but I am wondering if anyone out there is willing to shed light on what is being taught to students, and more importantly how said students are reacting to the curriculum.
there doesn't appear to be any empirical studies on the issue so i can only offer anecdotal stories of my midwest ass iowa high school. the city my high school is in also has a large state university, so i imagine we're regressive compared to the coasts but progressive compared to the rest of the midwest and definitely the South. i was close to and have kept in contact with a couple teachers from the english department so i asked them after seeing your post. i'm also in the varsity soccer chat for some reason (i graduated 2 years ago and i never played s*ccer) so i hear about any gender/sexuality related incidents pretty immediately.
i graduated in may 2020 (technically march since i didnt do a single thing for class after march 17). its my perception that the spotlight on G&S in school curriculum started mid pandemic with parents working @ home and noticing what's in their kids' schoolwork more, so with this assumption, my memory is the before and what i've heard back can be the after.
- english teachers were already discussing sexuality as it pertains to literature in their classes prior to the more recent movement to destigmatize the topic of gender & sexuality in schools. the required courses are focused on classic literature rather than contemporary so gender identity/transgenderism doesnt come up often, but some of the advanced elective courses offered do touch on contemporary queer literature (some of which has been brought up in this thread). overall, the teachers feel more empowered to talk about these subjects in the classroom as well as running advocacy groups & safety spaces for LGBTQ+ students, though they are wary of blowback (hasnt happened yet tho)
- classes where gender & sexuality don't come up are more or less the same, though reportedly all teachers & councilors have a sticker with a "LGTBQ+ Safe Zone" in rainbow text on their doors. prior to the school closing for the pandemic (my senior year in HS), i only remember seeing this on a couple doors - every teacher in the english department and our AP government teacher. possibly the councilors as well, but i never saw them so i dont know
- sections on DV and unhealthy relationships in the health class mandatory for graduation have been updated since prepandemic to include statistics and guidance for same sex relationships. they've also added a small note about violence against transgender people.
- those stickers are often vandalized/stolen. CAD and woods classrooms in particular since they're in isolated parts of the school & possibly (probably lol.) the subject matter
- the "king" "queen" roles in the homecoming court were abolished in fall 2020 in favor of all members just being part of the homecoming court to be more accommodating of NB students. i dont think an NB student being elected precipitated this. actually not that much controversy over this, because the school band (by far the largest student org in the school) had been rigging those positions for at least a decade anyway and, with no offense intended, had been putting joke picks in there, ex ppl that wouldnt have gone to hoco but now they have to since they were "elected"
- to my knowledge prom still retains those roles and also retains the rigging
- spectrum (the most prominent LGBTQ+ club on school campus) reported on their insta page that gender/sexuality based harassment has been on the rise. i find it hard not to believe this, given that violence in general on school campuses country wide has been on the rise post pandemic
- at some point after the pandemic, the student government established a DEI chairperson who acts as a student advocate for issues related to race, gender, and sexuality, and reports directly to the DEI director of the school district.
- a couple bathrooms have been reconstructed into single user restrooms to be used regardless of gender identity or expression. this has been a source of ire because some (as in more than one) bathrooms have been closed due to things such as the toilet seats being stolen, the urinals flushed to the point of overflowing, and people sitting on the sinks and breaking them (and also stealing the sinks).
- the single user restrooms are popular hookup spots - i verified this on the police reports. "2 students 1 bathroom" is the most famous one
- a school clothing store was started just before the pandemic, and had the usual male/female options. they quietly changed to unisex options at some point. i remember the clothes being dogshit + overpriced so i dont think anyone cares
- use of slurs in a derogatory fashion are an automatic 3 day ISS, while use of slurs in a non derogatory context (quoting literature in english class) is a 1 day ISS. this was announced schoolwide in fall 2019 because there was a huge blowout between a civil rights student group and the english department because a white chick was reading huckleberry finn and said the hard r. the result was that no slurs are allowed to be said even when quoting literature and english teachers are asked to instruct students to replace it with "f-slur" "n-slur" etc, as well as announcing this policy at the beginning of each school year
- apparently transgender students in high school sports is a regular topic of discussion in government class
- athletics seem to be unchanged, though i believe there is a trans female student in the cheer team
student reactions to these changes:
- indifference, at worst mild annoyance (esp about bathrooms)
- these changes arent a big deal and ppl ignore/adapt to them
- most bigotry was and continues to be underground, away from people that are outwardly LGBTQ+.
- "what is a woman?" was very popular amongst the boys when it came out
- still a general tilt towards conservatism and by extension homophobia & transphobia
- but everyone in the student org for republicans was and is cringe so most of them are quiet about it.
thoughts:
- no clue wtf ppl are getting mad about here
- im pretty sure the angry ppl are ppl larping as parents
- part of the outrage is definitely manufactured - both by conservative news sources bringing "concerned parents" (that work for them) to mald and liberal news sources for pretending "concerned parent" doesnt work for fox & friends
- edit: i have no clue what happens in elementary and middle school. have heard of similar changes to health class in the middle school tho
edits: me remembering random shit
hope this helped