Seasons,
You asked what we think about the “educational part of this matter,” but I’m not convinced that any discussion of your school’s education policy can be separated from opinions about the legitimacy of transgenderism or homosexuality. I suspect that the reason some of the teachers in your school are pushing back against this part of the curriculum has to do with a belief — intuited or informed — that the truly pernicious rhetoric is that which is being turned out by the advocates of the LGBT cause, and that any attempt to counter that rhetoric with their own “rhetoric-laced teaching” is perfectly justifiable. Indeed, I am far more sympathetic toward those disgruntled teachers than I am to the social engineers who are feverishly trying to force their half-baked agenda into the minds of children. Academically speaking, the question of the social or moral legitimacy of transgenderism and homosexuality is far from being settled in favor of those who support these habits, or dispositions, or whatever you want to call them.
Bible thumpers aside, there is a significant proportion of the learned class that remains skeptical of the moral claims issued by the LGBT — and for good reason. The so-called “scientific evidence” advanced in defense of homosexuality and transgenderism is beset by less than satisfactory data collection methods, and researchers’ conclusions are often more conjectural than concrete. Indeed, some of these peer-reviewed researchers explicitly say that sociological factors may still be determinants in the emergence of homosexual and transgender tendencies. No surprise there, for anyone who puts some thought into the matter. But even philosophical arguments in favor of homosexuality and transgenderism are not immune to serious challenge. The most common philosophical fallback position in this debate is the libertarian no-harm principle. Yet, as I have stressed in various posts on this forum, the no-harm principle proves to be a double-edged sword for many of those who wield it. Whether we define harm in physical or psychological terms, we find ourselves confronting other sexual or identity-based conditions whose related practices we find morally repellent and, more important, worth suppressing via law and social norms. This, despite the fact that many of these still-closeted groups do not harm others as a matter of course.
At any rate, the kids at your school may be failing tests and flunking out, but I fail to see how steamrolling a transgender-friendly policy into the curriculum is going to solve those problems.