18 February 2008

For the LOVE of FAMILY

As many of you know, I am in grad school for my Masters in School Library Media. In the year and a half that I have been taking classes, one book in particular has been creating a stir. That book would be And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson (it's a children's book).

In a nutshell, this book is about two male penguins who are given an egg to hatch at the zoo. It is based on a true story. It is based on nature (male penguins do help out with hatching the egg-hasn't anyone seen March of the Penguins?)

Anyway, as I'm sure you've guessed, the problem is that many people think that this book is pushing homosexuality and just not appropriate for children.

In today's Washington Post, yet another school district took the book off the shelves and placed it with professional materials. (For those not in schools, that means that students may NOT check the book out.) All this because of ONE parents' complaint. Two different groups of school administrators, teachers and parents said the book was okay, but the district took the book off the shelf because the complaining parent was going to appeal the decision once again.

As one woman was quoted in the article as saying that we all have different families-a mom and dad, two moms, two dads, solo mom, solo dad, grandmom, etc. What does a typical family look like? What does it matter as long as there is love?

To all of my friends with children-take the time to explain to them about families (human and animal) and help them become open minded about things that are different than what they know.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is so true. Who is to judge what a family is suppose to look like as long as there is loving and caring going on in that relationship.