Scotland’s 20-year-old Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) has neglected providing children with adequate levels of subject-based education and practical skills. CfE focuses on other priorities, such as embedding Relationships, Sexual Health, and Parenthood Education (RSHP) throughout CfE. This includes teaching 4- to 8-year-olds about ‘male and female genitalia, and their functions’, whilst 8- to 11-year-olds ‘are given basic knowledge about having sex (intercourse)’. Some parents, including Kate E. Deeming, believe teaching RSHP content should not be the role of the state.
According to EIS, the largest trade union for Scottish teachers, the 2020 incorporation of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into Scots Law means that ‘specific steps should be taken by public bodies to protect children who have intersecting characteristics, are underrepresented, face barriers or discrimination. This includes children and young people who identify as being LGBT’. Education Scotland uses UNCRC to justify allowing pupils to transition their gender without telling their parents under the guise of what they call ‘LBGT+ Inclusive Education’.
Kate explained her dedication to raising her son as carefully as possible despite CfE’s ongoing failures, with Scottish pupils’ exam pass rates continuously falling since 2016. Kate offered actions that parents can take to protect their children in Scotland and further afield at a time when gender ideology and anti-racism have captured schools across the West.
Kate is a Philadelphia-born, Glasgow-based, ‘retired’ (cancelled) dance artist and solo mum. As an advocate for childhood, she is determined to stop the pathologisation of children’s experiences and make childhood fun again. She is the Scottish Union for Education’s Parents & Supporters Coordinator. She can be found on X @SunriseDances and on Substack @DeemingDreaming. Her podcast is The Pink Elephant.