Huhtala vs. Spanish Oaks Elementary

As I began writing this post, I realized that I haven't shared my 2 previous, similar experiences on my blog and that I needed to catch everyone up before explaining why I feel like I'm fighting a war against my children's school.

First Experience- September
Alex came home and asked Ed what nude art was. He said his teacher showed a picture of nude art and explained some artists paint or sculpt people not wearing any clothes. Alex said he felt "yucky" about it. I e-mailed the teacher (after calming Ed down) and she e-mailed back an explanation. The nude art was on the same page as another picture of art that she wanted to show the kids. She had her hand covering the nude art and explained that artists believe the human body to be beautiful so much of their artwork is depicting the human form. She apologized for her lack in judgement and realized that even though she covered it up, she should not have introduced it in 2nd grade.

Second Experience- October
I was cooking dinner when Hannah, who was reading a book from the 5th grade reading list, asked me what an affair was. 5 minutes later she wanted to know what rape was. She was reading the biography of Rosa Parks for her October Reading Project. I sent the other kids out to play and talked to Hannah. She was a little disturbed by both definitions but we had a good, candid discussion. I e-mailed the teacher and cc'd the principal this time. My position was: 1)when the school sends home a 5th grade reading list, parents think that books on the list are age-appropriate especially if nothing on the list indicates otherwise, 2) Teachers shouldn't put books on a list if they personally haven't read them and, 3) a lot of kids would not ask their parents- they would ask friends or not ask at all. This is dangerous! I also explained that if there was an asterisk by the book or something to alert me to the fact that I might want to supervise the reading of this book that I would have read it first to determine if Hannah was allowed to read it. The teacher e-mailed me back and said that she had met with the entire 5th grade staff and that they were re-doing the list and taking off any book that had not been read by one or more of the teachers. She apologized and thanked me for bringing it to her attention. Hannah now has a new 5th Grade Reading List that contains only books that have been pre-screened.

Yesterday
Hannah came home and asked to speak with me privately. We went into my room (bathroom actually because you know me, I have to multi-task) and she told me that they attended an assembly at school where the "safety instructor" talked to them about good touch and bad touch. The "safety instructor" went into great detail and talked about private parts- why girls have different private parts than boys and vice verse. She also showed a video of a girl who was being molested (I don't think they showed it) by her uncle. Her uncle was touching her private parts and he was making her touch his. The girl had "a secret" that she couldn't share with anyone. Hannah said the whole assembly made her uncomfortable. She said, "I only talk about this kind of stuff with you and Dad." Why are they making me learn about it in school and talk about it? She also told me that there was a 4th grade assembly that last year her teacher opted out of because he said "you should talk about this stuff at home not at school."

I called the office to set up an appointment with the Principal. She didn't call me back so while I was at the school today, I popped into the office. The Principal has had a death in the family so she won't be available for a week or so. That's totally fine. I left another message and told the Secretary to just have Mrs. Tingey call me when she was available and back into the full swing of things. I told the Secretary what my concern was. She told me I was the 3rd parent to complain today about the assembly and that they can't notify parents about those kinds of assemblies because what if the parent is the abuser? I wasn't going to get into it with her but this just got me going! Since when is it the school's job to raise our children? And we think it's going to get any better under Obama? AAAAAAHHHH! (sorry... that was low-blow political jab..... ignore it if you love him)

I believe in sex education in schools. I believe in assemblies that help educate children about dangerous relationships and strangers. I believe in children reading books about the 1960's , and the Holocaust, and all other historic events even if they are horrible. However, I believe that the schools should do all of this WITH the parent's permission, WITH their supervision, and WITH their support.