Thursday, April 18, 2013

Katie's Handwriting Book

Katie brought home from school her handwriting book.  Each page has a picture she was instructed to color any way she likes.  Most of the pages have pictures of people.  What I find fascinating is that Katie, who is white, didn't color all the people with white skin.  In fact, of the twenty-one individuals, she colored twelve with white skin and seven with brown skin.  I asked why two of the people have red skin.  She said, "They're sunburned."  

I suspect Katie's interest in exploring diversity in her art has to do with the influence of her class of twenty-two students, eleven with brown skin and eleven with white skin.  It's good for her to be around all sorts of folks.  I'm thrilled she's getting such a broad education.

I hope Katie's district decides not to allow concealed carry weapons in school even though Gov. Brownback just signed this law.  If they do, because Will and I are such hippie peace mongers, we'll have to pull Katie out of public school and homeschool her.  We can't afford to send her to private school.  But we don't want our child going to a pro-gun school.  

I'm concerned that a homeshool education might limit her exposure to "all sorts of folks," but I'm more concerned about my child accidentally getting shot in some freak accident.  What happens when someone accidentally leaves their weapon behind in the restroom like this Michigan security guard did?  I don't want to shelter my child from a variety of life experiences.  But gun violence is one experience my child can remain blissfully ignorant of and that's just fine by me.



















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