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UK Govt. funded - Kids of 5 learn 'pleasures of gay sex'

 
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Caz
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 11:48 am    Post subject: UK Govt. funded - Kids of 5 learn 'pleasures of gay sex' Reply with quote

U.K Government Funded Project Teaches Children as Young as Five About the "pleasures of gay sex"
Already functioning in 14 primary schools in Britain, using books, puppet shows and plays

By Hilary White
LONDON, September 16, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - From the earliest primary grades, school children in Britain should be taught about homosexual relations, a government funded education research project has said. No Outsiders, a 28-month, tax-funded research project funded by the government's Economic and Social Research Council, is already functioning in 14 primary schools in Britain, using books, puppet shows and plays to teach children as young as five about the "pleasures of gay sex."
The project is costing British taxpayers £600,000 (Cn. $1,143,989) and is being promoted in schools under the rubric of combating "homophobic bullying" in schools.
At a seminar this week at Exeter University, the project's members and supporters said they will go beyond what is taught to the children in schools, and "interrogate" the "desexualisation of children's bodies", "the negation of pleasure and desire in educational contexts" and "the tendency to shy away from discussion of (sexual) bodily activity." The ultimate goal, they wrote, is to create "primary classrooms where queer sexualities are affirmed and celebrated."
Papers prepared for the seminar by the No Outsiders project leaders say that the seminar will question the "taken-for-granted" status of the "supposedly sexless" primary classroom. The project will examine "'the place of the research team members' own bodies, desires and pleasures in this research."
Elizabeth Atkinson, a project leader, however, denied that this week's seminar was connected to the No Outsiders work in classrooms. "The seminar is part of a long-standing academic debate and has nothing to do with schools," she said. "It has no connection with sex education."
The seminar document admits that the researchers are responding to "accusations of the corruption of innocent children" that has "led team members to make repeated claims that this project is not about sex or desire - and that it is therefore not about bodies.
"Yet, at a very significant level," they said, "that is exactly what it is about and to deny this may have significant negative implications for children and young people."
Questions for discussion outlined in the seminar schedule, include: "How might we create primary classrooms where gender-queer bodies and queer sexualities (for children and teachers) are affirmed and celebrated?"; "What would it take to teach queerly? How would teachers' and children's bodies be implicated in this? What sorts of subversions and reversals might it entail?" and, "At what cost do we deny children's and teachers' sexuality? What do we lose if desire and pleasure are banned from the classroom?"
Simon Calvert of the Christian Institute, however, has responded to the seminar, saying, "When an adult who is working in a primary school suggests that children should explore their sexuality, that should result in a complaint to the police."
The project's supporters include the National Union of Teachers, the General Teaching Council for England, Stonewall, the homosexualist political lobby and "Schools Out", a homosexualist promotion project for schools.


Last edited by Caz on Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:19 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Caz
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

On The University Of Sunderland website, Dr Elizabeth Atkinson’s research interests are described as: http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/research/rae/staff/staffdetail/index.php?s tid=773
Quote:
'No Outsiders' Project, supporting primary teachers around the country in challenging homophobia and heteronormativity in their own schools and classrooms.

I see the problem here is not ‘challenging homophobia’, but 'challenging ... heteronormativity'.

According to wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heteronormativity
Quote:
Heteronormativity is a term to describe ...... the view that heterosexuality is the normal sexual orientation.....

The term was coined by Michael Warner in 1991,[3] in one of the first major works of queer theory.


So, 'challenging heteronormativity' is challenging heterosexuality as the normal sexual orientation. What are the alternatives?

'Queer theory', according to wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer_theory
Quote:
expands its focus to encompass any kind of sexual activity or identity that falls into normative and deviant categories.


Anything, it seems.


Last edited by Caz on Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:23 pm; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dr Elizabeth Atkinson wins major international award.......she tackles gay rights.......but also challenges 'heteronormativity' (heterosexual activity as being normal) about which this article is silent:

http://www.alphagalileo.org/index.cfm?_rss=1&fuseaction=readrelease&re leaseid=520712

Quote:
A University of Sunderland academic has won a major international award for her work in tackling gay rights in education.

Dr Elizabeth Atkinson has been presented with a scholar-activist award by the American Educational Research Association, which is given for a significant body of work in the field of studies into equality.

