Transgender Second Grader

[BigV]

Originally Posted by lookout123

most schools that require uniforms are very specific about what is allowed for boys/girls right down to length of hair and color of pants.

maybe my opinion on this is tainted because i have serious doubts about the origin of this kid's gender concerns. he's a kid. kids are always confused and curious. that doesn't mean you have to salute everything they run up the flagpole. my opinion is that if the kid sat his parents down and told them he wanted to be a girl, they should have been compassionate and non-judgemental and told him that's ok, but for now he's a boy and needs to live as a boy. when he is older and more capable of understanding the ramifications of this, then they can explore the possibilities, but now? doesn't make sense to me.

As a parent, some lessons I *tell* to my son. Some lessons I *show* him. Some lessons I leave for him to discover on his own. Of the three, the third one is the most potent teaching method. It's not always appropriate. "Don't play in the street" is a tell lesson--the stakes are too high to permit an error. How to ride a skateboard is a show lesson--at least at the beginning--he's way better than me now. How to get along with his peers is mostly a (series of) self discovery lessons.

The three methods are not mutually exclusive, of course. And parental temperament plays a big factor in this kind of social dynamic. I prefer the self discovery angle, but not exclusively. Others here have posted their preference for a much more authoritarian stance, mercy and Radar are a couple of examples that come to mind.

I see the parents taking this third track. They may also be doing (or have done) the others too. Where's the harm? What are the stakes, the cost of failure? Pretty low in my estimate. That's a good candidate for learning on their own.