Perhaps it’s a result of the times I grew up in, the result of my being in my twilight years or something else I am not aware of but some of the things that pass for serious thought and discussion or whatever on the subject of gender identity has left me confused. For instance, I grew up and lived most of my life thinking that gender and assigned sex at birth are the same thing or that transitioning from male to female or female to male was not something to be taken lightly and therefore seldom occurred.

But somewhere in later years society’s attitudes toward these things began to change either naturally or through promotion by elements in our society who have a vested interest in seeing these changes occur. Most disturbing was the knowledge that much of the promotion of what has come to be called “trans theory” has occurred and continues to occur in our schools.

I recently came across an article on a guidebook about teaching transgender doctrine in our schools. It gave the following advice: “The use of language throughout the school should veer away from the idea that there are only two genders. Using language such as “boys” and “girls” or “ladies” and “gentlemen” is not only exclusionary to trans identified and gender variant young people but subtly reinforces that gender is a significant difference regarding behavior patterns.”

This guidebook goes on to advise teachers not to call boys and girls “boys and girls.” Children are to be indoctrinated into Gender Identity or a person’s innate sense of their gender in the context of comparison to their assigned sex at birth. I guess this means that gender and assigned sex at birth no longer mean the same thing. Sex assigned at birth is hard wired as male or female, but gender is changeable or as the cups on sale at Target say, “Gender Fluid.”

According to the guidebook further indoctrination includes queer theory, which encompasses theories and thinkers from many fields: This theory relates to queer people, their lived experience and how their lived experience is culturally or politically perceived.

Critics contend that Gender Identity and queer theory are examined using a new vocabulary of made-up words to stop students from thinking in terms of two sexes, but subtly guides them into the belief that nothing is real or important except personal “identity.”

Terms like gender fluidity are used to explain what while our birth sex is fixed as either male or female our gender, which advocates of the doctrine insist is not the same as assigned sex, can remain fluid moving from binary to trans during a lifetime. Gender dysphoria is a term that describes a sense of unease that a person may have because of a mismatch between their biological sex and their gender identity. Advocates of the Trans doctrine say that this sense of unease or dissatisfaction may be so intense it can lead to depression and anxiety and have a harmful impact on daily life. Gender dysphoria is not uncommon in young children but in recent years it may have been used as an excuse to begin a young person’s gender transition. There are a host of other words appearing throughout trans doctrine that seem to be used as much for their ability to propagandize as to inform.

This new language that came to prominence following the emergence of diversity, equity, and inclusion training in our schools and the claim that this trend is an outgrowth of Critical Race Theory which was developed by Marxist theoreticians as another pathway to the Marxist utopia that communism is supposed to create but has never succeeded in doing.

It is likely that parents would not have become aware of these teachings if it weren’t for the appearance of the COVID-19 pandemic that frightened many school systems into making use of remote learning.

While remote learning did far more harm than good to our young people’s academic achievement during the pandemic it did serve to alert many parents to the fact that much of what our young people were being taught more closely resembled indoctrination than learning. It seems that much of what was being taught in some schools was transgender doctrine.

In the last 30 years schools have been criticized for taking over more of the roles that were once the responsibility of parents in a child’s education. An instigator of this movement was educational theorist John Dewey who concluded that schools should no longer be in the role of just aiding parents in their goal of passing literacy and tradition to their children. He now wanted schools to take on the socially transforming purpose by displacing the parents.

Parents who object to this and to their children’s exposure to ideas like trans theory, gender fluidity and the like must make those objections heard by school boards and administrators.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com