Planning is afoot to start providing the tools to children as young as 3 months old to enable each child to select a gender for their self — and when 5 years old, starting to teach the historical significance of skin color. Many believe that the result would be that white children will be taught to be ashamed to be white. The results, in my view, would be that when grown, our citizens will be both gender-confused and drilled in reverse discrimination. How can that be constructive?
Teaching gender issues to the young is likely a good idea, however, would need to be more logically age based so that they can evaluate the subject for themselves. When to begin such instruction is debatable. Is not a child born with a natural tendency toward a specific gender? So why monkey with such innate qualities and conditions? Wait until individuals are mature enough to make crucial surgical and hormone replacement decisions themselves. It’s unfair to impose your view, as some believe is the practice of circumcision.
As to slavery, it has been practiced since 3500 BCE. That doesn’t make it right. Yes, the English started shipping the slaves from Africa to the U.S. in more modern times and under horrible transit conditions. Many Americans owned slaves, including George and Martha Washington. Slavery in this country was bad, period. All of this should be in the history books, warts and all. Slavery should be taught like any other part of history and with equitable emphasis, as non-political as possible. But kindergarten is too soon to start, in my opinion. Middle school students can read Alex Haley’s 1976 novel “Roots” for an idea of what it was like to be a slave on a plantation, as a good start.
