By Mark Spooner

The Fairfax County FLECAC (“Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee”) was asked by this year’s School Board to “explore instruction on gender identity in elementary school.”  There was little doubt from the outset where the “exploration” would lead because, as reported previously, FLECAC’s membership in recent years has consistently pushed controversial, “progressive” proposals.

FLECAC meetings are open to the public, and although they are infrequently attended by outsiders, Fairfax Schools Monitor has been attending this year’s sessions and has been studying the committee’s proposals.

The October, November and December Meetings

At the first FLECAC meetings in October and November, every speaker favored lessons on transgenderism in elementary grades.  Some comments were extreme.  For example, when a document was distributed showing that other Virginia school districts wait until middle- or high-school to broach this subject, one committee member asserted that this was a reason why FCPS should do so in elementary grades; his reasoning was that this would demonstrate “leadership,” thereby suggesting that being out of touch with accepted norms is a virtue.  No one spoke in disagreement.  Another speaker advocated that gender identity be explored as early as Grade 1.  Another said that any such teaching should expansively include “intersex” and other non-hetero-normative practices.  At the end of the November meeting, the committee voted 16-0 to develop specific proposals.

At the December meeting, the committee’s chairperson (Carrie Reynolds, a senior manager in FCPS’s Instructional Services Department) circulated a draft of what should be taught about gender and/or gender identity at each elementary grade level.  The proposal is HERE (the two right-hand columns on the chart indicate what would be added to the curriculum.)

The draft proposed that students would be taught in Grade 1 to discuss the ways in which people differ from one another, including “race, cultures and traditions, religions and dis/ability.”  Gender wasn’t specifically mentioned.  This was unacceptable to the committee.  They voted unanimously to add the word “gender” after the word “race.”  The addition of this word is inherently, and perhaps deliberately, ambiguous.  Does it simply mean that six- and seven-year-olds will be told that boys differ from girls, or does it mean that these young children will be introduced to the idea that not all boys are boys and that some girls aren’t really girls?

This same ambiguity is inherent in the proposed curriculum for third graders.  Under the December draft, these students would be taught to “identify gender-role stereotypes and explain potential impacts on individuals.”  Is this meant to say that teachers will specifically discuss “gender identity” with eight- and nine-year-olds?  It’s not clear.  Some of the most activist FLECAC members flagged this issue and proposed to say explicitly that this is the intent.  They advocated that the draft be amended to say that “gender identity” and “preferred pronouns” will be discussed in class in Grade 3.  Although the committee didn’t take a formal vote on this at its December meeting, the committee chairperson said she would suggest some revised language at the January meeting.

All ambiguity disappears at Grade 5.  The December draft provides that these students “will be familiar with the terms sex assigned at birth and gender identity, [and] recognize ways gender may be expressed.”  They will also “identify trusted adults they may talk to if they have questions about gender identity.”  The discussion at the December meeting didn’t reach the proposed sex-ed curriculum for fifth- and sixth-graders, but it will be at the forefront of the January meeting.

Discussion

Fairfax Schools Monitor has sent a letter to FLECAC’s chairperson, commenting on the current state of the committee’s discussions.  It identifies the following issues:

•  The proposal doesn’t comply with long-standing FCPS policy.  Regulation 3280.4, which applies to instruction about Controversial Issues, provides that an issue is controversial “when there are substantial differences of opinion about it on the local, national, or international level and when these differences of opinion are accompanied by intense feelings and strong emotions on the part of individuals or groups.”  The regulation requires teachers to “address controversial topics as impartially and objectively as possible” and “offer multiple perspectives of the issue(s) under discussion … considering implications and consequences of varying viewpoints ….”  Treatment of transgenderism in public schools is one of the most controversial issues in today’s society.  Any proposal for teaching about it must comply with the policy.
• Some of the current proposals are not only highly controversial but scientifically wrong (e.g., the notion that birth sex is an artificial construct, something arbitrarily “assigned at birth”).
• FLECAC has not meaningfully considered the age-appropriateness of its proposals or the potential down-sides of teaching pre-adolescents that their “real” gender may differ from their biological sex.
• The current draft is very brief and, for the most part, phrased in plain vanilla language.  It avoids many specifics about what should and should not be taught at various grade levels.  Simply recommending that “gender identity” be discussed is vague to the point of meaninglessness.  FLECAC needs to be explicit.  This includes consideration of the many sensitive issues likely to arise in classroom discussions, and recommendations as to how those issues should be covered in scientific, impartial and age-appropriate terms, taking into account multiple perspectives so as to avoid controversial issues.

FLECAC’s proposals haven’t been finalized, but they seem to be headed in a dangerous direction.  If you are concerned, please consider making your views known now, rather than waiting until the proposals are finalized.  You can notify your friends and neighbors; contact Board members; and express your opinions to the Committee.  (Contact FLECAC through its chairperson, whose address is in my recent letter, which is HERE.)  And, although difficult for most busy citizens, please consider attending upcoming FLECAC meetings.  (The meetings are held monthly from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at  FCPS’s headquarters, 8115 Gatehouse Road in the Merrifield area.  The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 8.)