Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

Sarah Anderson at PJM, Are Baltimore Elementary Schools Prioritizing Gender Identity Over Math and Reading?

Baltimore City Schools are in bad shape. Earlier this year, Fox 5 Baltimore reported that "Results from the 2024 state test show nearly a third of all Maryland students who took the math exam last year scored in the lowest level of proficiency" and only 2% scored in the highest level of proficiency. Eight of the city's high schools had zero students who were proficient in math at all. Even worse, this is considered a "slight improvement" over last year's numbers. In 2023, zero students in 13 Baltimore high schools tested proficient in math.
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While the tutoring might be beneficial, I can't help but think that it's the educational equivalent of treating the symptoms, not the cause. Perhaps the school district could dive a little deeper. Maybe, just maybe, it could focus on teaching math and other essential skills to its elementary school students rather than focusing on topics like gender identity, gay pride, and sexual confusion.

Spotlight on Maryland, which calls itself an "investigative project" of Fox 5 Baltimore and the Baltimore Sun filed a public records request to gain access to the school district's sex education program. What they discovered was pretty disgusting, especially when you realize they're teaching it to children as young as six years old.

According to investigative reporter Patrick Hauf, Baltimore City Schools are teaching first graders about "their private parts and reproductive systems, showing cartoon photos and videos." Hauf also says that teachers must use gender neutral language. Instead of saying "male reproductive system" and "female reproductive system," they're instructed to say "reproductive system one" and "reproductive system two." Hauf says by third grade, students learn about the "importance" of the LGBTetc. flag, and children in fourth grade watch videos about how it's okay to "feel sexually confused," complete with the song "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry.

Fox 5 Baltimore posted a copy of the curriculum online, and some of the language within is mind-blowing. For example, in a less called "Pink, Blue and Purple," an exercise for first graders involves teachers asking them how they know what gender they are and explaining that this is their gender identify. After that, it suggests teachers tell students the following:

Gender identity is that feeling of knowing your gender. You might feel like you are a boy, you might feel like you are a girl. You might feel like you’re a boy even if you have body parts that some people might tell you are ‘girl’ parts. You might feel like you’re a girl even if you have body parts that some people might tell you are ‘boy’ parts. And you might not feel like you’re a boy or a girl, but you’re a little bit of both. No matter how you feel, you’re perfectly normal!

I don't have children, but if I did, I wouldn't want some stranger telling my six-year-old how to think about their "parts." It's worth noting that parents can opt out of the so-called sex education program, but I can't understand why the schools even offer it in the first place. Why do children who haven't even come close to hitting puberty need to learn anything at all about sex?

The good news is, that if history is any guide, the children of Baltimore won't learn this either.