Questions about ‘gender identity’ for an 11-year-old don’t belong in public school

My 11-year-old son is in the sixth grade in the New York City public school system. Middle school, like the Middle Ages, as we all remember, is a confusing time, a time to discover who one really is. 

So imagine how furious I was to find out that my son, let me repeat that, my SON, was recently asked what his gender identity is on, of all things, a teacher evaluation form. 

Let’s set to one side the abject absurdity of 11-year-olds even filling out teacher evaluation forms. Though it is related. They are evaluating educators on the basis of what exactly? Their one decade of vast experience and knowledge? When I was in middle school we still labored under the naive notion that it is teachers who evaluate children.

As the online form flows to the bottom, the questions become demographic in nature. What is your race? Do you feel people like you are represented in the lessons? That kind of thing. Then finally, boom. “What is your gender identity?” The options being “Boy,” “Girl”, “I use another word,” or opting not to answer.

Let me start right off by saying that personally I no more believe that a man can become a woman, or the reverse, than that Joe Biden can play for the Lakers. But even if I’m wrong about that, gender dysphoria is a serious medical condition, and as such, it requires medical diagnosis, not self-identification by pre-teens on a Department of Education survey form.

The question, “What is your gender identity,” on an official form plants a dangerous seed in the minds of children.

Obviously, this question is not only leading, but expresses as reality something that many, and let’s be honest, its probably most, Americans do not believe is real. 

Notice that while you see polls that ask about transgender rights, you never see the simple question, “Can a man become a woman?” put to that test. That’s because the…