Oooops....My bad.

So whenever we study something in science or there are holidays happening, I get on the public library website, type in key words, and click on books that look entertaining to first grade. Then I go and pick them up off the hold shelf, carry them into my classroom, and browse the pictures and the length of words before I decide which one to read (mostly depending on time). I don't necessarily read them all the way through...

We are currently studying penguins so I picked up 20 or more picture books from the library on penguins. Today I read a book about two homosexual penguins to my class of 17 thoroughly enthralled little Christian school students. Before any of us fully understood the meaning of the book, it was over. I was surprised and embarassed but relieved no parents were in the room at the time. I am hoping the story didn't stick well enough with any of kids tonight so they don't go home and repeat verbatim what I read to them. Otherwise I could be out of a job tomorrow (just kidding)....However, it was vague enough that I didn't want to believe it was really what I thought it was. But oh yes, it was.

You see, "Every year at the same time, the girl penguins start noticing the boy penguins. And the boy penguins start noticing the girl penguins. When the right girl and boy find each other, they become a couple. Two penguins in the penguin house were a little bit different. One was named Roy and th eother was named Silo. Toy and Silo were both boys. But they did everything together." CLUE NUMBER ONE MICHELLE!

So the book goes on to explain how these two "friends" watch other boy and girl penguins and do the same things the other couples do, including wrapping their necks around each other, sleeping in the same nest of stones, etc. But the girls stayed away from them and the two boy penguin noticed the girls could do something they could not: lay an egg. So then they go on a comical quest to hatch a rock that looks like an egg until the zookeeper steps in and gives them Tango. And "Tango was the very first penguin in the zoo to have two daddies." And they all lived happily ever after.

Hopefully this went over their heads, but I did learn a lesson from this: Always screen books as well as I do movies!! While the message of acceptance is always good to hear, the overall concept was just a little too premature for this age group, and something better left to have the parents address, not the teachers at school (private or public). Luckily no one had any pressing questions...