affirming school – A teacher and parent who recently moved to New Mexico says the shift in policies and school climate there contrasts with the fear that spread after the 2024 election. Their account connects book access and affirming teaching to the safety and wellbeing of quee
On an ordinary day, the classroom is where the fear shows up quietly.
For a teacher and parent who recently transplanted to New Mexico. it begins at home—children crawling into a lap with a book while the adult keeps processing footage of children suffering in conflicts on the other side of the world. It continues in school. where their high school students write poetry that leaves them speechless. even as the teacher privately wonders what opportunities will look like in a world where more investment is going toward artificial intelligence than toward the arts.
But what has made the last stretch of time feel especially strange and heartbreaking is the way politics has entered the room. After the 2024 election. the teacher describes a shockwave sweeping through their school as students grappled with what “another Trump presidency” would mean for their futures.
The contrast is sharp. In New Mexico. the teacher says their local school district has yet to pivot to hybrid learning in response to the “palpable fear parents felt. ” while “the actions of federal agents created widespread fear” in the community. At the same time. they say New Mexico is not banning books or restricting curricula—and that different choices are shaping whether students feel safe enough to learn.
The educator teaches at a performing arts school and says they have a high percentage of queer and trans students. That demographic. they note. is different from their previous school in California. where most LGBTQ+ students often chose to remain closeted until well after graduation. The teacher says they grieve what those earlier students “lost” when they couldn’t acknowledge or affirm queer and trans classmates—especially in English class. where they missed “robust discussions” and the depth queer and trans peers brought to literary work. In this account, that loss wasn’t abstract. It was felt in the kinds of coursework students didn’t get: discussions that would have been more analytical and more engaging when students could draw on queer theory.
Safety, in this telling, is what makes the difference between a school that simply tolerates identities and one that embraces them.
The teacher stresses that guaranteed care from the state does not automatically protect trans students if authority figures are exposed to negative messaging about transgender people or if lack of insurance blocks access to life-saving care. Even so. they say trans students in New Mexico are able to attend school in an environment shaped by teachers “largely committed to affirming a variety of gender identities. ” selecting curriculum that allows LGBTQ students to see themselves. and building bonds among peers across the gender spectrum. They also say LGBTQ teachers help embody a hopeful future—what it means to be your full self in a career.
Extensive research, the teacher adds, confirms that affirming environments like theirs can be life-saving for LGBTQ teens, especially trans students.
This is where the educator’s earlier optimism meets present-day urgency. Earlier in their career, they say they felt optimistic about queer and trans students’ futures. Today. seeing trans students grapple with new political realities has renewed their commitment to making an optimistic future visible for them—especially because. as they put it. there is “no one for whom this is more crucial” than queer and trans students.
Their account then widens into questions that feel less like policy debates and more like stakes they live with. What would it look like. they ask. if all children could attend high-quality early childhood education without adding to the financial burden on a growing family?. What does it look like when gender-affirming care is protected by law?. Or when lawmakers prohibit book and curriculum censorship?. Or when school shootings stop being treated as a certainty of American life?.
The teacher says these questions will remain abstract while they watch students as young as Liam Ramos fear for their lives—but they argue the future cannot be built without imagining something better now. They close with gratitude for students, past and present, who keep pushing their imagination forward.
The piece is part of an EdSurge series chronicling diverse educator experiences, made publicly available with support from the Learning Commons. EdSurge says it maintains editorial control over all content, and the work is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
New Mexico education queer students trans students book censorship curriculum hybrid learning performing arts school education policy LGBTQ affirming environments school safety Liam Ramos