will not do anything about this specifically but will rely upon teachers to apply common sense and deal with it in the classroom.
A little while ago a story emerged from North America about students identifying as animals which went viral. It’s the kind of story that does go viral because it looks very odd to the older generation who are used to sitting in class facing the teacher who lectures them.
The modern ways sometimes baffle the elderly. It’s been found, to the best of my knowledge, that the old-fashioned more self-discipline way of learning by rote can, when appropriate, be more effective in preparing children for adult life. You get better results in exams and the mind is trained to a higher standard. There’s a place for the old-fashioned way of teaching and it is argued that this modern liberal, laissez-faire M.O. is undermining standards.
There is an update on this story in The Times Wednesday, June 21, 2023. The Times reports that British government ministers are planning to start an investigation. There are student safety concerns. Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, ordered the enquiry. There are concerns about a teacher rebuking a child in a secret recording. It’s mentioned on this page. The student is described as ‘despicable’ by the teacher and sad for having gender binary beliefs. A source close to Keegan told The Telegraph:
“Teachers should not be teaching contested ideology as fact. They must have due regard to safeguarding if a pupil identifies as an animal.”
Apparently, the regional director of the Department of Education in the south-east will visit the school concerned, Rye College, to find out if any pupil’s safety is at risk.
Michelle Dewberry of GB News mocked the situation by wearing cat gear and saying that ‘No child is a cat and to suggest they are is absurd.’
Here’s Piers Morgan’s take on this. He is right-wing and would obviously mock it. He makes good points though as he usually does. He says pupils who become furries should be given Whiskas cat food for lunch and a litter tray instead of access to the toilets.
20 facts about cats in children’s literature
The education secretary has weighed in and said that it is obviously silly for kids to pretend to be cats or other animals.
