WAUWATOSA, Wisc. (TND) — The Wauwatosa School District in Wisconsin will officially implement its controversial "Human Growth and Development" curriculum that earned heat from critics earlier this month.
The new curriculum, which was formally implemented after the district's Board of Education voted 6-1 to pass it Monday night, includes teaching "gender role stereotypes" to second graders, lesson plans for third graders that urge them to investigate their gender identity and instructions for sixth graders to refer to girls as "a person with a vulva."
"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," reads the third grade Human Growth and Development curriculum, according toWITI-TV in Milwaukee.
Lesson plans for second graders include explaining to them that "boys can play with dolls, too," WITI-TV reported. "But sometimes, we are still told that only boys should play with a certain toy or that only girls should play with a toy. This might happen with clothing, activities or jobs, too," the lesson plan for second graders reportedly states.
Lesson plans for kindergartenersinclude teaching them how to identify various body parts, like the penis and vulva. The curriculum for kindergarteners also includes books such as "Not All Princesses Dress In Pink" and "Sparkle Boy," which are stories about kids who enjoy activities traditionally belonging to the opposite sex.
By sixth grade, students are urged to refer to girls as "a person with a vulva," in an attempt to teach them to be more "inclusive."
Prior to the approval of the curriculum this week, separate movements to add a second curriculum for parents who may not agree with the new one were rejected, according to The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
State law does not require parents to give permission for the curriculum's instruction; however, it does allow parents to exempt their child from instruction with a written request to the teacher or principal, according to a copy of the curriculum.
"This is a dark day for Wisconsin students, who will be taught a curriculum that reduces them down to their body parts," Alexandra Schweitzer, president of No Left Turn In Education – Wisconsin, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. "No teacher should refer to their female students as 'students who will menstruate' or to their male students as 'penis owners.' This is a wholly inappropriate use of classroom time that ought to be spent on educational fundamentals."
A district spokesperson told The National Desk (TND) that its "Human Growth and Development" curriculum is "a unique public policy issue that many public school districts address annually."
According to the spokesperson, the curriculum was developed with the help ofadministrators, teachers and external community members after it had remained unchanged for the last 10 years.
"The District depended on the expertise of an external committee to determine the proposed outcomes most critical for each grade level," the spokesperson indicated, adding that "a majority of the external committee expressed their support for the curriculum."