Over the years, the debates over race, sexual orientation, and gender identity as topics in the classroom have been discussed widely. According to a new report from the Pew Research Center, the majority of teachers, students, and parents believe it’s important to teach racism in schools.
However, their opinion on other “culture war” subjects vary. There is a great divide between people who agree with LGBTQ-related discussions having a place in classrooms. Therefore, the research center committed to this survey last fall. It included roughly 9,000 people, with 5,000 members of the general public, 2,500 public school teachers, and 1,500 teens participating.
About half of the teachers said students should not learn about gender identity in school. In addition, nearly 2 in 3 elementary educators agree with this take. Teens are also split about whether schools should allow such discussions in the classroom.
About a third of them say that the topic makes them uncomfortable. The associate director of research at Pew, Juliana Horowitz, explained the poll results in a statement. She mentioned that while people usually lump “culture war” topics together, teachers, students, and other Americans tend to see these issues as separate.
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She also noted that according to the poll, most teachers and members of the general public said parents should not be able to opt their kids out of race-related lessons, regardless of whether it conflicts with their family’s viewpoint.
On the other hand, roughly half of teachers and most Americans believe they should have the right to opt out of sexual orientation or gender identity classes.
Similarly, in a 2022 Pew survey, most parents are evenly split on this topic too. 37% said students should not learn about gender identity in school. Another 31% said children should learn that gender can be different from sex at birth.
POLL—Should Public Schools Include Critical Race Theory and Sex Education in Their Curriculum?
Additionally, another 31% said children should learn that gender is determined by sex at birth. Therefore, there is no clear-cut opinion that the majority agrees with.
Over the years, policymakers from different parties have pushed for and passed legislation that dictates whether or how schools can teach about controversial topics. Therefore, a poll like this hopes to determine the majority opinion among people. However, their findings only show that the opinions still vary.
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In addition, it highlights broad laws restricting an array of topics that can undermine learning. However, the vast majority agreed on two things. First, they believe the government has too much influence over the curriculum.
They do not have the training teachers do, so people believe they should not be dictating what teachers teach. Second, the majority agree that the “culture wars” are harming teachers’ ability to do their jobs. Whether one agrees with talking about it or not, the constant back and forth with the discourse is affecting them.
Surprisingly, most teachers noted that LGBTQ+ discussions rarely come up in classrooms. States like Florida have already banned such discussions with the “Don’t Say Gay” rule. However, it looks like many other states might follow suit soon.
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