"Sex is a significant factor in health and fitness. It is important for gender-questioning children to be taught this so that they can understand and monitor their own health needs."
I find it kind of sad, actually, that it's taken this long to even begin eliminating school fitness testing, and that this was the issue over which it happened. Fitness testing started becoming problematic for all kinds of reasons almost immediately upon it becoming a nationwide thing in the 90s. There was a correlation between the rise of fitness testing and the significant rise in disordered eating that happened around the same time (not that fitness testing was the sole or most important cause), and more to the point, it hasn't accomplished much. As your post points out, the childhood obesity and overweight rate has continued to grow right alongside the rate of eating disorders and disordered eating among kids (and adults) following the advent of fitness testing and weight tracking in schools. I think it's worth mentioning that while rates increased in both sexes, disordered eating is far more likely to affect girls and women than boys and men.
So, with decades of concern over no positive results to show and some possible serious negative effects... THIS is the hill it died on? I think one of the things that mystifies and interests me most about the trans craze is how much actual action it seems to motivate, that other issues have not.
With that said, I do think schools are in a bit of a bind here. Educators are not medical professionals, and I think the medical community needs to take the lead on this. If the child's parents and doctors are all in on medical (or even social) transition, it's sort of outside the remit of the school to go against that, for good reason. This is the same reason schools shouldn't be taking the lead to affirm kids-it's outside their wheelhouse. It's different, though, if parents and medical providers have endorsed that action. In that case, schools really shouldn't refuse to comply. So they are in a tough spot, and the medical community really needs to step up here.
I see a correlary in the large numbers of kids who are classed as having special education needs. Take ADHD. Kids, parents, and teachers all know that ANYONE who takes ADHD medication and is given extra testing time will do better academically than if they hadn't had such interventions. If a parent and their medical provider insist the child needs Adderal and accommodations, though, how can the school really say "nope, they're just trying to get an advantage"? They aren't tasked with diagnosing and prescribing, nor are they licensed to do so. So, you have a situation where kids with all different levels of need are getting the same "help" with their concentration. Almost certainly, not all of those kids actually have any "real" disorder of attention and concentration. There are always going to be at least a few who are misdiagnosed, intentionally or not. And it seems that decades of additional help for ADHD and other such concerns has not produced any real improvement in the overall academic preparation of students. I'm not saying the whole concept should be scrapped, but certainly there is room for improvement. But, I don't think it can realistically come from the schools. It has to be led by those who are actually making the diagnostic and treatment decisions.
I guess I see gender transition the same way. Schools are sort of floundering trying to take students who come from homes with significant differences in how they handle gender concerns, and somehow find a way to work with all of them in large groups. I don't envy the schools at all in that regard. It's going to be objectively impossible to please everyone when there are such strong opinions, and significant numbers, on both sides of an issue like this. I don't have a good solution for the schools, because they don't have the privilege of waiting for this to shake out in society-they need to work with every student and family who comes in the door, today. Seems like an impossible job. Which may be why the results have been so lackluster.
Children cannot be "trans": they don't have an adult sexually mature body to generate "dysphoria" in response to.
For example, boys don't shave so they cannot have male body hair "triggered" dysphoria. They don't have adult male emotional or sexual response - orgasm or ejaculate, or any vestige of adult male sexual experience.
Girls don't have menses to grow "dysphoric" over. They don't have adult sex organs or secondary sex characteristics to dislike, and don't have adult female emotional responses or sexual response and orgasm.
Children have many things they can dislike, but adult sexual emotions or body is not one.
All discussion..entertaining the idea is specious.
A friend told me his grandchild said he was bisexual. He was 9, years from puberty, too young for sex of any kind. Has anyone told him that’s a sexual attraction? Apparently not. The kid had no clue.
In fairness, I recall the first of my classmates going on actual "dates" (someone's mom dropped them at McDonalds for an hour) and calling themselves boyfriend and girlfriend and writing love notes at age 10. I mean, we were creating wedding rings and picking "spouses" on occasion in kindergarten and first grade. This was years ago-kids go through puberty and becoming physically mature earlier now than they did then. And even now, I don't think a 10yo has any actual idea what it means to date or to be a couple, much less a 5 or 6yo. But, right from the get-go, the movies and such that they are exposed to often have romance as a theme. Think the Princess movies where the princess meets a prince and they live happily ever after following a big wedding.
So of course kids are going to mimic what they see and hear every day. They play doctor or chef without actually having a clue how to do either of those jobs. I don't know your friend's grandson so I have no idea whether he was actually thinking he was bi, or if he was just using a new word and playing, and trying to fit himself into the adult world, as kids do. But the mere fact that he had no idea what it even is tells me he probably picked up the concept in passing, perhaps from his peers (that source of all sorts of mistaken ideas about sex and sexuality, among other things). I imagine my parents had a similar internal reaction when i came home from first grade saying I "had a crush on" a boy in my class. Kids are going to wonder about adult concepts they see around them. Of course they aren't going to really learn what they mean until their bodies have matured to the point they actually experience sexual feelings (which, for many kids, still occurs far too early for their parents and other adults, but that's another story...)
"Students with binders on could not do the running portion." Students in spike heels, firefighting gear, ball gown, etc. could not do the running portion. Are there any brain cells still functioning in these so-called adult brains? Even 2 brain cells signaling would be an improvement.
