The other day I was listening to the news while driving my kids to the doctor’s office. Let’s not forget to mention that I was spiking a fever of over 101 and had not had a full night sleep in nearly a week and I had two sick kids in the car. I thought I was hallucinating what I was hearing until later that night I saw the same coverage.
A school district in Oakland, California has just launched its first teaching curriculum of “gender diversity” as early as Kindergarten. I went online and reviewed the curriculum. It was a bit puzzling the comparison of the animal kingdom (fish and reptiles) they used to make the point about “gender diversity”; none of it made sense to me. The reason those species change gender and/or transgender is to keep the species in existence. I don’t see how teaching that concept really reinforces pro-tolerance and ” human gender diversity”. That is like comparing apples to oranges. The reason people are gay or transgender has nothing to do with saving a species.
However, this segment is not about pro or against gender diversity; this is about our schools doing the jobs of what should be done at home and since it is not being done at home (by a very small minority),they are taking on the responsibility. The problem is that not only are they doing a poor job at taking on the job, they are losing sight that the Chinese are passing us by in the science and math department. So while they are going to space and forming new ground breaking patents we will be well versed in the ill-informed information on hermaphrodite amphibians.
Is spending the VERY limited resources we have on education, teaching “gender diversity” in the early elementary years really going to solve our problem of bullying, lack of tolerance and hate? The sad thing is we will never be able to eradicate that from the human race. Is this in the early classroom really going to set up our kids for success in competing with the dog eat dog socio-economic world? 
As you know I am not a fan of the Chinese government, they are not the beacon of good will and humanity towards mankind, but the one thing they understand is that knowledge and discipline is power. We have such a cutting edge on true balance of both discipline with good boundaries and good education, but we fail to no longer combine them and that is to our losing race to countries like China.
Kids no longer have a healthy respect and sovereign fear of their educators. Not because the educators have grown soft, but the educators are govern by out of touch legislation and administration that no longer allow the educator to hold true and meaningful consequences.
I have several friends that teach, and the number one complaint they all have is that they have a few in the class that are just rotten kids that make educating challenging and downright impossible. The good kids suffer, the bad kids win in ruling the classroom. The administration does not back them to get those few bad apples out of the mix, hold those parents responsible and get on with teaching the core subjects. Instead they throw a new “teaching curriculum” at them to try to intercept the ill-behavior of a few.
I will be teaching my children “gender diversity” when it is appropriate and I will be using a realistic approach instead of felt boards filled with hermaphrodite amphibians and reptiles to pled my case. I know that 99.9% of my friends and circle of influence will be doing the same. Early elementary years is not the place or forum. I expect my kids to be taught reading, writing, and arithmetic and be in a setting that reinforces respect for authority figures.
It appears my choice to be sending my kids to Catholic school (even if it means I have to work two jobs to do it) will be in the cards for our family and we are not even Catholic. It is known the Catholic school system knows how to produce competing test scores, reinforce respect and moral code, and demand parent involvement on a budget grossly less than what the public schools require.
Come on America, let’s get involved on the future of our kid’s education and support the educators do what they went to school to do; teach these kids how to achieve academic greatness! Especially since we are paying for it greatly in both tax dollars and competing with the rest of the world for economic security.
A Piece of the Pie Hole 
It does not belong in the schools. A Christian Fundamentalist or a Gay Rights advocate cannot possibly be neutral or not have their presentations flavored byt deeply held beliefs. Then there is the 3-Day training workshops that cost the kids instruction days and the system million$ for substitutes. You lose more instruction time because just a three day absence means you have to train the class how to act all over again. Multiculturalism? Miami is not Cornfield, Indiana with its 6 Black residents, the Chinese family that own the nail shop- take out food-laundry business an the 3 Mexican landscapers. Anglo and Jew make up 10% of the population and all the rest are African American, Caribbean Black or Hispanic. What the hey are we going to teach about race and cultures that they don’t already know? Miami probably has more interracial marriages than any part of the country. They took religion out of the schools and this agenda does not belong in the schools infringing on parental right and choice. I have news for you. I spent 33 years as 11th grade high school history teacher and these kids today are already hip to all this stuff by age 10. I could write 900 million pages here, but it is your blog not mine.
Amen and Amen Carl… and you can write to the eons on my blog if you want! 🙂
There were a couple spelling mistakes in here, which I’m sure you wouldn’t have made if you had had diversity training back in kindergarten. This blogpost could be construed to be offensive to Chinese gay transgendered frogs, so I am looking into suing you on their behalf.
Oh, and I totally agree with you and am glad you are feeling better.
Well, I better get my apology in cue to the Chinese gay transgender frogs. I think PETA will make sure they have more rights and funding than the actual Chinese gay transgender human. 🙂 Thanks!
Don’t get me started on education, bad for the blood pressure. So much easier to introduce complexity than to exercise the skill, and just teach. So stupid to expect teachers to ‘parent’ their pupils. But parenting classes may be a good idea for many parents who will not actually do the job of bringing up children. Must stop, quick, before I get going!
I totally take all of your points; as a mother of an 8 and an 11-year-old, both of whom are reserved, “good” students, it hurts my heart to know that their non-aggressive behavior means they get overlooked more often than not…and through no fault of the teacher’s. However, for me, my objections to the tenets of Catholicism would make sending them to a parochial school untenable. We we read a lot at our house, and we talk a lot, and I absolutely don’t shield them from my opinions about what goes on in their classrooms. And then we all get dressed up in feather boas and platform heels.
Wait. Not that last part.