Teacher was fired for refusing to call children by their preferred pronouns

[Maxmars]

As much as some would like teachers to teach the curriculum and stick to the three “Rs” as it were, there is a lot more going on in K-12 schools than just the lessons and only someone with a limited black and white understanding of the world would fail to see that.

There is no more crucial time in our lives learning about socialization, the development of our personalities and for gaining our own sense of agency and identity to carry us into our adult lives. How we learn to interact with others and the world and establish our place within it is an inherent part of our school years so to discount these factors as being irrelevant as a part of the educational process would be shortsighted if not foolhardy.

In my opinion if the kids are gender variant or transgender and are known by others and their family a certain way, that this should be respected when politely asked without being a dick about it or trying to make a point. I know from my dealings with trans youth, decades of researching into the subject and from personal experiences that when a teacher acknowledges a student’s identity without trying to make it a political or ideological battleground, it can go a long way toward facilitating the actual learning process and curriculum.

PS
I like the little rainbow reputation thing in the profile of mods and admins. Is this for pride month? LOL

I find your position quite reasonable.  (And I apologize if I sounded a bit more harsh that I intended.)  What follows is my position, hopefully less abrasively.

Truthfully, socialization is something organic that happens separately from the school tasks at hand... (which is learning, participating in teacher-supervised study, and time which is to be specifically structured for that end.)  Young people (children) "socialize" on their own, in their own time, and under their own spectrum of identity.  I don't believe that teachers should posture or negotiate their relationships to include anything outside what they are tasked with accomplishing.

Unlike you, I think the most crucial time for socialization is before school age... that's where the foundation of cooperation, respect, and dignity are planted in a person..

I understand and can sympathize with the idea that teachers should and usually do have personal relationships with their students, and I admit that my preference is that it be with all their students at the same time... not intimately delving into an individual students' own personal life... (of course, there are to be exceptions in some emergent cases which can and do come up in certain situations.) 

I don't deny that there can be no absolutes, but that fact does not mean there are no boundaries.  Engaging in 'ideation of social identity,' purposefully and unilaterally inserted into the relationship is outside the mandate of "teaching"... especially if it means the teacher then becomes the responsible party for that student... and their image "identity."

It troubles me that this teacher is vilified and had their livelihood ended over a student's whining about their sexualized identity-fantasy not being bolstered by someone who shouldn't have to care about it. 

Teachers haven't traditionally 'socialized' with their students.  School was never before overtly about 'socialization,' socialization happened because it had to, it was part of growing up and experiencing a world in which you are not in control, not "at home." 

A students identity was an aspect of it, but not it's center... because the big lessons were "it's not all about me," and "there are other people in the world and we're not all alike."  Teachers didn't have to "teach" that lesson... the students learned that on their own, they taught each other... And the teachers never were to be cheerleaders for confrontation, or grandstanding, as many seem to be reflected in the media now.

I suspect that 'activist journalism' in in part responsible for the growing perception that teachers are championing this social behavior... when in fact it is just some teachers... the one's getting the press coverage for a "newsworthy' story.  But then 'activism' has become a problem as it is being done for glory and cash all over the place now.