"Don't Say Gay" bill... Should lessons on sexual orientation be restricted in schools?

[AgnosticBoy]

Should school children be learning about sexual orientation at an early age?

Found an interesting article that offers some of the thoughts from Conservatives on this issue. It's a Washington Post article:

Last month, Florida lawmakers passed a bill forbidding educators from offering instruction “on sexual orientation or gender identity … in kindergarten through grade 3.” Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill into law on March 28.

“The bill that liberals inaccurately call ‘Don’t Say Gay’ would be more accurately described as an Anti-Grooming Bill,” DeSantis’s spokeswoman Christina Pushaw tweeted March 4. In response to questions from The Washington Post, she elaborated: “Those who read the bill and decide they do support teaching kindergartners about sexuality and gender transition may or may not be trying to exploit children themselves — but by sexualizing young kids and normalizing sexual conversations between adults and children, they are contributing to an environment that endangers children by exposing them to inappropriate content while eroding parental rights.”

“But I want to put that back on educators,” she said. “You prove to me that won’t happen, and you prove it to me through studies — prove that what you’re doing won’t harm children.”

Learning, too, about what it means to be gay or transgender can help children understand how to treat those different from them, curtailing bullying down the road. Lesbian, gay and bisexual teens reported being bullied at twice the rate of their straight peers and were three times as likely to contemplate suicide, according to a 2019 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some mainstream Republican activists and strategists say the intent of legislation like the Florida bill is to restore power to parents who should rightfully control when and what their children learn about these sensitive, complicated and controversial topics.

Parents “are saying, ‘Wait a minute, how did schools start talking about gender identity to first-graders anyway?’ ” Hess said. “ ‘Wait a minute, when did anybody ask us if we wanted children in grades K through 3 to be taught about gender fluidity? We never discussed it!’”

Conservative parents say they have lost trust that trained educators in the public school system can teach about sex and gender in an evenhanded, nonideological way — and some say they do not think educators should be addressing the topics at all.

“We heard of a principal telling a transgender teen that they can’t talk about being trans even privately to friends while on campus,” said Nadine Smith, director of the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Florida. Her organization has been flooded with calls from school administrators, teachers, parents and students who are confused and concerned about the effects of the bill, she said.

My problem with the Conservative position, or the perception of it, is that almost the mere mention of anything LGBTQ+ related is considered bad for kids. The way I see it is if you're just seeking to inform by just teaching the facts and nothing more, then there is no harm to kids. The one thing I can agree on with Conservatives is that we need to watch for how we teach our kids. GRooming and/or pushing/promoting the LGBTQ+ lifestyle (or any other lifestyle or ideology, for that matter) can creep into schools. I encountered it in college when an atheist philosophy protestor would constantly bash Christianity as much as he could. I just disagree with Republicans if they are trying to censor even the subject matter, regardless of how it is taught.

Now if you have a teacher going further than just teaching the facts and has boys trying on skirts and make-up, esp. w/out first notifying parents, then I would question that.

If there's any concern I have about the Democrat side is that they seem to not consider how something is taught, as if things can be taught in just any way. I'd want to see where they have put in any standards for how these matters should be taught. Certainly, not letting parents know about some of the subject matter being taught and how its being taught is not a good start and is perhaps one reason why Virginia Democrat Terry McAuliffe lost the governor's race. It's synonymous with how they aren't clear on when they would be against abortion which then gives the impression that they would be for it at any point, even late term. Democrats need to communicate more on where to draw the line on how these subjects should be taught.


My ideal standard here would be for all teachers to teach all subject matters in a non-ideological way. Just stick to facts on any subject matter!

 

[AgnosticBoy]

CNN —
A new bill overhauling Florida universities to match Gov. Ron DeSantis’ vision for higher education would shift power at state schools into the hands of the Republican leader’s political appointees and ban gender studies as a field of study.

The bill makes good on DeSantis’ pledge to ban colleges and universities from any expenditures on diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs. In a news conference earlier this month, DeSantis, who is weighing a 2024 presidential bid, said such programs create an “ideological filter,” and his office described them as “discriminatory.”

The legislation, filed this week, would also require that general education courses at state colleges and universities “promote the values necessary to preserve the constitutional republic” and cannot define American history “as contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.” It would prohibit general courses “with a curriculum based on unproven, theoretical or exploratory content.”

Source: CNN

I mainly wanted to focus on that last part. I think that move by Governor DeSantis is too restrictive. I've tried to be on the side of teaching anything, with consideration of how it is taught. For instance, if 'critical race theory' is based on "unproven, theoretical or exploratory content", then just teach it while letting the students know that it's only a theory. Let it be clearly known to everyone the parts that are facts and those that are false and/or unproven.

Of course, we'd have to determine which theory gets to be taught because everyone has their own theories. I would imagine that theories that are taken seriously by experts in the field should be taught. I've been taking some courses in psychology, and there are plenty of unproven theories that are taught, like on consciousness, personality, etc. Not sure, why DeSantis isn't going after those or at least why he won't allow it to be taught even as a theory.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

An example of Florida's policy about sexuality in the classroom gone too far:

A Florida teacher says she is now under investigation after showing her fifth-grade class a Disney movie that includes a gay character.

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, Jenna Barbee said a school board member and parents reported her to the Florida Department of Education for showing students the movie "Strange World."

Barbee, who works at Winding Waters K-8, said the movie tied in with her "Earth Science" class and had no sexually inappropriate content.

Karen Jordan, a spokesperson for Hernando County Schools, provided a statement that was released to parents:

“Yesterday, the Disney movie ‘Strange World’ was shown in your child’s classroom,” the school district said. “While not the main plot of the movie, parts of the story involves a male character having and expressing feelings for another male character. In the future, this movie will not be shown. The school administration and the district’s Professional Standards Dept is currently reviewing the matter to see if further corrective action is required.”

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/f...p&cvid=64dc128cf51f4fbb8d577205ab8ce99e&ei=16

I doubt there would be the same reaction if it was a heterosexual male "having and expressing feelings" for a female character. And I totally understand the Republican side in that it's possible for some teachers to try to indoctrinate kids, but that is not the case here, or it's certainly a bad standard that would leave any mention of the word gay as being a bad thing.