Parents Outraged At Kindergarten Homework Assignment Need To Take A Chill Pill
Is this really a reason for outrage?
I actively try to be less worried about the dangers and hazards in my children’s lives, but I’m certainly no where close to being a free range parent. Still, even I thought the story today about parents irate over a school homework assignment was ridiculous.
A kindergarten class at P.S. 201 in Queens, New York was given a photocopied worksheet with pictures on it. The children were to finish naming each drawing by writing out the first letter of the word in the space provided below it. What has parents in an uproar is that one drawing showed a robber (rob) and another showed a “gun”, among many other photos beside them of photos like “jam”, “bud”, and “bus”.
One mom said: “It’s inappropriate for a kindergartner to have to learn that. It makes it seem like it [violence] is OK. It’s not — it’s totally not. There’s enough violence in the world already. But to teach it in school is a whole other thing. The kids are going to think it’s OK.”
So if a child can recognize (and spell) a gun or a robber, they are doomed to a life of tolerating violence or becoming violent? Seriously, who among us didn’t color in these worksheets when we were kids? Have we turned into murderers or criminals?
I’m fairly sure that my oldest daughter has had these types of worksheets with knives, and (gasp) even guns on them. I never gave it much thought. I certainly never even considered correlated her recognizing a weapon to becoming violent. Having a child recognize a gun is healthy thing, isn’t it, particularly when children actually bring real guns to school now? You’ll notice how the prevalence of real guns in schools were not a problem back when we were kids and filling in these sheets with pictures of them.
I think most 5-year-olds know what a gun is. I’m not of the belief that we should put blinders on our children or that our kids are stupid. Kids know what guns are and furthermore, they should. They have to, by way of living in our world, know what terrible things are. Should we also hide photos of knives?
Ironically, many parents are OK with sexualizing our kids in toddlerhood, having trashy TV programs, clothes, and dolls everywhere you look, and creating more violent video games every year. Perhaps if teens (and adults) weren’t so easily able to purchase guns, and our laws were stricter, there wouldn’t be so much violence. That is what actually shows people that violence is acceptable.
The principal said that the while assignment came from an old workbook where those photos were customary, she also said the teachers assignments will be monitored so nothing like that goes home again.
What do you think? Would you be horrified if your child came home with that assignment? And teachers, do you find these worksheets objectionable?
Image: NY Post
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@@ Not in the least. Then again, my 10 yr old know hows to load and shoot, and unload a variety of pistols and rifles, and has additionally, taken gun safety courses. He’s probably have filled in the correct type, like “Glock”.
How are they supposed to be able to read the news if they don’t know how to spell gun or rob?
I think my eyebrows would be raised a bit, but frankly at a public school in New York City, I’d be much more concerned about what kind of inappropriate stuff my child might be exposed to from his/her peers than about a worksheet.
parents who are ‘outraged’ by this need to grow up and stop acting like idiots.
children should be encourgaed to have as wide a vocabulary as possible and should be encouraged to learn about things that are ‘good’ AND things that are ‘bad’ – how else will they learn to be independant and to make informed choices?
guns are neither bad nor good – the PEOPLE USING THEM are the issue.
and the ways in which they are being used is relevant.
i agree with the comment about worrying more about the early sexualisation of our children – MUCH more inappropriate than having a melt-down about a harmless worksheet.
come on parents, act like adults! think about the issues that are REALLY important to act upon for the welfare of your children otherwise they too will grow up to have an immature and overly sheltered view of the world and the very REAL threats that are in it.
Your eye brows would have raised? Don’t you remember this kind of thing on our phonics worksheets in good old Catholic school? Maybe I’m older than you, but this was commonplace.
I’d be kind of surprised because sensitivity is so high around this issue, but I wouldn’t care. Guns exist, and if your child has ever seen any TV more exciting than Caillou or Dora (which most kids have by 5) they know it.
CW, you obviously know nothing about NYC. Kids get pregnant at much higher rates in red states, so they must be learning something good in NYC public schools. Not to mention, PS 201 is in a middle-class/upper-middle-class neighborhood (Bayside) with a large population of very academically motivated immigrant families that send their kids to the top high schools and on to the Ivies. Perhaps these parents are rightly concerned that their children will get distracted by our ridiculous culture that celebrates guns and violence over intellectual inquiry.
Also, Danielle, seriously?
“So if a child can recognize (and spell) a gun or a robber, they are doomed to a life of tolerating violence or becoming violent? Seriously, who among us didn’t color in these worksheets when we were kids? Have we turned into murderers or criminals?”
Surely you know that this is not the argument being made.
Eh. I wouldn’t be “outraged” nor would I consider this an appropriate assignment for a small child.
My son, GASP, plays with toy guns. I know I should be ashamed but that’s what boys do. So a picture of a gun on a work sheet would not have bothered my husband or me. In fact I would have been happy that he is learning to spell items that he plays with, including car, dog, ball, knife (opps my bad, another thing I should be ashamed at since he has a toy knife as well.)
@CDN Mummy I’m even worse… my son has a battle axe, sword, sheild, morning star & light saber. He’s doomed.
I’m actually a little surprised at the responses to this. I don’t think I would cause an uproar, but it would definitely “raise my eyebrows”. It just seems that if you don’t have to use it, what is the point? There are other words and pictures you could use instead of gun. It is a touchy subject, and in today’s world it just seems that it is better not to go there. It also seems to contradict most school district’s message about weapons.
Sorry – but there’s too many hyper sensitive, helicopter parents that want their children to live in a protective bubble and float on clouds til they get married. Imagine the shock they’ll receive when they are faced with the real world.
I’d be outraged that my kindergartner had homework.
Don’t many schools have a zero-tolerance about students depicting guns? Of course, these were designed so they could do something about middle/high schoolers doodling guns on their homework (happens, I’ve taught them) but you hear stories every now and then about the kindergartener who gets in trouble for drawing a picture of his dad, a deployed soldier, at work holding his gun.
Whether the gun on the homework is ok or not, I would think that in that sort of overly-sensitive atmosphere, that someone would look at it and say “You know, somebody’s likely to have a problem with it. Let’s pick something else.”
It’s a spelling lesson. That’s it. Gun and Rob are words.
“Imagine the shock they’ll receive when they are faced with the real world.” Guns are not a part of my “real world” and I’m 46 years old. I shot a boyfriend’s gun once in college and I haven’t touched one since. I hardly think that parents disapproving of mentions of guns and robbers in a 6 year old’s schoolwork has anything to do with helicopter parenting.
I’m horrified that Kindergarten are handing out homework assignments at all. It’s Kindergarten, not high school.
I don’t really take issue with either word, but I seriously doubt kindergartners know what a “robber” is. Seems like an odd choice.
I agree this is hyper-sensitive. Too many people complaining about pathetic things nowadays.
Wow, another thing to check off my list of things never to mention in any manner in my students’ assignments. Along with Halloween, Christmas, ghosts, magic, wealth, and peanuts.
How do they teach history these days? “The Sioux Indians hunted deer, elk, and buffaloes. They used **** and ****.” “The British got word that colonists were stocking **** in case of a fight”. “John F. Kennedy died in 1963. He was **** with a ****.”
Are they teaching a lot about assassinations to 6 year olds these days? I must have missed that.