Washington State to Teach Kindergartners “Many Ways to Express Gender”

Washington State to Teach Kindergartners “Many Ways to Express Gender”

For most people, kindergarten is a time to learn how to count up to a hundred and spell your name. A recent addition to the Washington State Learning Standards for Health and Physical Education, however, is encouraging educators to teach the state’s youngest students about more than their ABC’s, providing new guidelines on instructing students about gender identity beginning in kindergarten. According to a report on MyNorthwest.com, “The state guidelines, which will go into effect in the 2017-2018 school year, have kindergartners learning that there are different ways people express gender. By fourth grade, they would learn to define sexual orientation. By the time they graduate, they would be able to evaluate how culture, media and society influence gender roles.” Parents like Vashti Makupson are not enthused by this addition to the state standards, telling The New Guard:

“As a parent this makes me feel uncomfortable because of the fact that children’s minds are impressionable, they are trying to figure out their own identity and shouldn’t be pressured to adopt a view that society forces on them. Why are we not equipping teachers to identify, support and encourage those who are struggling? Being male is not bad, being female is not bad. We should be equipping teachers not brainwashing generations of children.”

Upon being contacted by The New Guard, a communications spokesman for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction confirmed that parents will be able to opt their children out of the lessons. Check out this unbelievable screenshot of the guidelines from the state’s website below: Vashti Makupson told The New Guard, “[Students] go to school to learn academics, not for social and political agendas to be forced upon them.”