Catonsville Elementary - Kindergarten

[Anonymous]

Hello!
I have a Kindergartener zoned to start at Catonsville Elementary School. The school generally has had good reviews, but it isn't open to visits or tours, or any other sort of look at what they teach. The BCPS "Kindergarten Curriculum" also doesn't help quite as much.

I'm curious about the curriculum. How strong is the social justice emphasis on the curriculum? In particular, how explicit and detailed is the gender education? Do they broach those topics at the K level?

I don't know any current parents there and am pretty new to the area and don't know of any forums where this sort of thing is discussed.

Thank you for your help.

[Anonymous]

The people I know with kids there seem happy with it. I have no idea about social justice or gender education at the school, but I doubt there’s much of a “dialogue” about that in kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

I'm not at the school you mention, but I teach K and here's what I include:
1) There are no "girl toys and boy toys". All toys are for all kids. Same for colors.
2) Yes, Johnny has long hair. Boys can have any length hair they want. It's his body, and it's up to him.
3) When someone on the playground, or anywhere, says they need a break or don't want to play, we all need to respect what they tell us.
We also talk some about how it's up to them if they want a hug, don't want a hug, privacy in the bathroom, etc, etc.

4) One year I had a 6 year old who kept wanting to line up in the girls line. He also wore his jacket around his waist and said he was wearing a skirt. A few times, he said he was a girl. I stopped having kids line up by gender, and gave everyone a number spot in line because kids were starting to notice and I didn't feel like I was ready to have further conversations about this with them. (my population is largely religious and conservative) But the kids kept teasing him. And as the year wore on, he started saying he was a girl. So, basically, I just said that if so and so said he was a girl, it wasn't up to us to tell him how he felt about it. It was his decision and we all need to just be kind. I have a classroom culture of "we love everyone and they are in charge of their own bodies". So, because that was the case with so many other areas, it wasn't so unusual for me to say it was his body and he was in charge of it.

But honestly, other than this one specific situation, we don't discuss it in K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not at the school you mention, but I teach K and here's what I include:
1) There are no "girl toys and boy toys". All toys are for all kids. Same for colors.
2) Yes, Johnny has long hair. Boys can have any length hair they want. It's his body, and it's up to him.
3) When someone on the playground, or anywhere, says they need a break or don't want to play, we all need to respect what they tell us.
We also talk some about how it's up to them if they want a hug, don't want a hug, privacy in the bathroom, etc, etc.

4) One year I had a 6 year old who kept wanting to line up in the girls line. He also wore his jacket around his waist and said he was wearing a skirt. A few times, he said he was a girl. I stopped having kids line up by gender, and gave everyone a number spot in line because kids were starting to notice and I didn't feel like I was ready to have further conversations about this with them. (my population is largely religious and conservative) But the kids kept teasing him. And as the year wore on, he started saying he was a girl. So, basically, I just said that if so and so said he was a girl, it wasn't up to us to tell him how he felt about it. It was his decision and we all need to just be kind. I have a classroom culture of "we love everyone and they are in charge of their own bodies". So, because that was the case with so many other areas, it wasn't so unusual for me to say it was his body and he was in charge of it.

But honestly, other than this one specific situation, we don't discuss it in K.

OP here. Thanks so much for the response! Those sound like good approaches. It's a good idea to do the numbers!