Let's have a "Serious Talk" about Lexington Public Schools
LPS thinks they can parent better than you, mom and dad. What are you going to do about it?
If you’re from the Lexington area, you may have already heard about the flap over the Serious Talks curriculum. A group of concerned parents and community members have started a petition “demanding an immediate STOP to the implementation of the Serious Talks curriculum in Lexington elementary schools.”
The petition begins:
“We are a concerned, significantly growing group of Lexington parents and community members who have happened to find out about the “Serious Talks” curriculum being taught to children starting in first grade. Parents have been left in the dark about what and how gender identity is being taught to our children in Lexington elementary schools.”
The parent’s petition continues… “The curriculum promotes the use of contentious and ambiguous content, methodology and outcome measures regarding gender identity, including transgender, and sexual orientation.
The “Serious Talks” curriculum’s approach to the education of gender identity in elementary schools as early as age six is age-inappropriate. This “one size fits all” curriculum excludes families and views from diverse ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds and promotes perspectives that reflect only a portion of the population. Furthermore, it lacks evidence to support both content choices and legal obligation.”
To read the whole petition, click HERE.
Since the petition has been posted, the Lexington teacher’s union has (predictably) come out in defense of Serious Talks. The Superintendent of Lexington Public Schools has released her “Superintendent’s Report - August 29, 2023,” a seven-page apologetic for Serious Talks and the LPS curriculum process, released many weeks in advance ostensibly to quell resistance at the next school committee meeting. The Lexington Observer published an article on the controversy, and LexPride, the local LGBTQ activist group, has marshaled its troops and launched its own counter-petition.
So, what’s the problem with Serious Talks? Why are some parents concerned? Why is the school system defensive? Take a look at this Serious Talks “1st Grade Units At-a-Glance.”
If you are a Lexington parent who wants to keep racially divisive identity politics from creeping into your child’s classroom, you have a LOT to be concerned about here. But since we focus primarily on preventing the sexualization of children, we will leave the blatantly political Ibram Kendi-esqueness of this for someone else to deconstruct.
And if you are a Lexington parent who wants to send your child to a school that is helpful (or at least not harmful) to his or her mental health, you have a LOT to be concerned about here too.
Elementary-aged kids are not cognitively or emotionally ready to carry the burden of the world’s injustices (or perceived injustices). They should not “as children… be personally responsible for social activism on a local and global level.” Frankly, that’s bonkers. Making children into tiny activists will crush them when they learn that they can’t actually stop all hunger, or meanness, or whatever other negative forces they are trying to fight. Instead of empowering them, it will fill their little hearts with anxiety, fear, and anger. And while turning 6-year-olds into social justice warriors might be good for authors who publish books like this one mentioned in Unit 6, it’s not good for the actual 6-year-olds. But we will leave the pitfalls of turning little kids into activists for someone else to deconstruct, too.
So what does Serious Talks get wrong in the realm of sexuality? Plenty.
Unit 2 Lesson 3: Understanding Gender: A Fire Engine for Ruthie is a book about a little girl named Ruthie who visits her grandmother. Her grandmother assumes that she would enjoy traditionally girlish toys, and that’s what she has at her house for Ruthie to play with. But, Ruthie would rather play with fire trucks or trains like her neighbor Brian. While this book highlights the fact that certain toys are stereotypically preferred by girls or boys, it does NOT “solidify the idea that there are gender norms in our society that force us to believe that specific genders have certain roles.” Ruthie’s grandmother is happy to provide Ruthie with trucks and trains once she realizes that Ruthie wants them. Nobody in this story is forced to believe anything. The story itself is harmless and cute, and it likely describes the experience of many tomboys. But the lesson attached to it is decidedly more negative. There is nothing wrong with making sure kids know that some girls like to play with trucks, and that can be achieved easily without painting society in a negative light. However, the lesson chooses to take it in that direction. That’s probably because ginning up a false sense of outrage over gender roles makes it easier to turn kids into good little activists.
