Vermont Department of Health urges public to avoid gendered words like 'son' or 'daughter'

[Michie]

As the back-to-school school season kicks off, the Vermont Department of Health is encouraging school employees and others to refrain from referring to children as a "son" or "daughter" and instead embrace gender-neutral terminology.

In a Facebook post Wednesday, the department declared, "The language we use matters."

"When talking about family, it's important to use terms that cover the many versions of what family can look like," the department stated. A picture accompanying the Facebook post featured a few examples of what constituted "inclusive language for families."

Continued below.

Vermont Department of Health urges public to avoid gendered words like 'son' or 'daughter'

As the back-to-school school season kicks off, The Vermont Department of Health is encouraging parents and teachers to refrain from referring to children as a son or daughter and instead embrace

www.christianpost.com

 

[Tropical Wilds]

This pearl-clutching is over a nothingburger.

The post says:

“The language we use matters! Many families and students are getting ready for the new school year. Equity in the classroom is an essential piece of a productive and healthy learning environment. When talking about family, it's important to use terms that cover the many versions of what family can look like. Sign up for our monthly Health Equity Newsletter for more tips!

”

There is nothing controversial here, it’s the same stuff I learned in ECE 20 years ago. Don’t assume family dynamics, use nurturing terms instead of clinical terms, and be mindful of how you talk about people’s relations.

The linked article is clickbait for people who don’t bother to research and is an attempt to fear monger.

 

[RileyG]

This nonsense needs to stop. Language matters.

 

[RileyG]

This pearl-clutching is over a nothingburger.

The post says:

“The language we use matters! Many families and students are getting ready for the new school year. Equity in the classroom is an essential piece of a productive and healthy learning environment. When talking about family, it's important to use terms that cover the many versions of what family can look like. Sign up for our monthly Health Equity Newsletter for more tips!View attachment 354004”

There is nothing controversial here, it’s the same stuff I learned in ECE 20 years ago. Don’t assume family dynamics, use nurturing terms instead of clinical terms, and be mindful of how you talk about people’s relations.

The linked article is clickbait for people who don’t bother to research and is an attempt to fear monger.

I think the term "kid" is rather condescending. I never liked it. Son or daughter is more appropriate. Or child. Just my personal opinion.

Humans have children. Goats have kids. lol

 

[Tropical Wilds]

I think the term "kid" is rather condescending. I never liked it. Son or daughter is more appropriate. Or child. Just my personal opinion.

Humans have children. Goats have kids. lol

We never used “kid” either. It’s not super professional. We wouldn’t use “son” or “daughter” either because so many of the contacts were not parents.

 

[RileyG]

We never used “kid” either. It’s not super professional. We wouldn’t use “son” or “daughter” either because so many of the contacts were not parents.

That’s true.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

That’s true.

And you haven’t really lived until you’ve been in a conference with both households of a child and run the risk of saying son/daughter to a step parent knowing the birth parent will lose their mind to hear the child referred as son/daughter for the step parent.

 

[RileyG]

And you haven’t really lived until you’ve been in a conference with both households of a child and run the risk of saying son/daughter to a step parent knowing the birth parent will lose their mind to hear the child referred as son/daughter for the step parent.

Yeah. In some cases, the birth patent abandoned their biological child and the stepparent is the “true” parent.

 

[Aldebaran]

This pearl-clutching is over a nothingburger.

The post says:

“The language we use matters! Many families and students are getting ready for the new school year. Equity in the classroom is an essential piece of a productive and healthy learning environment. When talking about family, it's important to use terms that cover the many versions of what family can look like. Sign up for our monthly Health Equity Newsletter for more tips!View attachment 354004”

There is nothing controversial here, it’s the same stuff I learned in ECE 20 years ago. Don’t assume family dynamics, use nurturing terms instead of clinical terms, and be mindful of how you talk about people’s relations.

The linked article is clickbait for people who don’t bother to research and is an attempt to fear monger.

If it's a "nothingburger", then why does the Virginia Dept. of Health need to be involving itself in how people refer to their own family members? Don't our government health departments have any diseases to find cures for?

 

[dzheremi]

From what Tropical Wilds posted, it seems like this has less to do with gender or sex (how "son" and "daughter" imply boy and girl) and more to do with familial relations (how "son" and "daughter" might cause conflict if there's a contentious relationship between biological parents and step parents, for example). With that in mind, I think it's not a bad recommendation. I don't personally want to step into the middle of some War of the Roses sort of situation unawares, y'know? I'm going to guess that nobody else wants to either.

 

[Stephen3141]

The legal community has historically used the word "infant",
top refer to children who have not yet come of age.

This androgenous word, would solve the problem.