A planned Waukee Northwest High School Spanish lesson has caused concern for some parents in the district.
The very first slide asks for the name, block and instructs students to complete all slides and turn in on canvas.
There is a story presented in nine slides where students are asked to answer the comprehension questions in English.
Pat and Pepe are getting married, says the first slide. They are in love, they love each other a lot.
Pat and Pepe are “very different people.” And while they prepare for the wedding, Pat’s preparation is different from Pepe’s.
The pronoun “elle” is used in the little story. Elle is a “fringe third-person gender-neutral pronoun,” according to Wikipedia. She in Spanish is “ella” and he is “él.” But the teacher apparently changed the pronoun to “elle.”
The final slide in the story is from the wedding day. Pat and Pepe are very different, but they’re very happy and both lived happily ever after, the story says.
Amor es amor! (Love is Love) — proclaimed at the end of the story.
Another part of the story talks about Pat and how he paints his nails and puts on makeup.
Google Translate must be confused as well as it references Pat as painting “her” nails and “she” being very elegant today. Despite Pat clearly being a dude. Pat also gets dressed and wears a white tuxedo before “she” puts on perfume and gold jewelry. That page also uses the pronoun “elle.”
The Iowa Standard reached out to the district on Friday evening asking if this lesson had been taught and if they believed it to be appropriate.
As of Tuesday afternoon, we have not received a response.
