Districts fight book banning, pushback on curriculums
As Maryland grapples with school curriculum pushback and book banning related to race and LGBTQ issues, a national analysis found that these subjects are not often discussed in K-12 schools, despite the heated debates.
The Pew Research Center analysis published Thursday surveyed thousands of teachers, parents and teen students. While 68% of teachers say topics about sex and gender are rarely talked about, more than 40% of U.S. teachers say school curriculum debates about race, gender and sexuality have negatively impacted their abilities to do their job. Discussion of race and racial inequality are more common, with 56% of teachers saying they come up at least sometimes in their classes.
So-called culture war topics — potentially controversial subjects, like race, gender identity and sexual orientation — have been part of the national conversation for years, said Juliana Horowitz, associated director of social trends research at the Pew Research Center.
Maryland, a Democratic stronghold, is not immune. Both public and private schools have been confronted with challenges to what children are learning in school about issues of LGBTQ and race.
Last week, what purported to be a group of parents at St. Paul’s School for Boys, a private Episcopal boys school in Baltimore County, started a petition calling for an end to diversity, equity and inclusion programming. The Baltimore Sun was unable to identify the creators of the petition. The school is in the process of hiring a DEI director.
“As an Episcopal school, we are called to foster a community where all students feel seen, loved, and supported to achieve at their highest level,” a St. Paul School spokesperson said in a statement. “It’s our duty to equip students with the empathy and awareness to engage with different beliefs and perspectives, thereby preparing them to thrive in a culturally and ideologically diverse world.”
Clark Wight, president of The St. Paul Schools, did not respond to requests for comment.
In Carroll County, 58 books were taken off school library shelves during an ongoing review of books flagged by conservative parental groups as inappropriate for students. The Board of Education updated its school policies last month to ban books and instructional materials that include “sexually explicit” content or sex acts in a “detailed or graphic manner.”
A proposal from an Anne Arundel County school board member to ban non-government flags, such as the LGBTQ Pride flag, failed to pass this summer.
Curriculums that focus on race have also sparked controversy. Despite national blowback on a new Advanced Placement African American Studies class, a Baltimore high school piloted the course, in which students learned about historical events like the Tulsa race massacre.
Pew’s researchers first looked at curriculum debates in 2022 through the eyes of parents with students in K-12 schools. As the clashes continued, they sought to include teachers, a missing voice who are on the front lines of these culture wars, Horowitz said. The study also includes perspectives from students aged 13 to 17.
“In the national debate, we hear a lot from politicians. We’ve heard about protests over the last few years at school boards and the parents rights groups,” Horowitz said. “We haven’t seen a lot from the teachers’ perspective … and if these debates have helped or hurt them.”
Racial and LGBTQ issues were more likely to come up in English and social studies courses, Horowitz said. And although teachers differed in their survey answers by political affiliation, they agree that teachers don’t have enough influence on curriculums.
“The majorities [71%] of both Republican and Democratic teachers say teachers themselves don’t have enough influence,” Horowitz said. “Sizable shares — about 40% or so of both Republicans and Democratic teachers — say that these current debates about curriculum are having a negative impact on their ability to do their job.”
A majority of teachers say their state governments have too much influence over curriculums.
Horowitz said Thursday’s survey is part of a series of studies on teaching and how it is changing. The report included a question to the American public about parents’ ability to have their children opt out of LGBTQ or race lessons. More say parents should be able to exclude their children from learning about LGBTQ issues than say the same about topics related to race, 54% versus 34%, according to the report.
But most teachers, 60%, say parents should not be able to opt out their children from learning about racism or racial inequality in school, even if the way these topics are taught conflicts with the parents’ beliefs, according to the report.
Meanwhile, half of K-12 teachers said students shouldn’t learn about gender identity in school, specifically whether a person’s gender can be different from or is determined by their sex assigned at birth.
Other findings include a sizable share of teens, 48%, say they would prefer not to learn about gender identity in school. And 48% of teens said they prefer to learn that the legacy of slavery still affects the position of Black people in American society today.