Orwellian thinking , if it’s thinking at all! The trans ideology with its tiny minority has become a monster!
Maybe there is hope yet?! Excellent article.
I guess the soft bigotry of low expectations comes for everyone now.
I find it kind of sad, actually, that it's taken this long to even begin eliminating school fitness testing, and that this was the issue over which it happened. Fitness testing started becoming problematic for all kinds of reasons almost immediately upon it becoming a nationwide thing in the 90s. There was a correlation between the rise of fitness testing and the significant rise in disordered eating that happened around the same time (not that fitness testing was the sole or most important cause), and more to the point, it hasn't accomplished much. As your post points out, the childhood obesity and overweight rate has continued to grow right alongside the rate of eating disorders and disordered eating among kids (and adults) following the advent of fitness testing and weight tracking in schools. I think it's worth mentioning that while rates increased in both sexes, disordered eating is far more likely to affect girls and women than boys and men.
So, with decades of concern over no positive results to show and some possible serious negative effects... THIS is the hill it died on? I think one of the things that mystifies and interests me most about the trans craze is how much actual action it seems to motivate, that other issues have not.
With that said, I do think schools are in a bit of a bind here. Educators are not medical professionals, and I think the medical community needs to take the lead on this. If the child's parents and doctors are all in on medical (or even social) transition, it's sort of outside the remit of the school to go against that, for good reason. This is the same reason schools shouldn't be taking the lead to affirm kids-it's outside their wheelhouse. It's different, though, if parents and medical providers have endorsed that action. In that case, schools really shouldn't refuse to comply. So they are in a tough spot, and the medical community really needs to step up here.
I see a correlary in the large numbers of kids who are classed as having special education needs. Take ADHD. Kids, parents, and teachers all know that ANYONE who takes ADHD medication and is given extra testing time will do better academically than if they hadn't had such interventions. If a parent and their medical provider insist the child needs Adderal and accommodations, though, how can the school really say "nope, they're just trying to get an advantage"? They aren't tasked with diagnosing and prescribing, nor are they licensed to do so. So, you have a situation where kids with all different levels of need are getting the same "help" with their concentration. Almost certainly, not all of those kids actually have any "real" disorder of attention and concentration. There are always going to be at least a few who are misdiagnosed, intentionally or not. And it seems that decades of additional help for ADHD and other such concerns has not produced any real improvement in the overall academic preparation of students. I'm not saying the whole concept should be scrapped, but certainly there is room for improvement. But, I don't think it can realistically come from the schools. It has to be led by those who are actually making the diagnostic and treatment decisions.
I guess I see gender transition the same way. Schools are sort of floundering trying to take students who come from homes with significant differences in how they handle gender concerns, and somehow find a way to work with all of them in large groups. I don't envy the schools at all in that regard. It's going to be objectively impossible to please everyone when there are such strong opinions, and significant numbers, on both sides of an issue like this. I don't have a good solution for the schools, because they don't have the privilege of waiting for this to shake out in society-they need to work with every student and family who comes in the door, today. Seems like an impossible job. Which may be why the results have been so lackluster.
Children cannot be "trans": they don't have an adult sexually mature body to generate "dysphoria" in response to.
For example, boys don't shave so they cannot have male body hair "triggered" dysphoria. They don't have adult male emotional or sexual response - orgasm or ejaculate, or any vestige of adult male sexual experience.
Girls don't have menses to grow "dysphoric" over. They don't have adult sex organs or secondary sex characteristics to dislike, and don't have adult female emotional responses or sexual response and orgasm.
Children have many things they can dislike, but adult sexual emotions or body is not one.
All discussion..entertaining the idea is specious.
A friend told me his grandchild said he was bisexual. He was 9, years from puberty, too young for sex of any kind. Has anyone told him that’s a sexual attraction? Apparently not. The kid had no clue.
In fairness, I recall the first of my classmates going on actual "dates" (someone's mom dropped them at McDonalds for an hour) and calling themselves boyfriend and girlfriend and writing love notes at age 10. I mean, we were creating wedding rings and picking "spouses" on occasion in kindergarten and first grade. This was years ago-kids go through puberty and becoming physically mature earlier now than they did then. And even now, I don't think a 10yo has any actual idea what it means to date or to be a couple, much less a 5 or 6yo. But, right from the get-go, the movies and such that they are exposed to often have romance as a theme. Think the Princess movies where the princess meets a prince and they live happily ever after following a big wedding.
So of course kids are going to mimic what they see and hear every day. They play doctor or chef without actually having a clue how to do either of those jobs. I don't know your friend's grandson so I have no idea whether he was actually thinking he was bi, or if he was just using a new word and playing, and trying to fit himself into the adult world, as kids do. But the mere fact that he had no idea what it even is tells me he probably picked up the concept in passing, perhaps from his peers (that source of all sorts of mistaken ideas about sex and sexuality, among other things). I imagine my parents had a similar internal reaction when i came home from first grade saying I "had a crush on" a boy in my class. Kids are going to wonder about adult concepts they see around them. Of course they aren't going to really learn what they mean until their bodies have matured to the point they actually experience sexual feelings (which, for many kids, still occurs far too early for their parents and other adults, but that's another story...)
"Students with binders on could not do the running portion." Students in spike heels, firefighting gear, ball gown, etc. could not do the running portion. Are there any brain cells still functioning in these so-called adult brains? Even 2 brain cells signaling would be an improvement.