The Truth About School Indoctrination

Teaching kids about racism & LGBTQ issues isn’t “political” - refusing to is

When my daughter was in the second grade, a poster hung in her classroom defining terms like ‘straight,’ ‘gay’, ‘cisgender’ and ‘transgender’. I tweeted a picture of the sign, pointing out that if seven year-olds had no problem using correct terminology, surely adults could do the same. Within hours, conservatives were accusing my daughter’s school of indoctrination and teaching children to ‘experiment with sex’. Some tried to find out what school she attended, others threatened to report me for child abuse. 

Clearly my understanding of American homophobia and transphobia wasn’t nearly as pessimistic as it should have been, because I was shocked. Were people really arguing that it was wrong to teach about the mere existence of LGBTQ people? 

Four years later, the bigotry I read in those Twitter replies is being enshrined into policy. Eight states have proposed laws to ban teachers from talking about sexual orientation or gender identity in the classroom, each bill more draconian than the last. In Florida, parents could sue if the school breaks the law; in North Carolina, teachers would be mandated to report students showing signs of “gender nonconformity”; and in Kansas, it would be a misdemeanor for a teacher to use any materials that depict homosexuality. 

These laws are part of the larger ‘anti-critical race theory’ frenzy—a conservative-led movement to prohibit schools from teaching America’s racist history, claiming that such lessons are political indoctrination that traumatize white children. As of this month, a whopping 36 states have introduced or passed laws that restrict schools from giving students accurate information not just about racism, but sexism, or any kind of systemic discrimination. Teachers who do so risk legal—and personal—reprisals. Some school boards are even fielding death threats. 

The white parents backing these laws insist they’re just trying to protect their children. And what is the dangerous curriculum they’re shielding their kids from? The teachings so controversial that one Virginia school board member got a message threatening to “gut you like the fat fucking pig you are”?

Well, the first complaint to be filed under Tennessee's new law was over a children’s book about Martin Luther King Jr. It was anti-white, critics said, to show how firefighters blasted Black children with water hoses. Other parents protested when their children learned about Ruby Bridges, one of the first Black children to attend a previously all-white school. They didn’t want their kids seeing images of a 6 year-old girl being jeered at and threatened by a crowd of angry white people. 

That’s the reality of these laws: They’re not about protecting children from biased information. They’re not about making sure parents have a say in what their kids learn. They’re about erasing any history that makes white people look bad. For all the conservative bleating about indoctrination, what could possibly be more political than censoring American history?

What you don’t teach children is just as controversial and political as what you do teach them. Omitting or glossing over American bigotry is not a politically neutral act. Nor is banning conversation about LGBTQ people. When you allow parents to opt out of Black History Month lessons, as one school in Indiana has, you are sending a very political message: That the violence and injustice Black people have faced is not worth talking about. And when schools refuse to teach—or even mention—LGBTQ issues, they’re also sending a clear political message: That members of that community should be ashamed and stigmatized.

Teaching children that heterosexuality is the default, natural state of being is political, just as it is to cater school curricula specifically for the comfort of white children. (In fact, we have a term for what it means when the government and institutions privilege white people.)

The truth is that there is no evidence that white children are harmed when they learn the truth about American history and racism; there is proof, however, that kids from marginalized groups suffer greatly when they’re falsely taught the world is fair and discrimination-free. Similarly, we know that curricula inclusive of all kinds of sexual orientations and gender identities helps students—and that not talking about it hurts young people. 

If the parents who support these laws are just trying to prevent trauma, I wonder why they don’t spend their time, say, fighting for better gun control so our children don’t need to suffer through active shooter drills. Do they believe that learning about Black history or same sex marriage is somehow more harmful than an environment where children are being taught how to create tourniquets so their classmates don’t bleed to death?

Or maybe this isn’t about protecting kids at all. If it was, maybe the parents screaming at school board meetings and harassing teachers would realize that there’s no point in hiding books about angry white mobs from their children—because they are the angry white mob.