Clarissa's Blog

An OSPI document explaining the health standards says students can be taught in kindergarten and first grade that “there are many ways to express gender.” … In fourth grade, when children are typically 10 years old, the guidelines say students should learn the definition of sexual orientation and more. From there, the standards recommend discussion of cultural influences on gender identity and eventually ramp up to more in-depth lessons on biological sex, gender identity, sexual orientation and more.

Of course, I’d prefer that students learned what Africa is and how to find it on a map, what countries share a border with the US, who Hitler was and that he’s dead (there’s nothing like delivering the news of Hitler’s demise to a group of stunned college students, believe me). But no, there’s no time for this arcane, trivial information. Let’s teach about the many ways of using nail polish instead.