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Bill would restrict use of gender-neutral terms in certain world language classes [1]
['Kathie Obradovich', 'More From Author', '- January']
Date: 2024-02
Republicans on an Iowa House panel voted to move forward with a bill that would restrict instruction of gender-neutral language by world language teachers in grades 9-12.
House File 2060 would prohibit the introduction of gender-neutral terms in public and private-school classes teaching a language “that utilizes a grammatical gender system.” A House subcommittee advanced the bill Monday with two votes in favor.
Rep. Bill Gustoff, R-Des Moines, said he proposed the bill after being contacted by two teachers who “were being told to gender neutralize how they teach foreign languages that are, by nature, gender infused.”
One of the teachers was facing disciplinary action and the other was “going to quit her job” over the requirement, Gustoff said.
Some languages commonly taught in K-12 schools, including Spanish and French, traditionally assign genders to nouns. For example, “house,” which in Spanish is “la casa,” is feminine and car, or “el auto,” is masculine. Some nouns referring to people are assigned genders depending on the gender of the person: “El hermano” means brother, “la hermana” means sister.
The bill was opposed by representatives of several state education associations and LGBTQ advocates.
A Des Moines North High School teacher and linguist, Tye Nyhus Nelson, told lawmakers that the nonbinary Spanish pronoun, “elle,” is among the many vocabulary words and structures taught in class.
“Students do their best when they can be themselves alongside their fellow community members, and when each of them feels seen, heard and valued by others,” Nelson said. “Banning instruction that affirms students’ identities is harmful, obfuscating the reality of (the) diverse world in which they live and that they will inherit, is counterintuitive in preparing them to be future ready.”
Keenan Crow of One Iowa, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, noted that legislation passed last year allows students to change their pronouns with parental permission. “Now that we have this bill in place that requires trans and nonbinary kids to get permission slips from their parents, their parents are effectively saying, ‘This is how I want you to refer to my kid.’ And it doesn’t get an exemption simply because of a foreign language class,” Crow said.
Oliver Bardwell of Iowans for Freedom spoke in favor of the bill, saying it’s best to keep issues related to students’ gender out of the classroom.
Rep. Heather Matson, D-Ankeny, asked Gustoff which school districts were ordering teachers to incorporate general-neutral terms. He declined to identify the districts during the meeting.
Matson said she understood his reluctance to identify the districts in a public meeting, but “… if this is an actual problem that’s happening, then we need to know where that is happening in order to have a real conversation about it. Because just saying, ‘I’m hearing from teachers’ and saying, like, this is what they’re saying, without being able to substantiate it — and filing legislation that in my opinion, is legislative overreach — is really concerning to me.”
Rep. Henry Stone, R-Forest City, who supported advancing the bill, expressed concern that Iowa students would be learning a version of a world language that native speakers would not recognize. “And I agree languages are evolving, but it’s not up to a … school district and the state of Iowa to tell the entire world (that) speaks French that you’re done speaking certain endings of your words and certain definite articles,” Stone said.
The bill moves next to the House Education Committee for consideration.
This story has been updated to correct Rep. Bill Gustoff’s party. He is a Republican.
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