Have y'all heard of this series of books for elementary aged students? The story starts with this girl, Junie B, in kindergarten and moves with her to first grade. The kids love it. I hate it. The grammar is horrid, and Junie B. uses language we do not allow the students to use. Language such as poopy-face, dumb, stupid, etc. She is rude, loud, and disrespectful. These books will not be in my classroom. Have I mentioned the horrible grammar? I think it is important to set an example of how we should speak to the students, and reading them books that do not encourage proper grammar is unacceptable. If I am going to correct a student for their speech, is it proper to then turn around and read them a book they find enjoyable that is full of grammatical errors? If I am going to correct them when they use "bad" words, is it appropriate for me to read them a book that has the star character saying "I'll stick a banana up your nose"?
Junie B. visited our school today and displayed her horrible grammar and poor word usage. At the very end of the presentation she told the kids to get up and act like monkeys. Really? Smart. Let's get 140 first graders to act like monkeys and then turn them back over to the teachers. Very smart.
I know this is not really that important, but I do not like the double standard, and I do think it is very important to teach kids the proper way to speak and act. Do we want them to grow up to act and speak like idiots? I think not.
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