When it comes to race, most U.S. public-school teachers think students should be taught that the legacy of slavery affects Black Americans today and that parents shouldn’t be able to opt their children out of lessons on racism, according to Pew.
At the same time, most educators don’t think schools should teach that a child’s gender can be different from the child’s birth sex. Teachers say this topic usually doesn’t come up in class anyway, the national survey shows.
Meanwhile, more than 40% of teachers said that the high-profile discussions about classroom content have had a negative impact on their jobs. Seven in 10 teachers think that, as a group, they don’t have enough influence over what they teach.
The results shed light on how teachers across the country are reacting to debates and new policies about what should—and should not—be taught in public schools.