Administrators of Grace Church School (GCS) in NYC published a language guide for altering everyday words and terms.

The school issued a 12-page memo to students and parents to “encourage” all to adopt speech that conforms to gender identity philosophy.  It actually suggests that students stop referring to their parents as “dad” and “mom.”

I wish I were making this up.

Parents and “mom and dad” are to be “grown-ups,” “family,” or “folks.” Right. When my kids come through the front door, I want to hear them say, “Hi grown-ups, we’re here!”

Oh, and the GSC “grown-ups” pay $57,000 per year to be told how to rear their children.

Don’t say “wife” and “husband,” but use significant other, partner, or spouse. It matters not that my husband is, well, my husband, and that I am his wife.

Boys and girls, guys, ladies, and gentlemen are out. People, friends, and folks are in. Say goodbye to honey and sweetie. Instead, use the person’s name.

If the people who run GCS were in charge, “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays” would be replaced for-e-ver with “Have a great break!”

Somebody, please give me a break.

And never, as in ever, ask anyone what they got for Christmas or any other holiday. Instead, we are to ask, “Do you celebrate holidays?”

The school’s new guidelines also list the following terms as “outdated”—another way of saying, “Do not speak these”: colorblind, Caucasian, diverse person/student, traditional family, and real parents.

Joe is a colorblind Caucasian who was adopted by the traditional family down the street, but he will be the first to tell you that he considers his mom and dad his real parents. It matters not if it’s true, GSC just kicked me out for saying it.

The school urges students and parents to articulate sexual orientation as a choice rather than an identity. This, as with all the above, is major overstepping. It is the responsibility of schools and teachers to focus on students’ academic progress. Any topic outside that realm belongs to the parents.  

The proposed “Equality” Act in the US Congress contains an item similar to the GSC guide. If passed, public schools would begin teaching gender identity to third graders. Simply put, they would instruct students on how to “choose” whether they want to be a boy or a girl rather than allowing them to go through the natural process of growing up.

Had I been born in today’s generation with different parents, I may have wound up confused and depressed. Growing up with three brothers and the only girl in my neighborhood, I was the literal definition of a tomboy. I played ball, scavenged in the woods and creeks, and rode bikes with the boys. I wore jeans, tennis shoes, and t-shirts except at church and the two days a week I wore dresses to school.

When my brothers went off to Boy Scout Camp, I thought it beyond unlucky to have been born a girl. But little by little, I began to appreciate helping my mother bake cookies, sneaking off for mother-daughter shopping excursions, and hearing my dad tell me I was beautiful. I felt my heart pound when a boy flirted with me and yes, started to enjoy wearing dresses now and then.

I fell in love with a man who is also my best friend. I experienced the most natural highs in my life upon the births of my children. I make a killer apple pie from scratch, and I have never stopped playing sports, hiking, and biking.

My parents—without any help from a school administration—allowed me to go through the natural and rewarding process of growing up. They gifted me a lifetime of confidence in the person I was born to be.

I’m a girl, a sweetheart, a mom, a parent, and a wife—happy that my parents never paid $57,000 tuition for a school to tell me otherwise.  

Uncategorized gender Grace Church School holidays let parents parent overstepping training a child up