Age appropriate?

Many of the proposition 8 TV ads have been focusing on the issue of whether or not school children will be taught about gay marriage. This isn't my main concern about the issue (my concern can be found here). Personally, I think it's a good thing for public schools to teach tolerance and respect for all varieties of lifestyles, as long as they observe the recommendation found in the California education code to keep this teaching "age appropriate".

On that note, I want to share with you this article about a Hayward California kindergarten class who were given pledge cards to sign, thus promising that they will not use anti-LGBT slurs and will promote a safe school atmosphere. I'm all for kids using respectful language, but do we really need to address it at age 5? Obviously some people out there think we do, and I'm sure they have their reasons, but I'm trying to imagine what explanation my mom would have given me if I had asked the definition of "transgendered" when I was a kindergartner.

Here's a picture from the article that pretty much illustrates what I'm saying, kindergarten is probably too early:


I think to really understand what I was signing, 5-year-old Benji would have to ask mom what the following words mean: harassment, regardless, sexual, orientation, gender, ally, LGBT, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, slur, intervene.

Before you panic thinking this is going to be the new norm, you should know that these materials (pledge cards) were intended for middle and high school students.

Also from the article, here's a sign that was in the school as part of the festivities:



How would 5-year-old Benji react? Something along the lines of "Sweet! Free stickers!"
I wonder if the meeting was really in room 1 and some smart alec changed it to 19.