Topical Teaching

I have no problem with children learning about the 9/11 tragedy and I think it is appropriate to commemorate those that perished in terrorist attacks on that fateful day.  What I don’t condone is the idea that kids coloring in the burning twin towers is a good way of imparting such information.  To me, this is disrespectful to children and creates unhelpful tensions.

As Bruce Felps writes:

Titled “We Shall Never Forget 9/11 ‘The Kids’ Book of Freedom,’ ” the book engages kids to color in a depiction of the flaming, smoking, about-to-collapse World Trade Center towers. It also includes an image of a Navy SEAL firing on Osama bin Laden, complete with a bullet in mid-flight. (See that page here)

So, what color is tragedy? What shade of cowardice hides behind a woman when facing his certain death?

The book looks to be intended for kids about 6, 7, 8 years old … too much for that age or too ageless a lesson to delay?

The book also contains narrative. In a press release, publisher Wayne Bell of Really Big Coloring Books Inc. said it “was created with honesty, integrity, reverence, respect and does not shy away from the truth.”

One page, illustrating the immediate aftermath of the attacks, depicts what looks like a TV news anchor reporting that bin Laden was, indeed, the mastermind.

That page includes the line, “These attacks will change the way America deals with and views the Islamic and Muslim people around the world.” Shouldn’t that be “extremist Islamic terrorists” and not the religion and its adherents as a whole?

Tags: 9/11, Bruce Felps, Coloring Book, Education, life, News, Osama Bin Laden, Parenting, Really Big Coloring Books Inc, Wayne Bell, We Shall Never Forget 9/11 ‘The Kids’ Book of Freedom, World Trade Center

This entry was posted on August 26, 2011 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Dealing With Tragedy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.