Gay history, identity, and tolerance is to become an integral part of the curriculum in Scottish schools and if that idea makes you angry or frustrated, if it makes you reach for phrases like “politically correct” or “woke”, if you think it will be bad for children or confuse them, if you think it’s shocking, or sickening, or even perverted, then let me tell what’s really going on. Let me tell you about how it used to be.

Take the book I’m reading at the moment: Antonia Fraser’s biography of James VI of Scotland and I of England. We all know that James liked the fellas, but Fraser’s book was published in 1974 when LGBT history and understanding was more primitive to put it mildly. In the book, Fraser explains how James fell for a man when he was young but she goes on to say that “had an equally attractive women come his way at the same propitious moment, the homosexual inclinations of King James might never have been aroused”.

This is pretty much how a lot of people thought in the 1970s (and it’s how some people may still think now): there’s nothing wrong with a gay man that a sufficiently attractive woman can’t put right. But it wasn’t the worst of it. I remember a school trip I went on to the Edinburgh Waxwork Museum in the 1970s (I would have been about nine). Our teacher stopped at the waxwork of James VI and told us that he was “one of those”. He also did the limp-wrist thing to make his meaning absolutely clear. It was prejudice handed down to the next generation. It was prejudice taught.

It is this kind of approach – reduced though it may be from the 1970s – that the new guidance in schools aims to tackle; it also aims to pre-empt a lot of the bullying of gay kids that went on in the 70s and still goes on today (although teachers tell me it’s not as bad as it was 30 years ago). In the old days, when the only gay on the telly was Mr Humphries of the menswear department at Grace Brothers, homophobic bullying was ignored, or not taken very seriously, or only dealt with when it had got totally out of hand and even then it was often dealt with badly because many of the assumptions of the bully were also the assumptions of the teachers.

The new guidance, created by the campaign group Time for Inclusive Education or TIE, takes a different approach by aiming to tackle the problem before it happens. Some of the bullying, for example, comes from traditional ideas of what a boy is or should be and what a girl is or should be and if those can be questioned and challenged at an early stage, perhaps LGBT pupils will be less likely to be bullied. The change has already happened to some extent because of popular culture, where diversity of sexuality and identity is common, and the TIE guidance would aim to encourage the effect and do a similar thing in schools.

READ MORE: Scotland's LGBT teaching resources could soon find their way around the globe

Some of it will be about taking a few pretty simple steps: in English, for example, there are likely to be more poems and novels by gay writers – poems like the sapphic verse written by the Scottish writer Marie Maitland at roughly the same time that James VI was, in Antonia Fraser’s words, “shivering in his royal shoes at the mention of witches”. It is not extraordinary that Maitland’s poem could be taught in Scottish schools; what’s extraordinary is that it hasn’t been taught already.

Of course, we have to do this properly and some teachers and parents have concerns, which I share. For a start, the guidance and information needs to be appropriate to the age of the pupils – in primary classes, for example, it should be about including gay people in wider teaching about role models and historical figures. James VI for example. In the 70s, I was subjected to a teacher doing a limp-wristed impersonation of him. In 2021, by contrast, we can expect King James and his relationships with men to be included – non-judgmentally – in history lessons as a matter of course.

The relationship with parents may also become an issue in some cases and it’s here that more guidance and training is needed for teachers. One secondary teacher told me that there are several children in his school who very openly identify as trans, which demonstrates how acceptance has grown, but the Scottish Government’s guidance on trans pupils is unclear and insufficiently developed. A particular problem is the expectation that teachers will not share information with parents without the child’s permission. Are there exceptions? What happens when parents find out? Could it end up in court? The Government needs to be much clearer about what they expect teachers to do and how they will protect them.

There is also likely to be resistance in some quarters. The teacher I spoke to at the weekend is personally very sceptical about the trans guidance which he said was in danger of becoming nonsensical and unscientific. There will also be parents who will be opposed to the idea for ideological – I would say antediluvian – reasons. One Scottish parent, for example, said the guidance risked confusing pupils “for the sake of making one child feel better”. Others said they were sickened and shocked by the idea.

With respect to the teachers and parents who hold such views – although not with much respect if I’m honest – it is this kind of prejudice that the guidance is seeking to tackle. Jordan Daly, who co-founded TIE, said he was bullied for being gay when he was at school and it had a detrimental impact on his confidence and wellbeing. “It wasn’t until I learned the history of my community that I began to understand that it was perfectly all right to be who I was,” he said.

READ MORE: Pupils encouraged to set up US-style LGBT rights groups in schools

In the end, really, it is for young men like Jordan that the new rules can make a difference and that is undoubtedly a good thing. Obviously, the TIE guidance is just a starting point and more work will be needed on helping teachers to understand what should or should not be taught at different stages. Teachers also need to know what they should do when – and it would seem inevitable – there is conflict with parents.

However, remember that the new guidance in schools is not the finished product – it is simply another step away from how things used to be towards how they could be. I think of that teacher of mine in the 70s doing an impression of gay King James and I think about the prejudice it represented: in history, culture, society and – most damagingly of all – in schools. Compare it to a teacher today who tries to show empathy and pass it on to his pupils. That’s all the new guidance is trying to do: compassion, understanding, tolerance. And, in a modern and diverse society, it’s not a lot to ask for is it?

Our columns are a platform for writers to express their opinions. They do not necessarily represent the views of the Herald.