Education Priorities
I did my best to organize my priorities as an educator. These are some various skills that I would want to pass on to students, and their interrelationships.
Please let me know if you think of anything important I left out. What do you wish you'd learned in elementary school? What would have helped you academically, socially, &/or emotionally?
Education Priorities
Most of the things I wish I'd learned in Elementary school probably weren't comprehensible at those ages... but knowing that gender isn't a binary and that it's okay to be different from what people expect of me would have been nice to know.
Probably not the school's job but it's certainly the right time in life.
Also: talking to people directly. So many now can't communicate in person for one reason or another and it hinders their social progress.
Education Priorities
Yeah, learning some of the subtleties of gender would have been nice to know. From working at the library, I know there are a number of really lovely picture books that go into gender diversity in a kid-friendly way. I'm also fairly certain there are age-appropriate lessons on gender diversity and trans folks that exist and *could* be implemented. My school is relatively progressive, but I don't think this is currently part of the curriculum. (cont)
Education Priorities
Currently we do diversity training with the kids when the need arises. For example, we had the parents of my kid with down syndrome give a presentation to the class. I bet we would do something similar if we had a gender nonconforming kid or teacher, but I can't say for certain.
I've considered coming out to staff & talking about my NB-ness with the kids, but I'm still new and trying not to rock the boat just yet.
(cont aghhh words)
Education Priorities
As for your second point, YES, absolutely. Direct communication is SO important and learning it at that age is great. The school does a good job of teaching/reinforcing that, at all levels. But I would definitely incorporate it into my social learning/emotional learning curriculum when I become a teacher myself. :D
