Massachusetts public school district teaching first graders gender ideology

First graders in a Massachusetts public school district are being taught about gender theory as part of their social studies curriculum, according to documents shared with families this month.

A handout in Lexington Public Schools says students will learn about “gender expression,” explaining that “a person might feel like a boy, girl, both, or neither.” The lesson introduces children to “nonbinary identity,” an umbrella term for people who identify as something other than male or female.

One suggested text for the lesson is Jacob’s New Dress, a children’s book by Sarah Hoffman about a boy who wears dresses.

Introducing concepts of gender identity in early elementary classrooms suggests school officials are prioritizing leftist ideology over academics, critics argue.

Lexington is not the only Massachusetts school district teaching children gender theory.

Public schools in Sharon, Mansfield, Uxbridge, Old Rochester, Dover-Sherborn, Hanover, Chelmsford and Hadley use the “Genderbread Person” graphic in their health curricula, NewBostonPost reports. The visual is designed to depict gender not as binary, but as existing on a spectrum, a concept promoted by activist Sam Killermann, who created the resource.

“The schema used here to map out gender (the ‘-ness’ model) allows individuals to plot where they identify along both continua to represent varying degrees of alignment with the traditional binary elements of each aspect of gender, resulting in infinite possibilities of ‘gender’ for a person,” Killermann writes on genderbread.org.

Public opinion does not support such lessons. A May 2025 Public Religion Research Institute poll found 66% of Americans believe there are only two genders, while 34% say more than two exist.

The same Lexington curriculum materials also emphasize lessons on other identity categories. Children are prompted to consider race, ethnicity, disability and family structures.

“My skin color, the shape of my eyes and the look and feel of my hair are all beautiful,” the race section of the handout tells students. “Lots of people have the same skin color, eye shape, and hair texture as me, and lots of people have different skin color, eye shapes, and hair texture.”

Lexington is a wealthy Massachusetts suburb of about 34,000 people located 10 miles northwest of Boston. It is best known historically as the site of the opening skirmish of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775.