Australia, explain yourself.

[magetoo]

This can't be true, surely?

No, it's not true.  The part about the new pronoun is - we already had the indefinite(?) pronoun "den" for someone in general (similar in flavor to "they" in English) - and some people are trying to get people to use "hen" as the corresponding more specific form.  Sorry about messing up the terminology, but I'm sure people here get the general idea.

It's not a government initiative as far as I know, just linguists/activists/etc.  Not a terrible idea either in principle and some other languages have a word like it, but it just feels off; it stands out and looks awkward whenever I see it in print.

Most people seem to think the same, judging by how rarely you see it used.

[FuzzyOnion]

Sounds like the school has ASD students who are particularly noise sensitive and they are doing a small thing to help them. 

I don't want to be a dick here because I have Autistic family and work with the same, but this does vary a lot, some ASD kids wander around clapping all day, some only react to entirely unexpected noise.

Had the school stated this was the reason, then maybe OK, but really they just wanted to accommodate a single teacher.

SJW safe space terminology

Exactly, this is why decisions like this are dangerous,
If we accommodate an individual by changing the behaviour of the majority, we are distorting how things happen in real life and thus the development of any coping mechanisms.

This is then one step away from changing the behaviour of the majority because someone is "offended".
Behind issues like these is a cynical political theory that actively seeks to create victims out of these individuals - which then requires the State to protect them via legislation - this then becomes an over reach of State authority and a co-dependence on that State.
Nobody gains political power by staying out of your life, they do it by becoming a symbiotic part of it

It might superficially look to be progressive, but really idiocy like this is only empowering a mass of useful idiots and creating Generation Snowflake.

Well said.  Here in the US, it seems that you hear on the news that one group or another has to be protected.  What I find alarming is the closed-minded, "no one's allowed to say anything that might offend one person" attitude at colleges and universities.  These used to be the bastions of free thinkers and expression.
But I'm old and probably in the way.

[apis]

What is ridiculous and a troubling sign of the time we live in, is a shit-storm on an internet forum about electronics because somewhere in the world there was a school that made a decision that didn't sound all that great (I don't know anything about it so don't have an opinion). It's not the first time something like this happens and will not be the last one but things like this didn't use to make headlines in media outside the local town.

[MT]

Yes indeed! here is the new sign for it!

I meant the constitution thing.

I did manage to get you "mind bent" a bit there..    
The hideous irony with "hen" it's not gender neutral, but one must not forget who it was behind the promotion of it. (leftist, communists and feminists).

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

What is so hard about not clapping at assembly?
Is it Ok to clap on Anzac Day, or in a quiet carriage on a suburban train?

Ridiculous analogy.
People do clap at assembly, it's one of the things you do at assemblies, they don't clap at those other events because it's not appropriate
Now hundreds of people have to stop what was an ordinary, regular, and expected event just because one person can't deal with their issue some other way.

It's like I stop saying something or stop doing a regular thing in a video because one viewer has a problem with it, so everyone else has to miss out.

They're not analogies they're questions.
But ok you get to where I was going. When and where is behaviour appropriate?
My view is let the people who are actually involved decide this.
Sure it's fine to be critical of what they decided, but maybe we should behave appropriately too.

a. Get your facts right before you pass judgement.
b. Don't be rude if you don't have to.
c. Admit you were wrong if you did criticise these people without actually knowing what they did, or bothering to find their side of the story.
d. Suggest a better resolution to the issue, sure do nothing was probably the best option in this case.

ps. I guess why I am arcing up about this small issue is that I have had to sit through quite a few primary school assemblies in the past 10 years. This is at a school that sounds quite similar to this one.
The teachers there are nice, the people in the PC are nice though I never went to a meeting, the kids are not kowtowed, they are full of life and verve and it is a pleasure to here the sounds of them playing whenever I go there.
IMO overall they are doing a great job, though sometimes things do sound a little strange.

In this particular situation, my guess is that the assembly hall is also a basket court/gym with hard surfaces and a painful sound resonance, so trying to keep the kids relatively quiet for the duration is in the majority's interest.

[Delta]

If you have a medical condition that causes relatively loud noises to cause you discomfort, other than possibly becoming a pneumatic drill operator (or maybe working at a rifle range), I can't think of many less suitable professions than teaching...

[EEVblog]

Pah, Glasgow has been using "hen" for decades!
It's not a gender neutral term though...

No kidding, by definition it implies female.

[EEVblog]

In this particular situation, my guess is that the assembly hall is also a basket court/gym with hard surfaces and a painful sound resonance, so trying to keep the kids relatively quiet for the duration is in the majority's interest.

Rubbish, it's pandering to the one person who has an issue with it.
Applause happens at assemblies, has done since recorded history.
If that causes you distress then you need to take appropriate action to prevent that distress to yourself. What you shouldn't do is ask everyone else to stop or modify their age old behaviour just for you.

Let's say I have photophobia (light sensitivity), would it be sensible of me to ask them to dim the assembly hall lights just for me?, or should I deal with it myself and put sunglasses on or something?

