Should I ever call a child ‘it’? asks Sophia Waugh
‘Is this a hill you are really prepared to die on?’ the more woke of my sons-in-law asked me when I told him the subject of this month’s column. And the answer is yes. On behalf of my brothers or sisters (or are we no longer allowed to say that? Perhaps I should stick with siblings) in education, I am prepared to nail my colours to the mast of grammar, specifically in relation to pronouns. It is not unusual to read a story of a teacher sacked because he or she (not they, you note) refused to use the pronouns of a student’s choice. One teacher said he would do so, once he had received the parents’ consent; another refused on the grounds of his religion. While these teachers are being deprived of their right to work thanks to a pronoun, the trans charity Mermaids is being called to account...
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