We're not in Texas anymore

When I lived in Texas, I would never have come home from school with Homework assignments like my kids bring home. Two examples:

1) From Whitney:

A) Is there any challenge here with this worksheet? The clock has the 5, 10, 15... minute marks already marked at the top for the kids, so really, is there any learning going on???

and B) Why are those instructions in Spanish?!?! It makes my blood boil. Mostly because I lived (for 5 months) in another country where speaking my native language was looked down upon. I learned proficient Spanish because of people rejecting me whenever I spoke English. They would tell me to my face to not speak English in front of them.

I wish the schools here understood that it can only benefit kids to immerse them in English so they really learn it.

2) Cole: 

I don't usually help Cole with his kindergarten homework; he can read the directions himself and he just works on it while I clean dishes or prepare dinner. A couple of months ago he started cracking up while coloring this worksheet. I heard him say, "Look! They both have mustaches!!"

His homework assignment directions said, "Just for fun, color the pictures of families."

Cole obviously understood that both of the adults in the bottom left corner were men because he drew mustaches on them to portray their manliness.

Tyler told me that I should go talk to the teacher to see what is being taught in the classroom. I didn't want to because 1) I didn't want a confrontation, 2) I didn't want to seem "intolerant" because of a simple worksheet showing two loving men, and 3) I already go in to the kids' classrooms on Tuesdays and I've seen what is being taught. Cole's teacher is very traditional, and I know she's not teaching the kindergarteners about gay marriage.

But I did muster up the courage to go in a couple minutes early one Tuesday to show the teacher this homework sheet (I had made a copy) and just ask what was up. She was shocked when I brought it to her attention and said, "Maybe those are two uncles!" 

I asked her if this was a new workbook because of the bill SB48 that passed recently in California that mandates teachers teach about LGBT history and don't discriminate about that lifestyle. I was shocked when she said the book was 10 YEARS OLD!! She said she had been using those worksheets for 10 years (she has taught for 25) and that worksheet had never been brought to her attention. 

I bet she probably never checked those worksheets because it was a "just for fun" section on the back of a worksheet. But still... wow. I could never picture a worksheet like this in my home state of Texas--where conservative principles reigned.