Head Tale

 So this is an interesting one…

Pace’s Grade One class has started a daily reading log where they’re assigned some easy readers.  They have to record the titles of the books as they read them.

In addition to the assigned reading, they can also record any other books (or chapters of books) they read or have read to them.  And if a student reads 300 books by the end of the year they get a “very special prize”.

So that’s all good (although 300 books sounds like a lot, that’s just over a book a day for the rest of the school year including weekends and days off so if we read a couple books, we should be good.)

What’s troubling is that Pace is refusing to record one of the books he just read.

Now, as he’s gotten interested in different subjects, he’s in the very fortunate position that I can bring him home books from the library. Lego books?  Check.  Batman books?  Check.  Books on Halloween? Got it.  Books about bats (the animal, not the hero)?  Right away, sir.

Lately, Pace is also really into guns, weapons and soldiers so he asked me to bring him home some books on this subject.  One of the books I got him was a juvenile title called “Modern Weapons of War” or something like that.  Great book – just the kind of thing I’d have loved when I was his age.

Except, things are also very different at schools from when I was his age.  For example, we regularly played war at recess back in the 1980’s but my understanding is that violent games of any kind (especially anything to do with guns or war) are prohibited at his school.  (We can argue back and forth about whether restricting kids from playing war or anything violent is good or bad but ultimately, that’s the school’s call and I’m not going to get too hyped up about it.)

So where it gets interesting is that Pace has taken the “no war” rule to heart so much that he’s even refusing to record the title of the book he read (and enjoyed!) on his home reading log.  As a big believer in Freedom of Expression and the right of people to read whatever they want (or for children to read whatever their parents allow), his self-censorship is bugging me.

Shea and I have told him that the teacher wants kids to read as much as they can and isn’t (shouldn’t be?) too worried about what kids read.

We’ve told him that daddy read books like that when he was a kid.

We’ve tried to convince Pace that the book he read isn’t much different than how they learned about soldiers and WWII for Remembrance Day but he’s not buying it.

I asked him if I could check with his teacher about whether this book would be okay to add to the log but he doesn’t even want me to do that. I suspect he worries that he’ll get in trouble or the teacher will think less of him or judge him somehow for what he’s read.

So I’m a bit flummoxed on what my next step should be.

I mean, part of me thinks I should just talk to the teacher on the side to see if this is a legitimate issue or she’s directed the kids on what type of books were allowed.  But I get the sense Pace would be really hurt if he found out if I talked to her.  (Even if she says it’s no problem, there’s a chance he’d notice if I added the title to his reading log.)

I could just let the whole thing slide (sort of like how public libraries are all about Freedom of Expression but still don’t collect Playboy because it’s just not worth the headaches of having.)

Or I could just write it in his log under a made-up title and hope he doesn’t notice (300 books is A LOT!)  😉

[Update: Shea had to go in to speak to the teacher on a separate issue and so she brought it up since Pace had decided he couldn’t write down a book about Spongebob and the Zombies since they’re also not allowed to play zombies at school or something.  This, even though he got the book from the *school* library!  The teacher apparently ended up having a chat with the entire class to say that any book that kids got from the school library or that their parents got them from the public library would be considered appropriate for their journal.  She actually said “good and appropriate” which still gives me a bit of a twinge.  And I know for a fact that their school library has a shelf of books that are *only* for grade eight students so that bothers me too.  But I guess if Pace wants to read *Twilight* in grade six or seven, I know a place where I can get him a copy!]