Teachers Are Unprepared for Gender Identity—and It’s Dangerous
Part 2: A Conversation About Gender Identity in K-12 Education
This post is part of a three-part series examining the role of K-12 education in addressing gender identity issues.
Part 1: Why Are We Trusting a Broken System to Handle Gender Identity?
Part 3: It’s Time to Boldly Insist Schools Prioritize Academic Focus
Part 1 of this series tackled the difficult question: Why Are We Trusting a Broken System to guide students through sensitive and complex issues like gender identity? We explored how the education system is struggling to meet basic academic goals—failing to prepare students in reading, writing, and math—and how layering these responsibilities onto already overwhelmed teachers only compounds the problem.
Now, we shift the focus to the two critical factors of the equation: time and expertise. While teachers care deeply for their students, they simply don’t have the training or bandwidth to address such deeply personal issues meaningfully. Let’s look deeper at why this matters and why we should be cautious about asking too much from our educators.
The Expertise Problem
When we talk about gender identity, we’re dealing with complex psychological, medical, and social dimensions that require specialized training to understand fully. This complexity demands the attention of professionals trained in these areas—not teachers who, despite their best intentions, do not receive this kind of education.
According to the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS), the percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds identifying as transgender surged by 422%, from 0.59% in 2014 to 3.08% in 2023.1 If a 400%+ increase in drug use or obesity-related illnesses—areas also included in the BRFSS—were occurring in our recent high school graduates, wouldn’t we be sounding the alarm and calling in the experts rather than relying on school administrators or teachers to handle it?
Medical and mental health professionals—such as psychologists, psychiatrists, and licensed counselors—spend 8 to 12 years training to navigate the complexities of gender dysphoria and other gender identity-associated mental health risks like depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Even after earning their credentials, they must complete 20 to 40 hours of continuing education annually to stay current on the latest research and best practices. This rigorous training equips them to provide better informed, evidence-based support for issues as sensitive as gender identity—and yet, they’re still trying to keep up.
In contrast, teachers, despite their dedication, receive little to no formal training in mental health or gender identity issues. They are simply not equipped to handle these sensitive topics. While their well-meaning support might be offered with the best of intentions, without the proper context or tools, teachers can unintentionally lead to confusion or exacerbate mental health issues.
We must rely on trained mental health experts, not teachers, to lead these crucial conversations. The stakes are too high for trial and error, and students deserve the proper support from those qualified to offer it.
Let’s look at it from a different angle - The Porsche Analogy
Imagine you’ve dreamed of owning a vintage Porsche 911 since you were eight years old. You had posters plastered all over your childhood bedroom, never missed a classic car show, and after decades of hard work, you finally buy one—slate grey, and she’s a beauty. You wash it religiously, only drive it a couple of times a week, and never let anyone eat or drink in it.
One day, during afternoon pickup, you see me—your kid’s teacher—offering oil changes in the school parking lot. When you pull up, I proudly tell you that I believe in regular oil changes, always get them done on my car, and I’ve even watched a few YouTube tutorials. Would you trust me to change the oil on your prized Porsche?
Now, imagine I offer to replace your timing belt as an additional service. My guess is you’d hit the gas and speed off, realizing I have no idea what I’m talking about—after all, vintage Porsches have timing chains, not belts, and rarely need replacing.
If you wouldn’t trust an amateur with your car, why would you trust someone without the proper expertise to guide your child through something as deeply personal and potentially permanent as their gender identity?