BTW, I had this once in a boxing class at the gym. Some new person joins the class and half way through asks me to stop punching my partners pads hard because it hurts her ears. A boxing class 
Guess my response.

[Assafl]

The I-deserve (entitlement) crowd and their do-gooder benefactors have a need to apply their will on their environments. It is a psychological need of theirs that they cannot control and therefore will be alien to many (especially the liberal and libertarian crowd).

Once we took away their control of their neighbors' sex life and food habits they came back with political correctness. It is their way of coping with reality. As a sensible lot perhaps we created political correctness as a way to assuage their appetite for control (at least those that won't see a shrink) - one that we look as if we suffer but instead just stare with disbelief (and suffer silently - at home admitting to our kids that the world is sometimes crazy).

(BTW - in some parts of the world the fight for sex and food is still very well still happening; even in the USA the Creationist Movement is using postmodern repositioning techniques to try to get back medieval control of food and sex - luckily it backfired on them bigtime with Gay Civil Rights I assume mainly due to Hollywood screenwriters).   

[Marco]

“Instead of clapping, the students are free to punch the air, pull excited faces and wriggle about on the spot."

This is so schizoid, the higher social ability children won't have a problem with this ... they can adapt and leave the madness of their teachers at the school gate. Lower ability children will be taught methods of behavior which makes them stand out as abnormal in normal society though.

[Brumby]

Therein lies a fundamental issue...

Is school really preparing students for the outside world ...?

[Assafl]

Therein lies a fundamental issue...

Is school really preparing students for the outside world ...?

FWIW - It only takes one caring teacher, one teacher that can connect with a school kid to change their course of life. Sure not every kid finds that teacher that cares deeply - and that they can look up to - but for many they do. I am sure many here can point to one or two or three teachers that helped them set course and sally forth.

IMHO - that is a vastly good reason for schools to exist - and even take the envied 2-3-4 place in public spending (after healthcare/defense/food). And probably the only place left where public dollars get spent on the future.

As for absurdities like clapping hands? that is part of modern society. Not just schools. One can be the kindest and liberal person but kids HAVE TO LEARN that the illiteracy of choosing politically incorrect terms will label them as a misogynistic, homophobic, insensitive, racist and other such labels. PC is the Postmodern measure of intolerance. Sasha Baron Cohen (as Borat and others) does a good job of exposing this postmodern duality of intolerance and pseudo-openness. It has nothing to do with schools.   

[rolycat]

No one outside Australia will get that 

Some UK papers seem to be aware of the delightful Pauline Hanson. When she threatened to move to Britain in 2010 the Daily Telegraph mentioned that "in 1996 she notoriously asked a journalist to "please explain" when asked if she was xenophobic".

[DTJ]

No one outside Australia will get that 

Some UK papers seem to be aware of the delightful Pauline Hanson. When she threatened to move to Britain in 2010 the Daily Telegraph mentioned that "in 1996 she notoriously asked a journalist to "please explain" when asked if she was xenophobic".

Credit where due, prior to this public incident I'm pretty sure the vast majority of folk didn't know (or care) what xenophobic meant.

Even now years later the word is only used when taking the pi55 out of Pauline Hanson.

[MT]

Therein lies a fundamental issue...
Is school really preparing students for the outside world ...?

During childhood years youngster are taught to be nice and kind to fellow homosapien, then they get conscripted at 18/21 and are teached to kill on order. Schizophrenic upbringing?

[vk6zgo]

In this particular situation, my guess is that the assembly hall is also a basket court/gym with hard surfaces and a painful sound resonance, so trying to keep the kids relatively quiet for the duration is in the majority's interest.

Rubbish, it's pandering to the one person who has an issue with it.
Applause happens at assemblies, has done since recorded history.

Not really,Dave----when I went to school.the default condition for students was to "Siddown & Shuddup!
But then again school assemblies were fairly rare.unlike these PC days when Teachers want to be kid's buddies!

[Zero999]

I agree that school should prepare children for the real world.

My nephew has ASD and if he has any problems with being in a room, full of people clapping, then I hope the school can help him to overcome it. If it proves that difficult for him to cope in such an environment then perhaps a special school would be more appropriate?

And an all girls school banning gender related language? That's just stupid. The idea of single sex schools is itself gender discrimination.  What happens if one of their students is transgender and wants to be a boy at an all girls school? I don't think they'd allow that. Perhaps they should start accepting boys as well?

[Brumby]

The idea of single sex schools is itself gender discrimination.  What happens if one of their students is transgender and wants to be a boy at an all girls school? I don't think they'd allow that. Perhaps they should start accepting boys as well?

Interesting thought ... what would happen if an enrolled student were to have gender reassignment?  Would they be expelled?

[DTJ]

The idea of single sex schools is itself gender discrimination.  What happens if one of their students is transgender and wants to be a boy at an all girls school? I don't think they'd allow that. Perhaps they should start accepting boys as well?

Interesting thought ... what would happen if an enrolled student were to have gender reassignment?  Would they be expelled?

Who knows!

If it was at a girls school at least they'd know who left the toilet seat up.