Dr Atkinson is an internationally renowned figure in anti-homophobia research. She was the co-founder of the British Educational Research Association Sexualities Group and implemented a national online discussion forum in 2006 on challenging homophobia in schools, funded and hosted by the General Teaching Council.

She is best known for her research project No Outsiders, with senior University of Sunderland researcher Dr Renée DePalma. Within this project, a team of primary teachers from three areas of the UK is developing ideas to address lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in their own schools and classrooms.

The No Outsiders project has recently attracted international media attention focusing on children's books being used in project schools which feature gay and lesbian family members.

Dr Atkinson says: “The most important thing these books do is reflect reality for young children. Children's literature shapes social values and emotional development. Leaving images of gay relationships out of children's books is silencing a social message, and leaves children of non-heterosexual parents and children who may themselves grow up to be gay with no reflection of their own experience.”

The project has led directly to one of the books used in the research being published in the UK. ‘And Tango Makes Three’ is a children’s book based on the true story of two male penguins in New York’s Central Park Zoo who adopted a penguin chick. Simon & Schuster will publish the book in the UK in July. It was previously only available in the US.

The No Outsiders project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and will run until December 31, 2008. The outcomes will appear in the Teacher Training Resource Bank, a documentary film and an edited book of teaching ideas.
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Let me just play devils advocate.

True : A young lad (7yrs) draws a picture in his classroom which shows 2 men kissing when asked by teacher what it is he says his dad is leaving his mum to live with another man.

Result: a confused hurt kid who gets some stick about his dad being gay etc.

Teacher holds to the opinion (from faith and other reasons that practicing homosexuality (sodomy) is wrong.

Education system and societry wants to actively teach that gay sex is an acceptable alternative.

Teacher not at liberty to express their opinions (and why should they) but neither wants to aid the Education systems position.

Interesting times ahead

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds like homophobic propaganda to me.

Heterosexuality is obviously not normal at all to homosexual people, so why should it be taught that heterosexuality is normal? To make homosexuals feel like there is soemthing wrong with them?

The part about being taught "the pleasures of gay sex" through puppets to children the age of 5 I highly suspect is bull - there is no source for it - and it reeks of propaganda.

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.schools-out.org.uk/conferences/docs2008/Education%20and%20t he%20Body%20blurb%20for%20SIG.doc

Quote:
Queering the Body; Queering Primary Education

A free one-day seminar presented by the No Outsiders research team

Sponsored by the Society for Educational Studies
for the Education and the Body seminar series

Tuesday 16th September 2008, 12.00 – 6.45
University of Exeter

This seminar is timed to follow the Queer in Europe conference at the University of Exeter from13th – 15th September. For details of Queer in Europe, see www.sall.ex.ac.uk/centres/cissge/

Since September 2006, the No Outsiders research team (a collaboration of primary teachers-researchers, university researchers and equalities facilitators) has been breaking new ground in equalities education by exploring approaches to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in the primary school. The 28-month ESRC-funded project supports primary teachers in three regions of the UK in challenging heteronormativity, homophobian and transphobia in their own schools and classrooms. Practical approaches within the project include the use of stories, drama and the visual arts, as well as revisions to school policies and the development of guidance on challenging homophobia at primary level. Underlying these activities, however, is a much deeper interrogation of the discourses which keep the heterosexual matrix (Butler, 1990) and its elision of sex-gender-sexuality in place.

One of the most fundamental questions the research team has been addressing since the start of the project concerns the problematics of the body. The team is concerned to interrogate the desexualisation of children’s and teachers’ bodies, the negation of pleasure and desire in educational contexts and the tendency to shy away from discussion of (sexual) bodily activity in No Outsiders project work. The danger of accusations of the corruption of innocent children, particularly in the context of the world-wide media attention the project has received, has led team members to make repeated claims that this project is not about sex or desire – and that it is therefore not about bodies. Yet, at a very significant level, that is exactly what it is about and to deny this may have significant negative implications for children and young people.

