$29.95
With an ever-increasing presence of transgender students, schools have nowhere to turn for guidance amidst present-day controversies while parents of gender-diverse children often feel thrust into an adversarial position. This book masterfully cuts through misinformation and distractions to get at the only issues that truly matter—ensuring ALL children have a safe, welcoming learning environment.
Trans Children in Today’s Schools (TCTS) takes readers beyond the unproductive and polarizing debates surrounding bathroom/locker room usage, sports team participation, and perceived safety concerns to instead consider the factors that contribute to this contention in the first place. TCTS cuts through the misinformation and distractions to get at the only issues that truly matter – ensuring children, ALL children – can count on a safe and welcoming learning environment.
Author Aidan Key explores the barriers encountered by schools as they attempt to create gender-inclusive environments, including the resistance of a misinformed society whose only framework of gender is one rigidly set in an only-male/only-female context.
Readers will come away with manageable, step-by-step pathways to support and include trans youth in our schools and communities. The book places these ideas – and the youth who embody them – in context within a society whose understanding and expectations of gender norms are at the brink of a paradigm shift.
Reviews & Testimonials
“A comprehensive look at gender-diverse youth in the classroom. As the transgender student population continues to become more widely visible, navigation tools have become critical for educators and parents alike, notes Key, a veteran gender diversity educator. While written with parents of trans+ children in mind, the book is primarily directed at teachers, administrators, and school staff who directly impact students’ lives on a daily basis. Key shows readers what is involved when a child considers a gender transition process, and he confronts the challenges of gender inclusion, which may be a new topic for some readers. Particularly striking are the stories from parents of trans+ students who are managing the stages of their own apprehension alongside those of their child.”
Kirkus Reviews, Read the full review
“Aidan Key has written about the trans experience with profound compassion, not only for trans kids, but also for the families and schools that struggle to accept and support them. Detractors have often accused the movement for trans rights of being somehow immoral, but this book is written with such generosity of spirit and such irrefutable logic that it would be hard to take against it even if you were uncomfortable with or outraged about trans kids. And if you were already sympathetic to their experiences, this book would show you how to turn that sympathy into authentic support. Key’s invaluable words should calm down the hysteria around a phenomenon that he reveals as a beautiful, rich component of human diversity.”
Andrew Solomon, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Columbia University and author, Far from the Tree
“TRANS CHILDREN IN TODAY’S SCHOOLS is an urgently necessary guidebook to the ins and outs of teaching, parenting, understanding, and supporting trans kids as well as their classmates, families, communities, and schools. Thankfully, in contrast to that urgency, Aidan Key writes with his trademark balance of knowledge, experience, confidence, and calm. This book serves as an introduction and a guide but mostly as an even keel. Via lived and witnessed experience, hundreds of stories from a wide range of families, professional expertise, well-documented research, and the unwavering assurance that trans children — and by extension all children — can thrive, TRANS CHILDREN IN TODAY’S SCHOOLS is practical and informative on its way to reassuring, inspiring, and empowering.”
Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is
“In Trans Children in Today’s Schools, Aidan Key brilliantly does what many think is impossible – he breaks down the ever-changing and politically-charged world of gender and children in a manner that is simultaneously accessible and profound. In easy-to-understand prose, Trans Children in Today’s Schools explains how to forge through difficult conversations regarding gender diversity to ensure that all children, not just trans kids, feel at home in our classrooms. Whether you are a parent, teacher, principal, or none of the above, Aidan Key provides the answers to those questions you’ve always wondered about, but never knew who to ask.”
Dr. Kristina Olson, Professor of Psychology, Princeton University
“This book is a priceless and long overdue resource for any educator looking to better understand the experience of transgender and gender diverse youth in schools. Key’s clarity, depth of knowledge and attuned insight make this text comprehensive in scope and accessible in practice – a must read for all!”
Benjamin Davis, ATR-BC, LCAT, Director, Full Spectrum Creative Arts Therapy, co-author of Gender: What Everyone Needs to Know
“Every student needs a safe, affirming learning space to fully experience the transformational power of education. Achieving this space requires us to recognize the needs of trans students and commit to their inclusion. As we consider our educational future, we can greatly benefit from Aidan Key’s compassionate approach and resolute commitment to trans and nonbinary student inclusion. His words show us how to achieve this future – a future where each and every student feels seen, heard, and affirmed. This is needed now more than ever. Trans Children in Today’s Schools is a must-read for those committed to the catalyzing change needed to achieve authentically inclusive learning spaces.”
Dr. Michelle C Reid, AASA National Superintendent of the Year 2021