Forget the puberty video and public schools handing out condoms to junior high students. What do Kindergarteners need to know? Their ABC’s? How to count to 100? Site words? How to make it through a full school day without crying for their moms? Nope. It has been determined by the State of Washington that Kindergarteners need a lesson in social construct. More specifically….get ready….

Transgenderism.

I love Washington State, I really do. It’s beautiful here. I live here. My family is here. But we have seriously gone off the rails on this crazy train if we are trying to cram into a little Kindergartener’s brain the concept of gender identity when he or she is away from home, in some cases, for the first time and attempting to navigate his or her way to recess and when he or she will be getting a snack. Apparently, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is convinced that broaching the subject of gender identity is appropriate for an audience of 5-6 year-olds, which is absurd.

It’s sadly not that simple anymore. Well, at least theStae of Washington chooses not to make it that simple for these little nuggets. The entire Washington State Health and Physical Education learning standards can be viewed for your reading pleasure here. But here are some of the highlights:

The new standards require that kindergartners be taught to understand that “there are many ways to express gender.”

In its “safe” versus “unwanted touch” lessons, the state will teach kindergarteners to “[r]ecognize people have the right to refuse giving or receiving unwanted touch.”

In third grade, children will learn that they should respect others’ self-determined “gender identity,” an idea that will be elaborated on in fourth grade, when they will be taught to identify “how friends and family can influence ideas regarding gender roles, identity, and expression,” along with lessons on HIV prevention. In fifth grade, children will be taught about the ways “media, society, and culture” influence the “social construct” of gender and how to “identify trusted adults to ask questions about gender identity and sexual orientation.” In seventh grade, students will be asked to distinguish “between biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.”

“Safe” and “unwanted touch” for Kinders? It seems as if going to school for these youngsters is not about learning reading, writing and arithmetic in the eyes of higher-level administrators. It’s not about learning history or geography. It’s about social construct. Get a Kindergartener to recite the words “social construct” ten times fast and define this term. Administrators are so wrapped around the axle on promoting an agenda (and perhaps avoiding more lawsuits) than truly understanding that perhaps a five or six year-old cannot correctly process or is simply not interested in the subject matter. You see those cars in “Yellow Center”? Little Jake wants to grab his new friend, Johnny and play with those. You see that dollhouse in “Blue Center”? Addy can’t wait to ask the new girl with the Hello Kitty shirt to play with her during Free Time. Did Mrs. Crabtree say “brownies” for Mickeys’ birthday at snack time? Why yes, she did…right after the Alphabet Song, Circle Time and a story about Brown Bear.

Nope, the state thinks this is a GREAT idea in promoting “tolerance”, “acceptance” and “diversity”. I see the “D” (for diversity) at schools a lot. So, instead of young children asking about how babies are made…we have added another layer onto this complicated minefield of parenthood: “Mommy….what is a transsexual?” Side note: What is this costing taxpayers in their local districts, anyway? And whatever happens to the science of Biology in the later years if kids are told at age five that “anything goes down there”?

Now, I am not the country’s most perfect parent but I do know that we have a 10 year-old son who has been and will be exposed to the State standards should he remain in the WA State public school system. Other states throughout the country may follow suit. I am happy to say that I have a child who enjoys American history, (specifically the Revolution) and I count it as a blessing because it really was not something that my husband and I forced upon him but rather something he took an interest in on his own. This interest has been the motivation for him to ask questions and to be his own person, to be independent, sometimes downright stubborn (I have no idea who he gets that from) and not go along blindly with the masses and everything he hears. I can only hope and pray that other parents encourage their children to do the same.