Unit 2 Lesson 4: Gay and Lesbian Identities: “Students will learn that people can identify as gay and lesbian through the book And Tango Makes Three.” This book is about two male penguins, Roy and Silo, who appear to become a couple and raise an egg together, an egg that the zookeeper takes from another penguin’s nest and gives to them. This example lesson from the Serious Talks Parent Information Session held at Estabrook School gives us a bit more info on how this book will be used:
This book, and the questions in the lesson, leave room for many uncomfortable issues to be brought up in the classroom. Why couldn’t Roy and Silo make an egg, just like all of the male-female penguin couples did? (Hello… sexual reproduction!) Was it ok for the zookeeper to just take an egg from another penguin couple to give it to Roy and Silo? If a child in the room is from a same-sex household, are other kids going to wonder how their “dads” or “moms” got them? (Hello… ethically complex adult issues!) And of course, this story is presented with the unspoken assumption that since same-sex coupling occasionally shows up in the animal kingdom, it’s natural and normative for humans as well. This violates the deeply held religious beliefs of many families (not to mention the common-sense position that just because animals do something doesn’t mean humans should) and has no business in the classroom.
Unit 2 Lesson 5: Understanding Transgender: “Students will learn that people can identify as transgender through the book I am Jazz.” This book, based on the early life of Jazz Jennings, presents a young boy who “feels like a girl” because he likes dolls and dress-up and his friends are girls. His parents bring him to the doctor who tells him that he is “transgender.” He is then allowed to change his name to Jazz and socially transition into living as a girl. This makes him happy.
Sadly, the life of the real Jazz is not so happy. Jazz Jennings, who is now 22, has struggled with obesity, mental health issues, and disturbing physical ramifications from botched genital surgery. Jazz is not a happy or healthy person. And while the real Jazz - who was put on the transgender conveyor belt early, too young to know better - deserves our compassion, this book does not. This book tells lies. It lies and tells children that if they like to play with toys more commonly embraced by the other sex, they might actually BE someone with a “girl brain” in a “boy body.” (Did they learn NOTHING from A Fire Engine for Ruthie?) It tells them that they are born this way. And it tells them that, if they transition, they will be happy. All of these are lies that should be kept far away from the minds of young, impressionable children.
These are the only three lessons where issues related to human sexuality are expressly taught in the Grade 1 Serious Talks units we have shared here, though we know that they can be smuggled into any lesson that talks about families, feelings, how people are different, etc. In fact, a motivated instructor could find a way to integrate sexuality into just about ANY of these lessons.
But, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say they wouldn’t. Let’s say that the teachers would only talk about human sexuality on these three days. Couldn’t Lexington parents just opt their kids out on those days?
According to the Superintendent, no. In fact, she has made it very clear that she will not be honoring any opt-out requests from the parents of children whose families object to this content, regardless of the reason for their objection.
On page 4 of her report she spells it out unequivocally. No opt-outs. And why? Because legally she isn’t obligated to, conversations on sexuality and gender identity are interspersed throughout the curriculum SO MUCH that it would be too difficult to opt kids out (see quote below), and really, she doesn’t want to anyway. Because “we believe our students must… be tolerant and respectful of multiple perspectives.”
(Except for your perspective, parent with traditional Judeo-Christian values. And except for your perspective, parent who believes in the gender binary.)
In all LPS elementary schools, students are taught that gender identity is feeling like a boy, girl, both or neither, and in the “Serious Talks” lessons that define a transgender identity, teachers explain that for some people, the labels they were given at birth do not match who they are on the inside, and they may use different pronouns or express themselves in a way that is different from what their body shows.
- Superintendent Hackett, 8/29/23 Report
Now generally speaking, if you are a conservative-minded parent and you live in a progressively-dominated town like Lexington and still have your kids in the public school, you probably expect to run into some things that you don’t agree with. You might plan on using them as teachable moments with your child, or opting your child out of those activities, or using some other stop-gap measure to try and stem the woke tide. All children in Lexington are entitled to a public education, after all, and an education system that wants to be “tolerant and respectful of multiple perspectives” should - at least - be willing to work with you. But in Lexington, that doesn’t seem to be the case so far.
And that’s because Serious Talks isn’t their only issue. Serious Talks is just one manifestation of Lexington Public School’s ongoing obsession with sexualizing kids and pushing gender ideology, all under the umbrella of DEI.
