Just over two months away, all California school districts will need to have a diverse curriculum in place including a plan that includes studies on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender education. But the recently passed legislation that enacted LGBT education is non-specific, say some schools, thereby causing confusion as to how curriculum should be implemented and taught.
“I’m not sure how we plug it into the curriculum at the grade school level, if it all,” said Paul Boneberg, executive director at the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco.
In addition to the vague language, districts are also up tough budget constraints that would prevent schools from implementing updated instructional material that would include LGBT material. California legislature suspended “all adoptions of instructional material through eighth grade until 2015 to save money,” the Sacramento Bee reported. And in addition to budget constraints, new textbooks which would include LGBT education are not likely to reach classrooms until 2019.
Some schools, however, have been on top of the legislation and considered pioneers in LGBT education. The Los Angeles School board and San Diego Unified School district have both enacted programs that support LGBT education within its curriculum.
“This law’s going to educate kids about LGBT people, and once you get education, you’ll respect them, and nobody’s going to bully them anymore,” said Jennifer Vanegas, a straight member of the Gay-Straight Alliance club.
San Diego LGBT Weekly will provide updates as schools begin to implement LGBT curriculum.
Dear Mr. Boneberg and all CA teachers:
Three easy ways to plug LGBT issues and histories into the K-6 curricula are to 1) not teach sex-ed as abstinence only because that would apply very little to queer and trans kids 2) tell kids that ALL girls/women and trans men need to have safe sex. Lesbians, like every person, can get STDs, too. 3) Include people like Harvey Milk in the Civil Rights OR Social Justice/Social Movement Curricula. 4) Add Bessie Smith (who was bisexual) and Bayard Rustin to African American History Month activities. Also, read Catherine E. Sleeter’s work on “Transformative Knowledge” or McReady’s work on Black gender-different teens in schools. Okay, that was 6, but that means IT’S VERY possible. Go to GLSEN’s FREE lesson plans online. http://www.glsen.org Teachers are life-long-learners, too.