Through ongoing debate and exploration during the project, members of the project team have challenged the pervasive images of romantic love and life-long monogamy portrayed by the lesbian and gay characters in the children’s books used in project schools; have questioned the denial and/or repression of their own sexual identities, pleasures, desires and investments; have explored the underpinning cultural and religious discourses which banish sex from sexuality; have raised the need for and purpose of strategic essentialism in relation to sexualities and gender identity; and have challenged each other to go beyond imagined possibilities into queer practice. In addition, the team has explored the multi-layered ways in which sex/gender/sexuality are written on and performed through the body through the repetition and appropriation of specific social and cultural codes and symbols; and ways in which such performativity might be interrupted/disrupted in order both to queer the norm and normalise the queer.
The seminar continues this process, aiming to trouble us – and the seminar participants – out of our comfort zones and to question the taken-for-granted of the supposedly sexless, bodiless (except for running noses, leaking bladders and untied shoelaces) and desire-less primary classroom. Drawing on project data, the seminar will address these questions:

• What sorts of border work (Thorne, 1993) do children and teachers engage in as they work (consciously or subconsciously) to maintain the heterosexual matrix and keep the body in its place; and what shifts and negotiations does this border work require?
• How might we create primary classrooms where gender-queer bodies and queer sexualities (for children and teachers) are affirmed and celebrated?
• What would it take to teach queerly? How would teachers’ and children’s bodies be implicated in this? What sorts of subversions and reversals might it entail?
• At what cost do we deny children’s and teachers’ sexuality? What do we lose if desire and pleasure are banned from the classroom?
• In what circumstances is strategic essentialism regarding the sexed, gendered and sexualised body necessary for change to principles and practice, and who might be harmed by an insistence on fluidity and non-unitary identities?
• What is the place of the research team members’ own bodies, desires and pleasures in this research?

Seminar timetable


12.00 – 12.45 Free lunch
12.45 – 1.30 Deborah Youdell (Institute of Education, University of London): Childhood and Pleasure: sexuality, the body and the primary classroom
1.30 – 2.15 Fin Cullen (Institute of Education, University of London) and Laura Teague (Teacher-Researcher, No Outsiders): Subversion and the carnivalesque: breaking rules in the queer classroom.
2.15 – 3.00 Elizabeth Atkinson (University of Sunderland) and Andrew Moffat (Teacher-Researcher, No Outsiders): Bodies and minds: essentialism, activism and strategic disruptions in the primary school.
3.00 – 3.30 Tea/coffee
3.30 – 4.15 Alexandra Allan (University of Exeter) and Elizabeth Brace (University of Sunderland): Queer spaces, queer places: locating ideas and bodies in anti-heteronormative education.
4.15 – 5.00 Nick Givens and David Nixon (University of Exeter): From the park to the pulpit: the body, sex, religion and children.
5.00 – 5.45 Guest keynote speaker: Professor Susan Talburt (Georgia State University, US): Queering the body; queering primary education: new imaginaries and new realities.
5.45 – 6.45 Social/networking opportunity

To book a place at the seminar, email sylvia.briggs@sunderland.ac.uk
Tel 0191 515 2380 (Mon-Wed)
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Caz
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Meanwhile, Britain slides down the OECD league tables:
http://www.911forum.org.uk/board/viewtopic.php?t=12607
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 5:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Caz, I am having a lot of trouble identifying what point you are trying to make - your last post seems to suggest that there is a correlation between telling children heterosexuality is "normal" and homosexuality "not normal" and the results of British schools.

Is this what you are saying? And if so would you like to have a stab at a more coherent argument than innuendo?

I would ask the same of the broader subject - what exactly is it you are complaining about and why?

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 3:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Stefan wrote:
Caz, I am having a lot of trouble identifying what point you are trying to make - your last post seems to suggest that there is a correlation between telling children heterosexuality is "normal" and homosexuality "not normal" and the results of British schools.

Is this what you are saying? And if so would you like to have a stab at a more coherent argument than innuendo?

I would ask the same of the broader subject - what exactly is it you are complaining about and why?


No, Stefan. I was suggesting that spending more time on traditional subjects (english, maths, science) might improve performance in these subjects.

Re what Dr. Elizabeth Atkinson's research is about; challenging 'heteronormativity' seems to be suggesting that the view that heterosexual is normal should be challenged.........you got it the other way around. Atkinson's research is not about 'heterosexual is normal' and 'homosexual is not normal'..........her research interests imply the opposite.

To be researching both, presumably means she believes both; that it should be challenged that heterosexuality is the social norm, and to prevent homosexuals from being bullied (of course people shouldn't be bullied) but when you put the both together, is this an intention to bring about a shift in perception of 'normality', from 'heterosexual' to 'homosexual', or from 'heterosexual' to.........anything?

