Second graders in New Jersey public schools will be learning about gender identity this fall in an effort to meet the state's sex education standards, according to Fox News.
The standards were put in place in 2020, but actually take effect in September. They stipulate that New Jersey students, by the end of second grade, understand the "core ideas" that all "individuals should feel welcome and included regardless of their gender, gender expression, or sexual orientation."
According to the standards, "performance expectations" include talking about "the range of ways people express their gender and how gender role stereotypes may limit behavior."
Sample lesson plans were distributed by the Westfield Board of Education in February and indicate first graders could be taught they can have "boy parts" but "feel like" a girl, Fox News noted.
One of the sample plans spells out learning objectives including: "Define gender, gender identity and gender role stereotypes." And it also says: "Name at least two things they've been taught about gender role stereotypes, and how those things may limit people of all gender."
A spokesperson for the Westfield Public Schools told Fox News the teaching materials were not the actual school district plans, but were just a "sample list of resources."
"During a presentation at the Feb. 22 Board of Education meeting, we provided an update on the district's work to revise the Comprehensive Health and Physical Education curriculum," Superintendent Dr. Raymond González said.
"The presentation included a sample list of resources aligned to the New Jersey Student Learning Standards to be considered as school districts work on revisions to the health and PE curriculum."
Republicans blasted Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy for the standards.
"It's simple. Governor Murphy thinks he knows better how to parent your children than you do," Alexandra Wilkes, the New Jersey GOP's communications director, told Fox News. "The shocking, graphic materials taught to children barely old enough to read and write fly in the face of the Democrats' insistence on the campaign trail last fall that critics of these new standards were exaggerating or even bigoted for raising concerns in the first place."
In Florida, the recently passed Parental Rights in Education law prohibits teachers from instructing on the topics of sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade in a manner that is not considered "age appropriate or developmentally appropriate" for children.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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