How old is old enough to start questioning gender identity? In Bourbon, Missouri, sixth-grade children were asked about their sexual orientation and whether they wanted to change their gender. According to ABC News 7, each kid’s parents were sent a letter explaining that children did not have to answer any questions that made them feel uncomfortable. However, children were reportedly told if they didn’t answer all the items on the survey, which also covered the topics of drugs and suicide, they would get into trouble.

Understandably, parents were outraged.

“The most inappropriate one [question] was if they were transgender or thought about changing genders,” Samantha Overkramer told ABC News. “My daughter, I mean she just doesn’t understand that.”

Another parent, Courtney West said, “A lot of that was completely ridiculous for an 11-year-old to have to answer.”

In response to the bevy of complaints, the school district did finally remove sexual orientation from the tests.

Choosing Gender in Kindergarten

Washington state has started a new program that teaches gender orientation as young as kindergarten. The Washington State Learning Standards set forth a rulebook of guidelines for K-12 students, including addressing sexual orientation to children as young as five. The Family Policy Institute of Washington said:

Beginning in Kindergarten, students will be taught about the many ways to express gender. Gender expression education will include information about the manifestations of traits that are typically associated with one gender. Crossdressing is one form of gender expression.

To make things even more disturbing, these institutions aren’t required to inform parents when questioning or testing the children on gender specifications.

Children are impressionable. They are like little sponges that soak up information. Small children, especially those in kindergarten, are too young to grasp the meaning of gender identification. At this age, they are busy exploring the immediate world around them, worrying about their favorite toys, and hoping to get an extra cookie at snack time. We, as a society, should not be burdening them with this latest gender craze that affects less than 3% of the population.

Tim Loughton, a former children’s minister, told the Gospel Herald Society:

“At a time when children are growing up and having to deal with all sorts of challenges of the modern world, now they are being asked to confront their gender, which for many will be unsettling,” he said. “Clearly we need to be sensitive about the issue of gender and sexual orientation but forcing children to question whether they are the right gender so early on can be deeply destabilizing.”

How are these lessons being taught to our youth? Are they undermining the core values taught at home? “It is frightening to think that students who hold traditional beliefs about gender and sexual identity may have to choose between accepting politically correct talking points or failing assignments and being ostracized by school administrators,” The Herald wrote.

Perhaps if more parents homeschooled their children, districts would take notice. After all, fewer students mean less funding. How long will practices such as this hold up when the money dries up?