Intellectual Freedom-Post 2
For my reconsideration project I am doing the book And Tango Makes Three. As I was searching the internet for information on schools and just on the book I found a recent article concerning a school in California. I was shocked that controversy still follows this book but then I thought:
1-Books like Huck Finn are still controversial
2-My own case is just back from last year
So it looks like the arguments against the book will never go away.
This article talks about how the Alameda CA. School districts will be teaching And Tango Makes Three to their second grade students as part of an anti-bullying (including homosexuality) curriculum. What is making many people angry about this is the school is not giving the choice for parents to have their child opt out of the lesson. The school board voted 3-2 to allow this curriculum in the schools.
People who are against the curriculum think that the opposite will happen:
"But School Board Member Trish Spencer, who also voted against the plan, said she worries that its implementation could lead to the harassment of students who have religious objections to homosexuality.
“If there were students that answered that they that they did not think that (the two male penguins) were a couple, or that they did not think that they were good parents, based upon their religious beliefs., that could in fact increase bullying against those students from a protected class,” Spencer said."
“If there were students that answered that they that they did not think that (the two male penguins) were a couple, or that they did not think that they were good parents, based upon their religious beliefs., that could in fact increase bullying against those students from a protected class,” Spencer said."
It seems like this is a case of you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. No matter what someone will get bullied according to both people for and against the curriculum. I think it's great that the school is doing this so children may learn at an early age that everyone is different. We all may come from different backgrounds but we all the same inside.
However no matter what the curriculum does, it depends on what the parents say-if the parents go on and on about how the book is wrong and the lesson is dumb and not needed than the children will most likely think that also. Children just don't grow up with the idea that two daddies is wrong-they had to have heard it somewhere. At an age where the parents are always right the lesson may go over few children's heads anyway.
posted by Amy at 5:09 PM
1 Comments:
Amy, you are correct when you say that children are not born thinking having two fathers is wrong; nor are they born thinking it is right. Much of what they believe comes from those who have authority over them, parents AND teachers, so maybe the lessons from And Tango Makes Three won't be lost on them afterall; however, receiving conflicting messages from their parents and teachers is likely to be very confusing. It does seem a no-win situation: no child should be bullied for his sexual orientation or her religion. But even if parents were given the choice to opt-out, wouldn't those children be looked at as somehow different--and thus possibly become targets, too? I don't have any answers, but clearly there are all sorts of families, and children need to learn as early as possible that someone's (perceived) differences are not a license to bully or ridicule that person. Parents with objections to the book should at least make that lesson clear to their children: you need not agree with everything a person is, says, or does to treat that person with the respect he/she is due simply because he is a fellow human being--or penguin!
June 2, 2009 at 8:17 AM
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