History Lessons Gone Awry

I was a history major in college – yes, the nerdy one in the corner of the library hiding as far away from math and science books as I could.  Unlike many of my peers, I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to do after college.  At the time, I was just focused on the fact that my history classes fascinated me and the writing assignments were more enjoyable than those in any other subject, including English.

My granddad and my mom were also history majors.  Neither of them became a history teacher either…but at least our nerdiness (if that’s a word) has helped us with armchair Jeopardy.

Yes, I do have a point.  I just wanted to set the stage for my next discussion of controversial material for kids.  Last week it was Maggie Goes on a Diet, which, as you’re well aware, bothered me to no end.

This one is even worse.

Someone has actually published a coloring book – a child’s coloring book – about the September 11 attacks on our country.

I couldn’t quite believe my eyes when I saw a photo of this book and read an article about it.  Now, I think coloring books are great.  I enjoy coloring with Anna – we have books about Dora the Explorer, Sesame Street, Toy Story….you get the idea.  We have NO books depicting terrorist attacks, machine guns, or scary people.  Swiper the fox is about as evil as it gets.

Photo from www.aliveinthechesapeake.blogspot.com

Call me overprotective, but I don’t want my almost-three-year-old to get out her crayons and color a picture of a soldier pointing a huge gun at Osama bin Laden’s head. (It's in the book - check out the link.)

This has nothing to do with my patriotism - and I’m saying that because it drives me crazy when the less brilliant segment of our population accuses people with liberal views, like me, of not being patriotic enough if we’re not 100 % gung-ho for every military venture in which our country finds itself involved (Iraq war *cough cough*).

This simply has to do with the fact that, for one thing, a 9/11 history lesson is not age-appropriate for kids who are still using coloring books.  I want Anna to know about this horrific, pivotal date in our history, but when she is old enough to properly learn about it from us or in history class. You know, when she can understand its significance, when her level of comprehension is far above reciting the alphabet with Elmo.

Let’s not forget nightmares.  Nighttime is scary enough with shadows and “monsters” and creaky sounds in the house; we don’t need to add pictures of heavy weaponry to the list of things toddlers get nervous about at night.

After all, if a newspaper headline about a cat burglar scared me for several years when I was in elementary school, what would pictures of the burning twin towers do to kids?  Seriously.

Photo: Really Big Coloring Books, Inc.

I’m not saying we can’t try to answer our kids’ questions honestly, but I AM saying that those answers need to be in a form that isn’t over a child’s head and doesn’t give him or her nightmares for months. We have to be sure our kids can handle what we are sharing with them, and that’s true across the board.

But this goes way beyond just being inappropriate for kids. I know, usually when people think something is inappropriate, they simply don’t buy it, and that’s that.  Normally, I would agree.  This effort at a child’s history lesson, however, is completely and utterly disrespectful to the people who lost their lives that day and in the aftermath of the attacks.

There’s a reason people are barred from selling things outside Ground Zero.  When I was there a few years ago, I saw a few shady guys with large jackets who would randomly open them to the throng of tourists and expose postcards or other tacky “souvenirs” of that nature. That was just sickening.

Sorry, guys, but this isn’t the Statue of Liberty.  Commercialism does have its limits.  Nobody wants a Ground Zero refrigerator magnet.

….or do they?  Maybe the guy who created the coloring book does.

In any event, I am thoroughly disgusted that anyone (a) thinks this is the kind of stuff kids should be coloring and (b) tries to reduce the enormity of the loss, and the years of repercussions that followed, to simple drawings and one-liners for preschoolers to read and color. 

Isn’t coloring supposed to be fun? It’s great to expose kids to the wonderful things about our history that we can explain in a way that is easily understood. Fireworks on the Fourth of July are great.  Kids waving the flag is great. Kids learning about the Statue of Liberty is great.

Photo from http://wirednewyork.com/landmarks/liberty

I draw the line at the collapse of the Twin Towers.  Coloring something like that just isn’t fun.  It’s disrespectful, it trivializes everything that people in and around those towers must have experienced that day, and it almost ridicules what we as a nation went through as a result.

It’s just not okay.

One final thought before I turn the floor over to you –  I’m not one of those people who think kids should be shielded from anything that might possibly be bad. I do want Anna to know that life is hard sometimes and that bad things happen so she will be able to develop coping skills for those hardships. 

But life is difficult enough without beginning all of that now. A child’s innocence is a beautiful thing. Life is full of challenges and disappointments and very sad events, and I’m totally fine with putting that off for her as long as possible.

What do YOU think?  Check it out and let us know.