Also, I see some deceit in this:

Quote:
The danger of accusations of the corruption of innocent children, particularly in the context of the world-wide media attention the project has received, has led team members to make repeated claims that this project is not about sex or desire – and that it is therefore not about bodies. Yet, at a very significant level, that is exactly what it is about and to deny this may have significant negative implications for children and young people.
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 1:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
No, Stefan. I was suggesting that spending more time on traditional subjects (english, maths, science) might improve performance in these subjects.


Well I'd agree with that. I don't think there should be any behavioural education at all. Objective knowledge and skills is all the government has the right to tell children. If I had kids I could seriously consider home schooling for this reason. "Citizenship" and "Personal Education Studies" are other supposed education topics which stink of societal engineering.

However, you don't seem to be objecting to kids being taught about bahaviour, but are singling out teaching both heterosexual and homosexual relations rather than just the former, which is what I have picked up on.

Quote:
Re what Dr. Elizabeth Atkinson's research is about; challenging 'heteronormativity' seems to be suggesting that the view that heterosexual is normal should be challenged.........you got it the other way around. Atkinson's research is not about 'heterosexual is normal' and 'homosexual is not normal'..........her research interests imply the opposite.


I think you've mis-read what is being said here. You have heterosexual people, you have homosexual people. Therefore to teach that either is "normal" is to tell the other that they are not "normal", or that there is something wrong with that. You seem to have interperated her objection to "heteronormativity" as an attempt to say there is something wrong with heterosexuality, and implied homosexuality should be the norm. That is not what is being said - it's a mis-definition of normality to do so. If you have two sexualities, then to say either is normal is to disparage the other. So you instead focus on enquality and say both are just different.

Quote:
To be researching both, presumably means she believes both; that it should be challenged that heterosexuality is the social norm, and to prevent homosexuals from being bullied (of course people shouldn't be bullied) but when you put the both together, is this an intention to bring about a shift in perception of 'normality', from 'heterosexual' to 'homosexual', or from 'heterosexual' to.........anything?


As I explained above, the former assertion does not fit what has been said; the latter is cloer but still a mis-reading. It is an attenmpt to do away with a society norm at all.

Quote:
Also, I see some deceit in this:

Quote:
The danger of accusations of the corruption of innocent children, particularly in the context of the world-wide media attention the project has received, has led team members to make repeated claims that this project is not about sex or desire – and that it is therefore not about bodies. Yet, at a very significant level, that is exactly what it is about and to deny this may have significant negative implications for children and young people.


So do I. She gives no source or example to show this is the case; it is innuendo. Which is why I highlighted it as propaganda in my first post.

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PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 6:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

For me, the fact this thread exists at all suggests Dr Atkinson is probably doing some valuable and much needed work.
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 6:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

'Educatiing' any child to think being gay is normal is child abuse.
The sort of abuse this section of the forum is here to campaign against.
Thankfully all children are pre-programmed to reject those ideas.
I entirely support Caz's stance so discuss politely by all means but remember, if she thinks your contribution is an attack on that premis she can delete it.

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PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 8:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Who who and whats what?
Does anyone have the qualifications to know??

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PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 9:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Educatiing' any child to think being gay is normal is child abuse.


No child protection team in the country would agree with that.

Judging by the emotional trauma, self-harm and suicide attempts I have personally known from young people I have worked with / known of from colleagues who have been taunted, attacked and made to feel like dirt simply because they are gay, I would say teaching children there is anything abnormal about being gay is certainly child abuse.

Being gay is normal. If you happen to be gay. As has been the case throughout human history.

Quote:
I entirely support Caz's stance so discuss politely by all means but remember, if she thinks your contribution is an attack on that premis she can delete it.


