In the lesson, gender is defined as ‘a person’s feelings about being boy or girl or another gender.’
Seattle Public Schools has developed a set of “K–5 Gender Book Kit Lessons” for classroom use that includes a kindergarten lesson to introduce students to progressive ideas about the malleable nature of gender identity.
The lesson features a picture book titled “Introducing Teddy,” a story about a teddy bear named Thomas who decides he wants to be Tilly, a girl teddy bear. The video component of the lesson is narrated by Brennon Ham, a Seattle Public School health education specialist, who uses the pronouns he, she, and they.
Ham highlights five words kindergartners should focus on throughout the lesson: acceptance, compassion, gender, gender role, and unique.
Gender, for example, is not defined as biological sex, but rather “a person’s feelings about being boy or girl or another gender.” And gender role, defined as “Cultural ways of how men and women are “supposed” to act. (EX: baking as an activity that is associated with girls typically, and weightlifting as a boy activity, but anyone can do those things and they make them feel like themselves.)”
Students are encouraged to remember these vocabulary words and the lesson’s definitions throughout the story.
The curriculum recommends that the lesson is taught at the beginning of the year, as a “get to know you activity.” However the lesson stipulates that teachers must “Be mindful that identities can change over time.”
“This is a series of videos for Seattle Public Schools students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The videos showcase books and lessons from SPS’s K-5 Gender Book Kit, which was developed in 2017,” the Seattle Public Schools website reads. “These age-appropriate lessons align with the Washington State Health Education standards related to self-identity. Each video identifies the intended audience by grade level.”
Seattle Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Seattle Public Schools does not allow parents to opt their children out of these lessons and topics because they address “particular identities or groups of people,” according to the district’s opt-out policy. School policy does, however, allow parents to opt their children out of certain sexual education topics. Transgenderism and gender identity do not fall under that umbrella, according to the district.
Activities that parents are not able to opt their students out of include book readings with LGBTQ+ characters, sharing pronouns, acknowledging Pride Month, as well as teachers displaying pride paraphernalia in their classroom. Akin to general instruction, the school is not required to notify parents of any gender identity instruction.
The Supreme Court decided in Mahmoud v. Taylor — a case in which Maryland parents were denied the opportunity to opt their children out of listening to books with LGBT storylines — that the Montgomery County Public School policy violated parents’ First Amendment rights to freely exercise their religion.
Yet, Seattle Public Schools, with its “K-5 Gender Book Kit Lessons,” for example, does not provide an opt-out option, and subjects students as young as kindergarten to lessons on gender identity.
At the end of the lesson, teachers are encouraged to “Point out that some people might feel like Tilly if they are expected to do something, or wear something, or act in a way that doesn’t feel like being themselves.” Because the teddy bear would rather wear a bow than a bow tie, the lesson teaches the children that the bear’s preference is indicative of feeling dissatisfied with its gender.
The lessons continue throughout elementary school, up to fifth grade, and feature books such as “I am Jazz” and “It Feels Good to Be Yourself: A Book About Gender Identity.”