I genuinely would like to hear about what we should do so that trans kids don't have a worse experience in schools than cis kids. Or the fact that people learn about Sundown towns and the Tulsa Massacre when HBO makes a show about it.
I'm not of the opinion that we need to bring Kimberle Crenshaw and Judith Butler to 3rd grade but it …
I genuinely would like to hear about what we should do so that trans kids don't have a worse experience in schools than cis kids. Or the fact that people learn about Sundown towns and the Tulsa Massacre when HBO makes a show about it.
I'm not of the opinion that we need to bring Kimberle Crenshaw and Judith Butler to 3rd grade but it seems what we're doing isn't working. And like so many of he left side critics of this that aren't more radical than me are making much more political arguments than policy ones.
I think there are ways to have a welcoming and inclusive learning environment without having explicit lessons or curriculum items on these issues. I don’t think schools should tolerate bullying of any kind and they currently don’t (at least in policy). And things like the Tulsa Massacre can be incorporated in history curriculum. I agree lots of US history is glossed over or ignored, but you can’t learn about everything in school. What you need to do is foster the curiosity in kids so they continue learning outside of school. Not everything has to be taught to children in a school.
I also think people on both sides overestimate how much school and teachers have an influence on what people will believe growing up. Plenty of people grew up hearing about creationism and they don’t believe it now and even at the time knew it was silly. I didn’t grow up learning anything about trans issues but I’m not anti-trans. Kids learn by example and observing the world. We have far more representation of previously underrepresented voices and kids will notice that subconsciously and if parents and adults around them treat those people with respect then children will learn to as well. Just like children observe and internalize prejudicial acts they also do the same for the opposite.
I used to be a high school English teacher. The idea that we could indoctrinate kids always makes me laugh- like, yeah right, like the students really even care about such abstract things, and the idea that teachers are charismatic enough to convince them to care is even more laughable.
I genuinely would like to hear about what we should do so that trans kids don't have a worse experience in schools than cis kids. Or the fact that people learn about Sundown towns and the Tulsa Massacre when HBO makes a show about it.
I'm not of the opinion that we need to bring Kimberle Crenshaw and Judith Butler to 3rd grade but it seems what we're doing isn't working. And like so many of he left side critics of this that aren't more radical than me are making much more political arguments than policy ones.
I think there are ways to have a welcoming and inclusive learning environment without having explicit lessons or curriculum items on these issues. I don’t think schools should tolerate bullying of any kind and they currently don’t (at least in policy). And things like the Tulsa Massacre can be incorporated in history curriculum. I agree lots of US history is glossed over or ignored, but you can’t learn about everything in school. What you need to do is foster the curiosity in kids so they continue learning outside of school. Not everything has to be taught to children in a school.
I also think people on both sides overestimate how much school and teachers have an influence on what people will believe growing up. Plenty of people grew up hearing about creationism and they don’t believe it now and even at the time knew it was silly. I didn’t grow up learning anything about trans issues but I’m not anti-trans. Kids learn by example and observing the world. We have far more representation of previously underrepresented voices and kids will notice that subconsciously and if parents and adults around them treat those people with respect then children will learn to as well. Just like children observe and internalize prejudicial acts they also do the same for the opposite.
I used to be a high school English teacher. The idea that we could indoctrinate kids always makes me laugh- like, yeah right, like the students really even care about such abstract things, and the idea that teachers are charismatic enough to convince them to care is even more laughable.