France has announced that inclusive writing is banned in schools as it harms the learning of French language. The Education Minister of the country Jean-Michel Blanquer ordered the schools to ban inclusive language in schools because it can be proved harmful for the minds of the learners and they can get things in negative perspective. It is aimed to cut out the midpoints that provide the words with masculine and feminine ending. Nouns reflecting the gender of the object in French language and usually, masculine ending are more visible in French.
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Inclusive Writing:
Every object in French language has a gender for masculine or feminine aspect. Unlike English language, in which neutral expressions can be used such as: instead of saying fireman, the word firefighter can be used because fireman shows the masculine factor while ‘firefighter’ is neutral and shows that the firefighter can be a male or a female. This type of writing in which a certain gender is shown through words, is called inclusive writing.
As per the order sent to French Schools by French Education Minister, the inclusive writing must be avoided in the schools because it has specific midpoints that violate the rules of equality when it comes to usage of language. Let’s have a look at some aspects of inclusive writing that need to be avoided in a classroom.
Gender:
Gender must not be a reason to discriminate the students in classroom. Also, these students must be taught that they have to use neutral expressions in their language instead of hitting a particular gender biased aspect. That’s why, inclusive writing is not preferred in French classrooms because it signifies the gender and makes the meaning changed and with specific sense of gender discrimination when students use it for their peers.
Students with Disabilities:
Ban on inclusive writing aims to avoid any distinction between minorities or people with disabilities. For example, the students who have certain learning disabilities like auditory processing disorder, can be affected when they can’t go on the same road of syllabus with their fellows regardless of what procedures and practices are to be followed to help them out to rise up in their learning needs that can help them to meet their fellows. In this case, the student who struggles may be placed in an environment that is least restrictive.
This environment can be a place where he or she is placed outside of the classroom in order to gain the skills that they need because they lack those skills, and their fellows have those skills in the typical classroom environment. Every student, regardless of a learning disability or a full mental health, is unique and important and doesn’t deserve to be placed in a below grade group or in such environment that doesn’t allow such student to cope with the skills which must be known. These students don’t deserve to be outside the classroom just because they have not got the mastery over algebra by the correct grade.
Age:
According to a dissertation help firm, inclusive writing has the factor of ageism in it. For example, people with growing age are entitled with certain names and titles that are given to them by the society. Such as for showing aging factor in general, when the term an Old Man is used. This term has two factors that address the idea of inclusive language. First: it has masculine factor that is ‘man’, secondly, it hits the mind with word ‘old’. More appropriate words can be used than this. Such as elder person, senior citizen, or aging person, etc.
Race and Ethnicity:
Inclusive language has the factors of race and ethnicity that require extra attention and mindful words when there is a discussion going on among people who belong to different ethnic groups. Stereotyping people on the basis of skin color, race and other sensitive aspects must be avoided in general and specific environment because they give a rise to discriminative aspects that include prejudice and violence too.
As gender and disability are the factors that must be avoided in the institutions, ethnic and racial identities also need to be removed from a classrooms environment because there are students with different ethnic background in a class and it affects their minds when they are being discriminated on the basis of racial or ethnic features.
Religion:
Religion is one important aspect that must be avoided to discuss in the classroom of children who don’t really have a strong and groomed mental capacity to talk about the sensitive matters like religion. There can be students belonging to different religions in one classroom. So, it’s better to avoid inclusive writing and language to prevent the whole environment from any harmful debate. The students should be taught not to violate the basic human right of any fellow by showing disgrace to their religion through their language. The students should be taught to respect each other’s religion by not including any specific religious title for their fellow students when they are writing something. Instead, there must be a practice of using neutral words.
Class:
In a classroom setting, there is an utmost need of being careful when it comes to social and economic class of the students. This behavior in which people are being discriminated on the basic of economic and social classes is called as classism. It must be avoided in institutes to maintain peace and respect of each student. It must be taught to the students that mentioning and hitting someone’s class to make them feel embarrassed in the classroom must be avoided. This factor makes inclusive writing a sensitive issue for most of the students.
Instead of saying a person “poor”, the word “needy” can be used. Such practices should be done in a classroom to make the students learn about how they can avoid inclusive writing and use more appropriate words instead of hitting a particular class. There are multiple factors in inclusive writing and learning that make it a sensitive factor for the learning of young students. That’s why it has been banned in French schools to avoid any critical situation in which students feel embarrassed or humiliated with words and gestures.