Does this mean Caz can overtly censor anyone who happens to disagree simply because you happen to agree with Caz?
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 9:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Okay, Why not just explain what heterosexual and homosexual mean and let the child decide for his or herself?
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 11:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well I think that's what this 'challenging heteronormativity' stuff is actually about. It's about teaching children it isn't 'normal' to be heterosexual because you are an individual that might not be heterosexual.
It isn't saying heterosexuality is abnormal, it's saying there isn't a set sexual norm.
So really, it's not normal to be heterosexual or homosexual as there isn't a set 'norm' that people should fit into to be 'normal'. But in a generic sense, it's also just normal to be what you are if there isn't a set norm. So it's also normal to be straight or gay if that's what you happen to be, though we could also challenge why we feel the need to have these set distinctions. I mean why do we have to be 'straight', 'gay' or 'bi' anyway? Why can't we just have whatever consenting relationships we want with either gender without having to decide if we're straight or gay or whatever? I like the ladies myself, but if I one day fell for another bloke, why would I have to go through a whole "Am I gay" thing? Wouldn't it be better if I just thought "Oh, I'm with another bloke for a change."? If I did ever fancy a fella, I'm pretty sure I'd probably be launched into a whole sexual identity crisis. Because that's what's been programmed into my head by society.
Thank God I'm 'normal'!

In practice, all it actually means is getting kids to not think to be 'normal' they have to be heterosexual - that there's not a sexual norm they should fit.
It tries to stop them growing up saying things like "Them gays? Well they're just not normal."
I just can't see what the problem is.

On a side note, I typed this while question time was on. Rather than my usual desire to smash the tv, I have just greatly enjoyed immense audience antipathy towards identity cards directed at that bitch Hazel Blears. Ha ha!
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 11:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

TonyGosling wrote:
Okay, Why not just explain what heterosexual and homosexual mean and let the child decide for his or herself?
Putting things into a box is the problem.
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 11:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

• What is the place of the research team members’ own bodies, desires and pleasures in this research?

It'd be nice to see the notes from the one day seminar, and the conclusion to this question.
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 4:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Caz wrote:
• What is the place of the research team members’ own bodies, desires and pleasures in this research?

It'd be nice to see the notes from the one day seminar, and the conclusion to this question.


Sounds suspiciously to me like slightly pretentious flowery language probably concerning the influence of their own bodies and desires in the generation of their own discourse. I tend to doubt it means a big gay swingers party. However, their site is down -

Quote:
Due to recent misrepresentation of the No Outsiders Project in the media, this site is temporarily unavailable in the interests of the safety and wellbeing of project team members.

The No Outsiders Project

The No Outsiders project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, aims to challenge homophobia and create more inclusive primary school environments. The project is exploring ways of challenging homophobic discrimination through the positive use of stories, drama and the visual arts, as well as through revisions to school policies and practices and the development of guidance on challenging homophobia at primary level. The project's resources and activities are used to develop recognition and respect for individuals and their families, whatever their sexual orientation or gender expression.

Sexualities and gender equality form part of the broad range of equality and diversity issues that schools need to address in order to ensure that all their pupils grow up healthy, happy, confident and safe. The project's work supports schools in working towards this aim, in line with the legal requirement to ensure pupil wellbeing, prevent bullying and contribute to community cohesion.

For further information, please contact Kelly Barnett or Alexandra Saxon at the Economic and Social Research Council: Kelly.Barnett@esrc.ac.uk, Alexandra.Saxon@esrc.ac.uk, Tel 01793 413 032


http://www.nooutsiders.sunderland.ac.uk/

Here's the gay media's take

Quote:
Christian Institute targets homophobic bullying group
By Tony Grew • September 16, 2008 - 20:18


No Outsiders are an anti-bulying group
13 Comments on Christian Institute targets homophobic bullying group

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An academic conference organised by a group that works to combat homophobic bullying in schools has been attacked by fundamentalist Christians.

The Christian Institute has "exposed" the event, and the story was picked up by the Daily Mail, under the headline "Teach the 'pleasure of gay sex' to children as young as five, say researchers."

In reality the seminar at Exeter University, entitled Queering the Body; Queering Primary Education, has no connection with sex education.

It is being run by No Outsiders, who work in 14 primary schools and receive £600,000 of state funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.

The group, made up of academics from Sunderland University, give schools, local authorities and teacher-training institutions sexualities equality training and resources, including a wide range of children's literature.

Dr Elizabeth Atkinson from No Outsiders told the Daily Telegraph:

"The seminar is part of a long-standing academic debate and has nothing to do with schools."

Questions for discussion were outlined in the seminar schedule, published on The Christian Institute website. They include:

• How might we create primary classrooms where gender-queer bodies and queer sexualities (for children and teachers) are affirmed and celebrated?

