Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Problematic Book Collection I got in trouble because of the books I have in my 2nd grade classroom library. I have been an elementary school teacher for 10 years. Recently, I completed my master's degree in education. In the master's program, I learned about the importance of teaching children about different people, different cultures, and different perspectives. Although I am not a big fan of gays and lesbians, I learned to accept them as another group of people in the society that need recognition as anyone else does. So, I decided to include in my classroom library books that included families with two moms or two dads. I have had books with single-parent families, interracial families, families with a mother and a father. So, I thought by including books depicting gay and lesbian families, I was being more inclusive and representing all family types in the society. I believe children should learn that there are families out there that are not like the families they have been seeing and children should learn to respect such families. However, I learned recently that not everyone agrees with me. I have been criticized openly by some of my colleagues. More recently, some parents sent angry letters to me and to the school principal describing their displeasure with my book collection. More specifically, they think I am trying to teach their children to become gays and lesbians. How am I going to handle all these pressures? What would you do? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) As long as they are age appropriate books there is nothing wrong having them in your classroom. If you are not pressuring kids to read them and they are just there if they want to look at them then it is just fine for them to be there. Are you saying you like dogs better just because you have Clifford the Big Red dog on your shelf or cats because you have Garfield, no they are just there because they are appropriate books for the grade level to read. Because this is becoming a "normal" thing in society they are exposed to this and if they are a child of a gay or lesbian couple then it is just one more way to show that they are OK.