Those who know me, know that I feel very strongly about discussions of appropriateness and children (and their books). I write about* children’s books for a living. I can honestly say that I have one of the best jobs in the world, yet on days like today I get very frustrated.
This morning President Obama spoke to school children directly. Our local newspaper ran an article about the speech and posted the e
ntire text of the speech online and still
parents went ballistic. They called school board members, they kept kids out of school, they declared it propaganda, they demanded alternative assignments, that filled the newspaper comments section with hateful and racist comments. All of this name calling and hate speech because the President of the United States wants kids to stay in school, pay attention, live up to their potential, ask questions, watch less tv, work hard, and never give up. If this is brainwashing, I’m okay with these messages.
What I’m not okay with is parents who try to take over the schools because they don’t like the President. I’m not okay with teaching kids that it’s okay to skip school if you don’t like the person who is talking. I’m not okay with teaching kids that you don’t even have to listen if you don’t agree with a person. I’m not okay with teaching kids that it’s okay to make up your mind before you know the whole story. I’m not okay with teaching kids that it’s okay to disrespect the President, their teachers, or other adults role models. I’m not okay with teaching kids that there is only one right way of thinking or one right answer to a problem. I start every semester by telling my students that I will never ask them to agree with everyone’s point of view, but I will ask them to listen and treat each other with respect. It makes me sad when I see parents who use children as an excuse to perpetuate intolerance, disrespect, and hatred.
If Al Capone was old enough to understand and watch television, I would have hoped that he would have watched in school and we would have watched again as a family after school. Since he’s not old enough and won’t be any time soon, I went online and bought books that are often banned or challenged by people who feel that they have the obligation to protect children from the harmful ideas like diversity. Unfortunately, he won’t be able to grow up and say that he remembers when he listened to President Obama at school, but maybe he will grow up being open minded enough that when classmates or their parents try and close down conversations with narrow minded, ignorant rhetoric, he will fight back. Hopefully he will never call our President by hateful slurs because he doesn’t agree with his ideologies. Hopefully, he will never make fun of a classmate who’s skin or family or religion or ability is different from his own.
We can’t afford to buy Al Capone all of the books that I would like him to read, but today I added a few more to his library. Here’s what I got him in honor of all of the ignorant parents who think it’s okay to breed hatred and intolerance in children.
- The Family Book–because families come in all different shapes and sizes
- And Tango Makes Three–because some of those families have two mommies or two daddies
- The Lorax–because recycling is a good thing and we should take care of the environment
- In the Night Kitchen–because naked baby butts are not bad
- Halloween books–because Halloween is not the work of the devil
Obviously, this is a mishmash of books. Diversity and tolerance cannot be taught in a single book, but when children grow up with images of diversity, hopefully they do not turn into close minded adults.
*For those who don’t know me well I do NOT write children’s books, I write about them. I teach critical analysis of children’s and adolescent literature to future teachers.
Al Capone is 4 months old! I have a video below, but I didn’t add captions this time because 1) not all of his new “tricks” are photographable and 2)now that I’m working again, I don’t have much time to play with the movie software.
the official recommendation). As long as he is doing fine on breastmilk alone, we’re not in a huge hurry to change things. Plus starting solids means an extra step with cloth diapers–breastfed poop is water soluble; solids are not. In the meantime, we’re appeasing him with “momsicles” (frozen breast milk on a pacifier) and getting to sit on someone’s lap at the dinner table.
