LGBTQ+ Aware Elementary

At fourth grade, most children aren’t aware or don’t acknowledge things that don’t affect them directly. While I was observing the elementary children, including C, who is in a constant state of motion, made a comment that stopped me in my tracks, and he just returned to what he was doing as though he had asked about the weather. To give some background, the class was discussing  Egyptian pharaohs and if the binary genders could be a pharaoh. When the other children debated about whether or not only men or women could be pharoahs, it was brought up that both Tut and Cleopatra (who seemed to be the most significant) were both pharoahs, and C simply said, “Maybe King Tut was transgender.” A couple of the kids appeared confused by his statement, but the majority just accepted it as a part of the conversation. The idea of LGBTQ+ people being so openly discussed at such a young age was completely baffling to me; as I looked at my peers, I could tell they too were shocked by his statement.

After this statement was said, the teachers and the rest of the class continued on without preamble, but I was too deep in my thinking to be able to watch as closely as I had been. How did he know about transgender people? Does he know someone who is transgender? How much more does he know about the LGBTQ+ community? At first these thoughts seemed normal going through my head, because I know that when I was in elementary school, I had no idea what anything other than a mom and dad were, or that other people did not identify as how they were born. Then I got to thinking about my own views and experience; I come from a small town where everyone knows everything and anything different is frowned upon; it makes sense that I would not have learned about the LGBTQ+ community.

However, C (and the rest/majority of the elementary), live in Columbia, MO, which is significantly more diverse than my hometown. Just going to the store or downtown I see so many different variations of religions, opinions, physical appearances, races, genders, sexualities, families- so many different people living in, what I consider, harmony. In the childrens’ eyes, they don’t see separate and categorize different types of people as different; they just see them as people.

I believe that this is one of those basic lessons that we can learn from children. We frequently are so caught up in our own mindsets and thoughts that we forget to look at the bigger picture. Children, however, do not focus only on the parts they understand. It is like a puzzle, with our various differences as the pieces. We see each piece as separate, divided, and question or feel uncomfortable when we are beside pieces that are different than our own. Children don’t just look at the separate pieces. They look at the whole picture and help the pieces connect with one another, even if some pieces are wildly shaped, sized, or colored, they just accept that they are all part of the puzzle.