books, awards, and adults

Anyone in California who voted is aware of Prop 8. Several of us blogged about it. Many people went out and stood on street corners to show their support for traditional marriage before the vote occurred. November 4th came and went with a majority of the voters choosing to uphold the definition of traditional marriage: between one man and one woman.

When E (our 5 year old who is in kindergarten) came home from school saying her teacher read a book about families I half listened while cleaning the clutter in my family room. Then when she said, "We learned some families have two moms and some families have two dads." I stopped in my tracks. She looked at me as if to say, "What's your opinion on this mom?" She sat patiently awaiting my response to her statement of fact. I carefully said, "That's right. Some families have two moms, and some families have two dads." Then I continued with, "But in our family, we believe marriage is only between one man and one woman." I left it at that. A couple of days later I reinforced the positive message of eternal families and how when one man and one woman go together to the temple to be married/sealed, their family will be together ... forever. I did not mention the book or anything else relating to same-sex couples.

(Hopefully at this point your mouth is wide open and you have already gasped.)

My 5 year old should NOT be introduced to this subject or any other alternative life-style issue, and neither should yours nor anyone else's. It is entirely inappropriate. My mother is an assistant principal. She like most educators is liberal. I called and chatted with her about what transpired and she said, "At the elementary age level, the school should be teaching children the norms and morals of society. You establish the base first. Then when they are old enough, kids who want to seek out information on alternative life styles can and will seek it out." I agree. Don't you?

Now let's get to the book. The author, Todd Parr, has written about 20 or so children's books. The one that was read to my child in her kindergarten class was about families. The author used animals to depict families of different sizes, shapes, and colors (he used bright, lively colors). A few of the pages illustrated actual humans in the family unit. One such page had a human family pictured along with words that said something about some families have a step-mom or step-dad and/or step-sisters or step-brothers. Two whole pages later, after the author covered other differences in families, he gingerly slipped in the problem page: "Some families have two moms. Some families have two dads." The page was split in half horizontally. Two human women were featured on the top half with a yellow background. Two human men were featured on the bottom half with a purple background.

My 5 year old picked up on the author's message in a heart beat. The problem page was in fact the ONLY page she mentioned when she got home that day. She said nothing else about any of the other cute colorful pages with poodles and people sporting similar hair dos. The author accomplished his goal. He infiltrated the innocent mind of my 5 year old. He robbed her of her innocence. He robbed our family of the opportunity to protect our child from issues beyond her ability to comprehend at this tender age of life. All this loss for the gain of the (I'm guessing here) .5% of children in the U.S. living with same-sex couples? Anyone else perplexed by the oxymoron here? Why on earth is a book of this nature in the elementary school's library? The same school that my taxes pay for. The taxes which come from members of society, which members voted to uphold the definition of traditional marriage.

Moving along (yes, the story continues) to the other not-so-nice aspect of my story. This author won an award for said book. In fact, he has won several awards. I'm not surprised that people are drawn to his colors and playful use of animals and characters to depict his subject. I am however surprised that adults with intelligence were willing to publish his work as a children's book. He could have targeted the teen audience who would be better suited to understand his subject matter. But no, he chose an audience ill equipped to process his words. What a sad agenda.

Still pressing forward by going back to the beginning, we contacted the teacher to find out exactly what the book said and what it was about. She checked it out from the school library and handed it over to me "to take home and read with (your) husband." As you can tell by what I said above, we were shocked by the content of the problem page. I returned it to the teacher and politely explained our disagreement with the book and that my husband would be asking the principal to remove it from the school library. My husband met with the principal who handed him paper work and said, "The book was bought by the district. You'll have to contact them to have it removed. It is likely in every elementary-school library in the district." When my husband inquired whether any other books by this author were in the library the principal replied that there was one more. Guess what, it- while written on a different subject- had the exact same problem page within its core.

Drew is out of town. When he returns, he'll schedule an appointment with the district representative to turn in our paper work for "requested removal of a book." If needed, we will take on the school district. I am hopeful that the adults employed by the district are more sensible than those who hand out awards to children's book authors. I am not holding my breath though. I'm keenly aware that they are educators too. After all, someone in this district thought purchasing this book was a good idea. Please let it not be the same lady we're about to establish a relationship with.