
CV NEWS FEED // Democratic public school teachers are more likely to have students bring up racism and sexual orientation in the classroom than Republican teachers, according to a recent report from Pew Research.
According to the report, 67% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning teachers said that topics related to racism sometimes come up in their classroom, while 43% of Republican and Republican-leaning teachers said the same thing.
Pew reported that 36% of Democratic teachers said that topics relating to sexual orientation and gender identity have been brought up sometimes in the classroom, while only 21% of Republican teachers experienced the same thing.
“In addition, teachers in Democratic school districts (those where a majority of residents voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 election) are more likely than those in districts that voted for Donald Trump to say these topics came up in their classroom,” Pew reported.
The topics were more likely to come up in urban secondary schools than anywhere else.
Pew asked teachers about their views on teaching about slavery in school and found that most teachers (64%) think that “students should learn that the legacy of slavery still affects the position of Black people in American society today.” However, Democratic teachers are much more likely to think this way than Republican teachers (85% vs 35%).
Regarding sexual orientation, a third of teachers say that students should learn in school that “whether someone is a boy or a girl can be different from the sex they were assigned at birth.” Half of teachers say that students should not be taught about gender identity in school.
“By a large margin, Democratic teachers are more likely than Republican teachers to say students should learn that someone’s gender can be different from their sex at birth (53% vs 5%),” Pew reported. “Most Republican teachers (69%) say students should not learn about this topic in school at all.”
Pew also found that 62% of elementary school teachers said that gender identity should not be taught in school, while 45% of middle school teachers and 35% of high school teachers thought the same thing.
Finally, Pew asked teachers if they thought parents should be allowed to “opt their children out of learning about certain topics, if the way they are taught conflicts with parents’ personal views or beliefs.” About half of teachers said yes concerning topics relating to sexual orientation, while 25% said yes about topics relating to racism.
“On both topics, Republican teachers are more than twice as likely as Democratic teachers to say that parents should be able to opt their children out of learning about these topics,” Pew reported.
