Anonymous Patron writes “”We are outraged,” said the mother, Robin Wirthlin, to the local Article 8 Alliance, a resistance group that now urges other parents to help ban the book in classrooms. “This is a highly charged social issue. Why are they introducing it in the second grade? And we cannot present our family’s point of view to our children if they don’t tell us what they’re saying to them.”
edgeboston.com Reports on the outrage.
“We couldn’t run a public school system if every parent who feels some topic is objectionable to them for moral or religious reasons decides their child should be removed,” Superintendent Paul Ash said to the Boston Globe.
“Lexington is committed to teaching children about the world they live in, and in Massachusetts same-sex marriage is legal.””
King and King
While I do agree that there probably should have been a warning that this was being read, I think it’s entirely appropriate that it was read as a smaller part of the “wedding” cirriculum. Especially here in Massachusetts, where gay marriage is legal.
I think it’s even better that the school is standing by the teacher’s decision.
I guess, though, as far as warnings go, it’s a “damned if you do damned if you don’t” sort of situation. Do you really think, if there was warning given that King and King was being read, that the parents that objected would have just quietly withdrew their kids from that section of class that day?
We have this book in our library, along with Heather Has Two Mommies and one I’m not so familiar with called something like Daddy’s Roommate. It’s on the parental shelf, classified as an adult book, but in the children’s room, so that parents can check it out as they see fit. It’s there with books on grieving and other topics that might be heavy for a child.
I am glad we can offer a more rounded view of the world at the library than is possible in the classroom. I feel for this teacher, who I am sure thought long and hard before opting to read King and King. The purpose of the home, IMNSHO, is to instill values consistent with what each family believes in a child. The purpose of a school is to prepare kids for the world in which they live.
Re:King and King
I disagree. It’s only legal here in MA because the courts say so and because voters haven’t been given a chance to vote on it. A few more stories like this and when they do get a chance to vote on it I doubt gay marriage will survive.
I also doubt the teacher thought at all beyond their personal politics. A parent cannot instill in their children the values they want them to have if the schools deliberately undermine those values. The only tools a second grader should be focused on in school is reading, writing, and arithmetic.