I am a retired teacher educator whose career spanned 30 years including UCSB, UC Berkeley, and Antioch University Santa Barbara. I have recommended hundreds of teachers, many of whom have taken positions in our local school districts, including Goleta. My work required time in classrooms observing children, teachers, and school personnel. This letter is based on this foundation of experience and knowledge.
Abate states, “Telling young immature children about serious sexual topics (Code for gender non-conforming people?) and difficult racial issues (The historical narrative that includes the voices of all those who lived it?) is harming their mental health.”
My observations throughout the years lead to an entirely different understanding of what is causing the anxiety and harming our youth’s mental health. First, contrary to your assertion of anxiety caused by “serious sexual topics,” I often observed the capacity of even our youngest children to not only see the variance and diversity of their classmates, but to achieve a caring appreciation of that wonderful diversity. As the song goes, “You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear…” Children accept the world as it is, as long as they find a place in it that develops their own sense of well-being.