I fondly remember reading a whole slew of Little Golden Storybooks as a child, and when I saw a couple of them on sale at one of the thrift stores I quickly snatched them up (5 for a dollar).
Tonight, I read one to my son as a bed time story. It was called
Tootle, and let me tell you, I am HORRIFIED.
See, Tootle was an engine that, despite the importance of Staying On The Track No Matter What being hammered into his head, LIKED to go off the rails. Liked frollicking in the fields and sniffing flowers and chasing butterflies and feeling FREE. But NOOOOOO. This is not allowed. Bill, the
warden conductor enlists the aid of all the
closed-minded oppressors people in the town to help him get Tootle back on track (pun intended).
Earlier, Tootle had learned the importance of immediately Stopping At A Red Flag Waving; knowing this has also been drilled into Tootle and that he knew (feared) the inevitable danger of NOT Stopping At A Red Flag Waving, Bill got all the humans to hide under bushes and behind trees and in the tall grass and flowers only to throw up their red flags whenever Tootle came their way, which caused him to grind to a halt and head off in another direction. After a while of this he had no where to turn; he got so frustrated. Finally, he noticed someone (Bill) holding a GREEN flag on the TRACKS and headed that way.
Once on the track he admitted that he had been wrong to venture elsewhere; that this was wear he belonged all along and because of his dedication he became the BEST Flyer from New York to Chicago.
Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot????? Seriously?Yeah, let's teach our kids to conform. To fit whatever society says you should be/do and never, EVER step outside of those boundaries. Never dare to be different, or take the less apparent option in life...and that it is wrong to want something else. Wrong to stop and smell the flowers, roll in the grass, and chase butterflies. Wrong to have fun.
I cry BULLSHIT of the highest order. I don't burn books (THE HORROR!!), but if I did--THIS would certainly be one of them. As it is, I put it in the donation bin on my porch...and then quickly dug it out and hid it in the back of my closet. No point inflicting this rubbage on anyone else.
You can be damned sure that I will RE-read the rest of them before I sit down for story time with the Narl again.
And rather than stop reading it when I discovered the moral of the story, I finished the book and then told him that, although Tootle chose to get back on the tracks, it was mean and wrong for everyone to gang up on him like that. That fitting in is not always the right choice for EVERYONE. That people can make their own decisions [when they are older] and that just because someone wants you to grow up to do ONE thing, that you should never do it because THEY want you to. That he should do what makes him happy, that makes his life worthwhile.
I mean, really...just yesterday he chose to play dress up/house in the home center of his pre-k. He wore the Cinderella costume (incuding the clear, glittery plastic high heels), toted around a dark-skinned baby (that he fussed over for 10 minutes as he dressed her), and demanded that his best boy *space* friend play his husband. And then promptly handed the baby off to the stunned little tyke and took off with the grocery cart for the "store" because it was his "job to do all the shopping," pausing only to remind his "hubby" to change the baby's diaper.
Sure, other kids were laughing and staring and pointing and for more than a few minutes I honestly thought the teacher would reign him in because it was causing a disturbance to the class next door. But she didn't, thankfully (or else I'd have had WORDS with her). When one particularly vicious little boy said that he was stupid, that boys can't be mommies, can't have babies, can't wear dresses, and can't have husbands...my son pursed his lips, put his hands on his hips and then told them all, "Oh yes we can. We can wear anything we want, we can do whatever we want, and we can love whoever we want."
And went back to feeding the "baby," completely ignoring the rest of them (except the poor boy he made put the groceries away, change the baby--he forgot--"wash the dishes" and fold the clothes).
God, I LOVE my kid!!!!