Elementary school students in Sandwich Public Schools are taught that gender exists on a spectrum and that they are wrong to think two genders exist through a lesson known as the “Genderbread Person,” according to curriculum materials highlighted by the Massachusetts Family Institute.
The lesson is part of the sixth-grade sex education curriculum at Oak Ridge School in Sandwich – an elementary school that serves Grades 3 through 6.
"Gender is often misunderstood as binary (ONLY 2 OPTIONS), but it's far more complex," the school's Genderbread Person lesson says.
The Genderbread Person is a graphic that teaches students that anatomical sex, gender identity, and gender expression are separate concepts.
The lesson appears in curriculum materials under “Puberty, Gender & Sexual Orientation Grade 6.”
According to the lesson, gender identity refers to how a person thinks about himself or herself. Gender expression refers to how a person presents himself or herself through clothing, appearance, and behavior. Meanwhile, it says that sex refers to physical traits such as chromosomes and anatomy.
The creator of the Genderbread Person, Sam Killermann, has said the model allows for effectively limitless gender identities because people can identify in different ways across multiple spectrums.
“The schema used here to map out gender … result[s] in infinite possibilities of ‘gender’ for a person,” Killermann wrote in an explanation of the graphic.
As NewBostonPost has previously reported, several districts in Massachusetts use the Genderbread Person and variants like the Gender Unicorn and Genderbread Cookie to teach gender ideology in schools.
However, Sandwich is one of the districts where it happens at the youngest ages. Sixth-graders are typically 11 or 12 years old.
Sandwich is a Cape Cod town in Barnstable County with about 20,000 residents.
The curriculum comes as national debate continues over what public schools should teach children – and what type of sex-ed materials are appropriate for children.
