I see the papers are asking the government to advise schools on how to deal with trans issues. "Trans" it wasn't even a word a generation ago. I compare the handling of this educational issue with issues 50 years ago. Teacher training then involved you writing essays for and against corporal punishment, now not an issue to be debated. Then the arguments included that corporal punishment just left the person administrating it feeling satisfied, without changing the child's behaviour, and possibly the administer hurting the child in fury rather than justified chastisement.
When it came to practice, I remember hearing of a relative hitting a step child with a wooden spoon, not her hand as the mother might have done. If you use your hand, then you know how hard you're hitting and hurt yourself too if it's that hard. When I was at school, in infants' year one, I had a teacher who'd tell the little boys in the stream on the far side of the classroom, "I'll tan your bacon" and she'd take the little boy, put her over her knee and spank him with her hand. At junior school, the teachers might give you the ruler, flat on the palm of your hand -it stung. The head teacher would give the strap. My first dead husband got the strap once for throwing a board rubber or something across the classroom - probably something the teachers were doing anyhow! The last time I saw physical chastisement was having to witness a child in my class, Micky A, receive the strap of the head master, because he'd skipped school. It all had to be recorded in a book in the head's office. Poor old Micky - strapping him didn't seem like encouragement to come to school. At the end of term, he skipped again, and I didn't tell. Another little boy had given me an end-of-term present - a pottery dachshund - very tasteful, and Micky had observed me thanking him enthusiastically. When Micky turned up next, he presented me with a pink plastic dog! It was so sweet of him, and I was sad that someone in the staff room commented that he'd probably nicked it from Woolworths. That lad and I had expectations of each other. He could read well, memorise Shakespeare and I don't know why he was so bad at maths because he was bright. Something had gone wrong with teaching him maths in the infants - maybe he'd been playing truant. At the end of term, after school, I was clearing up the classroom when Micky and his 13-year-old brother turned up. For some reason, his brother (a graduate of Borstal) decided to grab me with both hands near my neck. He was only a child and I wasn't going to react, but Micky said, "Aw, leave her alone. She's all right!".
Maybe now teacher trainees have to write essays for and against use of chosen pronouns?