Back in 2019, we talked about Lexington’s DEI director who was using the Gender Snowperson to talk to 9 year olds about sexual attraction and girl-brains in boy-bodies. Nothing has changed since then - it’s only gotten worse.
Here are only a few examples of what’s happening in Lexington, courtesy of district web pages and staff member’s publicly available Twitter profiles:
These posts aren’t being shared to single these staff members out. The issues in Lexington are systemic. They are so pervasive that the Lexington teacher’s union feels A-OK about announcing their alignment with the School Committee and Superintendent in this post referring to Serious Talks.
It seems all of the power players in Lexington Public Schools are making it a point to make their position on Serious Talks clear. But that’s not surprising, because the ideology behind Serious Talks is the same ideology that pervades their whole school system. It’s in their Strategic Plan. It’s in their Report on Efforts to Reduce Systemic Barriers to Equity: Annual Update January 2023. It’s on the Equity page of their district website. It’s pretty much everywhere, if you know what to look for. And even when LPS doesn’t mention LGBTQ issues specifically, it talks about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, which is their ultimate justification for talking to little kids about gender and sexuality.
Lexington parents, if you haven’t looked at this page yet, you really should.
Here’s one telling quote: “The K-3 Social Studies curriculum in LPS elementary schools includes a focus on the diversity of families that includes members of the LGBT community. The following are highlights from the year-long overview narratives…”
Also, it’s right on their website, that your child can change their preferred name without any age restrictions, and their formal name change (official on all school documents) WITHOUT parental consent for kids ages 14+.
And again, this is really just scratching the surface. With all of this institutional support and (if we’re being honest) marketing at every level, is it any wonder that, according to the LPS report below, 25% of LPS students identify as LGBTQ?
So, concerned Lexington parents, you’re right to have questions about Serious Talks. You’re right to want to opt your kids out. You’re right to push back. But sadly, if we’re talking seriously, the ideological rot in your district goes way deeper than And Tango Makes Three.
If your kids are in Lexington Public Schools, you need to be active. You need to be up on what your child is doing in class. You need to volunteer in the classroom, in the cafeteria, and at the Scholastic book fair. You need to be on a first-name basis with your child’s teacher and principal (in a nice way, preferably). You need to attend school committee meetings and make public comments. And maybe you need to run for school committee yourself. But most of all, you need to have eyes wide open and be fully aware that just because your child might not come home talking about learning values that disagree with yours doesn’t mean it isn’t happening - it probably means it happens so often that your child thinks it’s normal.
And if you really want to protect your child 100% from being taught that a girl body can have a boy brain and sometimes two men can have a baby, you will need to pull your child out of Lexington Public Schools. Because even the district’s preschoolers are being presented with gender ideology. So, no matter what age your child is and how much you intend to be involved in bringing change to the district in the future, it can’t happen fast enough to spare them.
There is wisdom in fighting for the children of your community by confronting the ideology in the public school. And there is wisdom in removing your child entirely. Regardless of what you decide, concerned Lexington parents, you have our support.
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Not a Lexington parent? Your district might not be as drunk on the DEI-LGBTQ punch as Lexington is, but it might not be far behind. Now is the time for you to be diligent and dig into what is going on in your district.
In Lexington, much of the sexualization of kids and gender ideology comes in under the auspices of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion”. Some districts also include “Belonging” to this name. Some just call it “Equity.” Sometimes it’s called “Cultural Competency.” Sometimes it comes alongside “Social Emotional Learning.” Find out what your district calls it, and what’s getting smuggled in under these innocent (even compassionate) sounding terms.
A district doesn’t get woke-washed like Lexington overnight. It happens bit by bit, sometimes right under your nose. Not every MA district is as far off the rails as Lexington, but they all have the potential to go in this direction. Push back before it gets this far. Go to school committee meetings. Get involved. Find out what’s happening, and what you can do about it.
Seriously.
#equippingparents
#protectingkids
This is terrible and they have no business teaching your children that without your permission and there should be an option to opt out! But it’s the control that they want over our children’s minds!!!!!!!!