A NEW TEACHER’S campaign aims to celebrate the diverse family structures that exist in modern Ireland.
The campaign will appear in classrooms around the country with a poster entitled ‘Different Families, Same Love’.
This will be the first poster of its kind in attempting to promote values of tolerance, understanding and diversity among schoolchildren.
What will happen?
As part of this teachers will be encouraged to discuss the different family forms that exist in Ireland, including LGBT couples, one-parent families and multi-ethnic groups.
It is hoped that this move will open up discussion about discrimination, homophobia and transphobia with age-appropriate material aimed at younger children.
The move is the culmination of work by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation LGBT Teachers’ Group.
Reaction
Speaking about the new campaign, Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan, said the move will help to build “inclusive classrooms” and will come alongside the implementation of anti-bullying procedures.
“These procedures require every school in the country to engage in preventative and educational strategies to tackle homophobic and transphobic bullying,” she went on.
On the move, General Secretary of the INTO Sheila Nunan, said, “hearing their teacher describe LGBT people and families in a positive way will empower all children to respect and celebrate difference and will be a huge step towards preventing homophobic and transphobic bullying in our schools.”
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