As the former Coordinator of School Libraries & Information Technologies for
the Lexington, MA public schools (I retired in Fall 2002), I can answer some
of the questions about the book Who's in a Family? (the article has the
title slightly wrong) and the procedures and curriculum in Lexington, with
the caveat that my knowledge does not extend much beyond my retirement date.
A unit on families is a major piece of the Kindergarten curriculum, and in
2000-2001 several titles on families were purchased for all of the
elementary libraries to support that unit of study (including Who's in a
Family?). Because Lexington has always tried to be a welcoming community to
all kinds of families with one of the core values of the school system being
diversity, and has a large number of gay- & lesbian-headed families (during
my years in Lexington every school in the system K-12 had at least one such
family), these titles all included "non-traditional" families. To my
knowledge, the Kindergarten curriculum does not have a "textbook," but the
classroom teachers do often use library materials to supplement their
teaching. Therefore, I surmise that this student checked this book out of
the library.
Lexington libraries do have a selection policy and established procedure for
any challenges. But based on my reading of the article, it does not appear
to be the issue. Lexington also has (as mandated by the MA DOE) a written
policy which allows parents to have their children opt out of any classroom
teaching. I believe this must be done in writing. And if memory serves, it
has been most often used for the upper elementary, middle schools, and high
school health lessons.
Shelley Glantz
Reviews Editor
Library Media Connection
Linworth Publishing, Inc.
glantzs@comcast.net
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 20:07:47 -0700
From: Janice Davies <jgdavies2004@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Controversy in a Mass. school
This article was posted on a local newspaper bulletin board.
http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/4429917/detail.html
What is not entirely clear to me is whether or not the book was being taught
in the classroom or if the boy just checked it out in the library. In my
school system there is a much more stringent approval process to get a book
approved for classroom use.
I'd like to know other people's thoughts on this situation.
Jan Davies
Laurel High School
Laurel, Maryland
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