Gender

Gender: Respecting Student Identities

Safety and belonging are necessary conditions for students to learn at high levels. In the Camas School District, we are committed to fostering learning conditions and an environment that is safe for each student to grow and learn. This requires that we understand, embrace, and celebrate the intrinsic "who" that each student shares with us while at our schools and in our care.

Gender expression is one of the many ways in which our students show us who they are. Our gender is built into our inner-most selves and how we show up in the world. We believe that each student deserves to experience a supportive and nurturing learning environment, especially students whose identities and expression are gender-diverse. This is why we continue to support and nurture these learning environments and the children in our schools.

Experience tells us, and research confirms, that children who perceive that their identity is not recognized, valued or respected suffer higher incidence of negative outcomes in physical health, mental health, life expectancy, and learning.

Part of making identity visible is having the language to talk about it. The resources offered here are a place to start building, or extending, knowledge and language so we can learn together how to better support each student in their gender identity and expression.

Resources

To Read: Gender: Your Guide by Lee Airton, PhD

To Watch: Gender Revolution (a Katie Couric Documentary with National Geographic)

To Listen: How To Be A Girl Podcast

To Do: Review the Know The Difference poster

NOTICE: This resource may contain links to websites operated by third parties. These links are provided for your convenience only and do not constitute or imply any endorsement or monitoring by CSD.

What we are learning:

Source of Definitions: Gender Spectrum "The Language of Gender"

Gender vs. Sex: Gender identity refers to our deeply held, internal sense of self as masculine, feminine, a blend of both, neither, or something else. Gender identity can correspond to, or differ from, the sex we are assigned at birth.

Cisgender: Cisgender refers to people whose Gender identity aligns with their assigned sex at birth (cis- from Latin, meaning, “on this side [of].” In contrast to trans, from the Latin root meaning “across,” “beyond,” or “on the opposite side [of]”).

Transgender: Transgender is sometimes is used broadly as an umbrella term to describe anyone whose gender identity differs from their assigned sex. It can also be used more narrowly as a gender identity that reflects a binary gender identity that is “opposite” or “across from” the sex they were assigned at birth.

Gender Expansive: An umbrella term used for individuals who broaden their own culture’s commonly held definitions of gender, including expectations for its expression, identities, roles, and/or other perceived gender norms.

Non-Binary: An umbrella term for gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine.

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Additional Terms Here

What We Are Doing:

Secondary health teachers and counselors continue digging deeper into Washington State's Health Standards, which include a strand on self/gender-identity.
Multiple staff professional learning opportunities focused on understanding and supporting our LBGQT+ youth are scheduled throughout the year.
Based on a community listening post and the work of the district's Student Wellness Advisory Committee, lessons on gender identity from the FLASH curriculum are being re-written in the fall/winter and piloted in the winter/spring of 2019-20.
The district's Community Equity Forum is expanding to include families, staff and students of diverse race, disability, gender, sexual orientation and more. This forum provides a place to listen, learn across difference, grow personally and change our system to see and serve each and every student. Through our connection with each other, we amplify voices that have been silenced or relegated to the margins.
We are expanding professional learning and practice in protocols that honor different values our students and families bring, while upholding expectations for contributing to a caring and respectful learning environment.
Where school communities have the opportunity to serve our gender-diverse youth, staff are engaged in learning and applying strategies to support safety and belonging, and create more inclusive environments that benefit every student.

“Binary notions of gender, biology and sexual orientation exclude large swaths of human diversity. This diversity can be better understood by using spectrum-based models. Spectra make room for anyone whose experiences do not narrowly fit into binary choices such as man/woman, feminine/masculine or straight/gay.”

JOEL BAUM & KIM WESTHEIMER

Teaching-Tolerance-Know-the-Difference-Poster-Summer-2015.pdf

How does gender identity develop in children?

Gender identity typically develops in stages:

Around age two: Children become conscious of the physical differences between boys and girls.
Before their third birthday: Most children can easily label themselves as either a boy or a girl.
By age four: Most children have a stable sense of their gender identity.
Some children experience feelings of "being different" early in childhood, and "coming out" and sharing these feelings of being different with others may happen at any time. For many kids, gender identity becomes clear around puberty.

During this same time of life, children learn gender role behavior—that is, doing "things that boys do" or "things that girls do." However, cross-gender preferences and play are a normal part of gender development and exploration regardless of their future gender identity. See The Power of Play - How Fun and Games Help Children Thrive.

The point is that all children tend to develop a clearer view of themselves and their gender over time. At any point, research suggests that children who assert a gender-diverse identity know their gender as clearly and consistently as their developmentally matched peers and benefit from the same level of support, love, and social acceptance.

To read more, visit HealthyChildren.org, a part of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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