Put your dolly down, we need to talk...

There's a story of a nursery school (note that - nursery school) in London where would-be pupils must sign (again I stress, this is a nursery - 3 and 4-year-olds) a document promising not to use racist or homophobic or transphobic language in school.  So, two things - do the school powers-that-be really think children of that age are capable of understanding such concepts?  As one mother put it "How am I meant to explain to my three-year-old that he must sign on the dotted line not to do something which he is not even aware exists when he can barely hold a crayon?" Crazy, yes??  But I have another issue which goes beyond the stupidity of this particular school, and it's this use of the suffix "-phobia" to mean something which it doesn't mean.  Phobia is the fear of something whereas its use in words like "homophobia" has little or nothing to do with fear, but is meant to indicate dislike or even hatred.  Sloppy use of language, and given that "homo" means "same" (see 10/1/07) if homophobia means anything at all it means - fear of the same.  And where the hell did "transphobia" come from? Fear of the beyond??  Is this simply a case of disguising a shameful and unpleasant concept behind impenetrable language?