What kids in school should learn about............
We ALL have our opinions. My experiences in school (ages ago) leads me to believe we should let it all out there. But apparently I am in the minority.
Teachers, parents say kids should learn about racism. Sexuality much more divisive.
Activists have engaged in fierce debates in recent years over what kids should learn about race, sexual orientation and gender identity.
A new report from the Pew Research Center shows that while the majority of teachers, students and parents believe it's important to discuss racism in school, their opinions on other "culture war" subjects are mixed. Namely, there's a great divide over whether LGBTQ-related discussions have a place in the classroom.
Half of teachers, for example, say students should not learn about gender identity in school, including nearly 2 in 3 elementary educators. Teens are also split about whether such discussions should take place in the classroom: About a third say the topic makes them uncomfortable.
While "culture war" topics are "lumped together" in national conversations, teachers, students and other Americans tend to see these issues as separate, said Juliana Horowitz, associate director of research at Pew.
Most teachers and members of the general public said parents should not be able to opt their kids out of race-related lessons even if that instruction conflicts with a family's viewpoint, Horowitz noted. But on lessons about sexual orientation or gender identity, roughly half of teachers and most Americans as a whole said parents should have opt-out rights.
One relatively common belief among participants, including those who are right- and left-leaning, was that the government has too much influence over curriculum and that the "culture wars" are harming teachers’ ability to do their jobs. Most teachers say that regardless of what the pundits may say, LGBTQ-related discussions seldom, if ever, come up in the classroom.
A minority of the teens surveyed in the Pew sample said they are comfortable discussing these controversial themes in school. Just 38% expressed comfort with instruction about racism or racial inequality, and an even smaller portion – 29% – said they're fine with discussions related to sexual orientation and gender identity.
One notable finding in the Pew study is how divided teens are – even more than teachers – in their stances on LGBTQ-related education. Close to half said they shouldn’t learn about gender identity in school. A quarter said they would rather learn that gender and sex at birth can be different, and 26% said they would rather learn that sex at birth determines gender.
“Teens are a lot more comfortable when topics related to racism or racial inequality come up” than when gender identity is discussed, Pew’s Horowitz said. “It may not even necessarily be a discomfort with the topic but perhaps it's a discomfort with the topic in the context of the classroom.”
The intense partisan disagreement on LGBTQ+ issues may help explain why so many teachers want such discussions to stay out of their classrooms.
Of the teachers in the Pew survey, 41% said these debates had a harmful effect on their jobs. Just a sliver said the impact was positive. The remainder of the educators were neutral.
Of course there will be this assumption that most of this disagreement is due to Republican views. However....................
Still, there are nuances. Fewer Democrats supported transgender inclusion in the curriculum compared with support for inclusion of other "culture war" topics and LGBTQ+ issues. For example, fewer than 2 in 3 supported using a student's chosen pronouns without asking the person's parents or discussing whether students ought to play on sports teams that match their gender identity.
Comments
Post a Comment