What About the Book Report?

A first grader brings home a book in which:

. . .the leading character, Prince Bertie, waves off a bevy of eligible princes before falling for Prince Lee.

The book ends with the princes marrying and sharing a kiss.

The elementary school's principal comments:

"We have a lot of diversity in our schools," said Elizabeth Miars, Freeman's principal. "What might be inappropriate for one family, in another family is a totally acceptable thing."

Guh.

I'll say it again, guh. Does a book on homosexual relationships belong in an elementary school library? No. Is this isolated? I hope so, but I seriously doubt that. Apparently, the book may have been on a selection guide. A selection guide? That probably means that materials that are deemed appropriate for school children are chosen at the whims of the school librarian in conjunction with whomever puts together these selection guides.

(ed: Maybe our own R.G. has some thoughts on this)

There is no doubt that the worldviews of the aforementioned librarian and selection committees are going to be expressed in their opinions of what is appropriate and what is not appropriate. It is their choice of materials that will influence the worldviews of the children who learn from them. This also applies to the faculty and administration as well.

My wife and I want to send our kids to public school, we think that it is important that they are exposed to the world and understand how their faith might interact with that world. Part of that decision also means that we have little control over what they will be learning. I really have to wonder at the kind of discussions we're going to have when they get home. Maybe we're going to have to preface many of those discussions with Paul's remarks in Romans:

"For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures." (1:21-23)

"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper." (1:28)