Today, something happened that I had to write about and I'm not sure how I really feel about it yet. My son is in Kindergarten and he brings home a book to read daily. Once we've finished reading it, he has to write a comment about the book and sign his name. So, it has become our daily routine to check his backpack when he gets home from school to see what the nightly reading book is.
Well, today, I was caught by surprise. His nightly reading was "You are Special" by Max Lucado. I know of Max Lucado as a christian apologist whose focus is children. Knowing this....I was extremely dismayed that my child's public school was sending this book home with kids.
Despite my dismay, I decided that I should see what the book was about and see how my son reacted to the book. So, we read it this evening. Here is a summary:
The story was about a little village of wooden puppets whose creator, Eli, lived on a hill above them. The puppets spent their days putting stickers on each other..stars for other puppets they liked and gray dots for puppets they didn't like. One little puppet, Punchinello, had dots all over him. This really bothered him to the point where he didn't want to leave his house. Then, one day he met another puppet, Lucia, who had no stickers on her. She explained that stickers didn't stick because she visited Eli every day. So, Punchinello decided to visit Eli. Eli explains that what he (Eli) thinks is more important than what the other puppets think. If Punchinello will trust his love, then the stickers won't stick.
The religious symbolism was lost on my kids because they have not been taught that we were created by a god. (On a side note, the other day we went to a charity dinner that happened to be held at a church. When we pulled up, my daughter asked why we were eating dinner at a hospital. My son informed her it was a church....then he saw the cross and asked, "Why does it have a hospital symbol on it if it's a church?"
) So, the story really did not make much sense to them. I asked them afterwards if they thought Punchinello should need to visit Eli everyday to get his stickers to fall off. They both thought that sounded silly....but they thought maybe those were the rules in the puppet village.Then, we discussed how we know if we are good.....do we need somebody else to tell us we're good or can we know we're good if we have good behavior and treat others nicely? They decided that we can know we are good and if anybody tells us we're not good, we "just shake it off" (my son's words
)I am glad we read the story because it led to a good discussion. But, I am still upset that this book was sent home from a public school. The message was HORRIBLE....kids should not feel they need a "creator" to tell them they are good. We are all special simply because we are alive and unique people....there is no need to rely on a god or anything else to feel good about ourselves. Now, I need to decide if this is worth talking to the teacher about. Not only is this a terrible book, but the fact that our school spent money on it and was supporting a church minister makes me angry.
Cross posted at: My myspace
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