By 2021, Scotland will be the world's first country to teach LGBTQ inclusivity and history in all public school nationwide, according to NBC.
The LGBTI Inclusive Education Working Group sent thirty-three recommendations to put forth a curriculum that will teach students legends about LGBT identities, inclusion and history. On November 8th, the Scottish government approved all thirty-three, effectively implementing the new curriculum. In 2017, a survey revealed that 71% of LGBTQ students experienced bullying in schools due to their sexual orientation and 94% of the respondents said that the bullying affected their academic performance negatively.
The curriculum will include LGBT terminology and identities as well as address homophobia and prejudice and highlight LGBT achievements in relation to equality. John Swinney, Scotland's Deputy First Minister says that the new curriculum will improve learning for LGBT students and promote understanding and encourage inclusion.
The Scottish Organization, Time for Inclusive Education has lobbied for this change since 2015. One member, Jordan Daly, laments that he never learned about prominent LGBT figures that changed the course of history, even though he learned about important figures who fought for equality such as Martin Luther King Jr. and the suffragettes. This new curriculum is possible because of the Scottish government's dismantling of Section 28, which prohibited teaching about homosexuality.
This is a huge victory as far as I'm concerned, as I never learned about important LGBT figures while I was in school and, while this is in Scotland, I am hopeful that one day the American education system will also include LGBT inclusivity.
h/t: NBC
It’ll be a great,
It'll be a great, entertaining, and important education for students to learn about ancient Greece, Plato, ancient China, Alexander, Francis Bacon, DaVinci, Michelangelo and Botticelli, Hans Christian Anderson and Proust, Frederick the Great, the Samurai and Alan Turing, etc, etc, and…… of course…. King James I, but if they had this in the U.S. it would be reduced to lame boring instructions on the teen-abuser Harvey Milk, Stonewall, and a bunch of silly drag queens.