Yes, I'm an educator

I bring in lots of books for my program.

We read every day, and kids are happier reading if they have lots of books to choose from. I occasionally pick up a title or two at Goodwill, and as I've said before, Tami has generously donated a boatload of books, both to my old and new programs. ( I wish I'd been able to bring some of the Magic Tree House and Boxcar Children series books with me when I left my old site, but I didn't think it was cool to take them, ya know? The kids there would have missed them.)

One of the titles I picked up at Goodwill is a DK book called The Ultimate Visual Dictionary. It's a great book... and you can look up just about anything in it.

Have I actually read it? No. Should I have at least looked through the index before putting it out for the kids to read? Evidently.

I got a phone call from an irate mother on Wednesday morning. Evidently she had to spend a few minutes explaining to her nine year old daughter what a penis is and was NOT happy about it.

It seems that one of the younger girls was showing people pictures in that book Tuesday afternoon and thought she needed to make sure everyone knew there was a picture of a penis in it. I saw some kids looking at it together, but kids often share stuff in the books and I didn't think anything of it.

So now I'm wondering if her daughter actually knew there was a difference between boys and girls before the penis incident.

I mean, I get wanting to protect your child, but if she's worried now that her daughter knows what a penis is, I can't imagine how pissed off she'll be later when she realizes that her child is going to learn all sorts of things in school that are not on her mother-approved list of things to know.

I'm sure I don't want to bring up the subject to any kids... that will just make the whole mess spread like dust. I don't know which kids looked at the book and which ones did not. Better to ignore the incident, at least as far as the kids are concerned, and dump the book.

But I had that book at my old site for ages. Either no one ever noticed the "dirty pictures", or no one found it weird or funny or awkward. Not sure.

You know, if you've been reading here long, that I subscribe to the 'tell kids what they want to know when they want to know it and use scientific or correct terms' school of thought, and I feel that making something dirty or shocking out of it causes hangups in kids. But of course, she's not my kid, and I won't undermine a parent. I certainly didn't disagree with Mom, merely said I'd check into it and thanked her for calling.

I pulled it from the bookcase right after angry mom called, and will happily donate it to a homeschooling family. Anyone want it? It's really a terrific book. They're not cheap unless you're lucky enough to find one at Goodwill or a yard sale.

I'll send it to you free of charge and I'll cover the postage... first commenter who wants it, it's yours.

It's a big book. There are other terribly offensive things in it. In a cursory glance through the index, I found that one can view several different types of vagina as well, from giraffe to chimpanzee.

Caveat Emptor.