• What would it take to teach queerly? How would teachers’ and children’s bodies be implicated in this? What sorts of subversions and reversals might it entail?

• At what cost do we deny children’s and teachers’ sexuality? What do we lose if desire and pleasure are banned from the classroom?

The Christian Institute’s Simon Calvert said:

"When an adult who is working in a primary school suggests that children should explore their sexuality, that should result in a complaint to the police."

Patricia Morgan, a sociologist and author of books supporting the "traditional" family structures, is quoted in the Christian Institute story.

"The proposal is that primary school classrooms should be turned into gay saunas," she claimed.

“This is about homosexual practice in junior schools. The idiots who repealed Section 28 should consider that this is where it has got them.”

The Christian Institute is a small but vocal group who have made a name for themselves with high profile campaigns against equality for gay people.

They recently financed Lillian Ladele's case.

She won employment tribunal ruling that Islington council discriminated against her because she wanted to opt out of performing civil partnership ceremonies on religious grounds.

The tribunal ruled that she was unlawfully discriminated against because of her religion.

Last year the Christian Institute claimed that the new offence of incitement to hatred based on sexual orientation restricts free speech targets Christians and will stifle debate about homosexuality.

It objected to the extension of incitement to racial hatred laws to sexual orientation as "homosexuality is a chosen lifestyle. Many 'gay rights' activists would say that their sexual orientation is a choice, not a genetic characteristic."

The fundamentalist group previously failed to stop the introduction of the Sexual Orientation Regulations which protect gay people from discrimination in goods and services.

Last year the Christian Institute targeted a No Outsiders scheme promoting gay couples and families through fairytales aimed a primary-aged children and called for the reintroduction of Section 28.

Passed in 1988 under Margaret Thatcher, it banned local authorities from promoting homosexuality as a valid lifestyle, after tabloid newspaper outrage at a book which showed a little girl living happily with two gay men.

It was abolished in 2003.

It is hoped that teaching children as young as five about the existence of gay relationships might help in tackling the use of the word 'gay' to mean bad or inferior.

Last year research by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers revealed that the vast majority of their members hear the word used pejoratively on a regular basis.

Many felt that homophobic language was institutionally tolerated. The union backed the No Outsiders book scheme, as did the General Teaching Council.


http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-9020.html

It's certainly true that the phrases "that's totally gay" and "don't be gay" are absolutely endemic.

Article from the telegraph which I quote the last bit from

Quote:
Project leader Dr Elizabeth Atkinson said the seminar had no connection with No Outsiders work in classrooms. "The seminar is part of a long-standing academic debate and has nothing to do with schools," she said. "It has no connection with sex education."
However, the proposed seminar has attracted criticism. Patricia Morgan, author of studies of family life and gay adoption, said: "The proposal is that primary school classrooms should be turned into gay saunas. This is about homosexual practice in junior schools. The idiots who repealed Section 28 should consider that this is where it has got them."


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/education/2967796/ Primary-schools-should-celebrate-homosexuality.html

"Gay saunas"???? "homosexual practice in junior schools"???? Sounds like someone's getting carried away.
"Idiots who repealed section 28" - very telling, considering how stupid and backwards section 28 was.

This whole thing strikes me as storm being whipped up, particularly if the daily reactionary, sorry, mail have been doing their usual sensationalist yellow journalism.
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Caz
Last Chance Saloon
Last Chance Saloon


Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 836

PostPosted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Quote:
Caz wrote:
• What is the place of the research team members’ own bodies, desires and pleasures in this research?

It'd be nice to see the notes from the one day seminar, and the conclusion to this question.



Sounds suspiciously to me like slightly pretentious flowery language probably concerning the influence of their own bodies and desires in the generation of their own discourse. I tend to doubt it means a big gay swingers party.


Anyone's guess.

But it would be nice to see what they came up with in the seminar. Somehow I doubt we'll ever see it.

Do we trust these people with our children?

Quote:
Also, I see some deceit in this:

Quote:
The danger of accusations of the corruption of innocent children, particularly in the context of the world-wide media attention the project has received, has led team members to make repeated claims that this project is not about sex or desire – and that it is therefore not about bodies. Yet, at a very significant level, that is exactly what it is about and to deny this may have significant negative implications for children and young people.


More the point, do you trust these people with other people's children?
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