David

Please excuse the cross-post, but I felt this needed to reach as many
homeschoolers as possible... Guess I'll be relying on cable for the kids'
educational TV from now on...

Blessings,

Monique
Homelearning with Thomas (7), William (5), and Michael (2) in Lawrenceville,
GA


ATTENTION HOME SCHOOLERS! ACTION NEEDED!

If you haven't seen any of the one minute WordGirl shorts throughout the PBS
KIDS GO! weekday programming or the two minute WordGirl episodes which air
after the very popular Maya & Miguel show on your local PBS station, please
take a moment to visit the PBS KIDS website to view the negative portrayal
of home schooled students that is being espoused in this programming. The
link to the website is:

<http://pbskids.org/wordgirl/>

Click on the left side "Heroes, Villains & Mere Mortals" then select the
character "Tobey". Here's the character description from the website:

"Tobey is a 10-year-old home schooled genius who causes serious property
damage in order to get WordGirl's attention, not that he'd ever admit it.
He's a master of robotics, building giant robots to do his bidding. He's
constantly trying to prove that he is WordGirl's intellectual superior, and
that he isn't afraid of his mommy."

In one episode, there is a comment about Tobey that "he's so timid that he
has a hard time making friends." In the same episode, Tobey also acts very
rude and destructive. You can see this episode and others (they are all only
a minute or so long) by going to the same website link above and clicking on
"Adventures of WordGirl" on the left side of the webpage, and then when the
"Choose a Character" screen comes up, select "Tobey" and then click on the
first picture under "Choose an Episode" at the bottom of the screen (it's
the one with the robot picture).

Scholastic's choice to portray this intelligent, yet socially inept and
deviant character as a home schooled student is a glaring attack on home
schooling and educational choice. Scholastic would not have dared to portray
this character as a racial minority or as a homosexual, yet they feel at
liberty to attack home schooled students and indirectly their parents who
they imply are making social misfits out of their children by teaching them
at home. This programming is seen by thousands of children every day and is
a means of influencing their attitudes toward home schooled students. As the
saying goes, "If you say it loud enough and long enough, the people will
believe it." There is no evidence to support the socialization concern in
regards to home schooled students, yet the educational establishment
continues with this propaganda.

Even if your children do not watch PBS, please contact Scholastic Media (the
creators of the WordGirl cartoon) and Scholastic Corporation (the owner of
Scholastic Media) and let them know your feelings about their choice to
portray this socially deviant "villain" as a home schooled student. We need
to stop the continued insinuations by the educational establishment that
home schooling results in a lack of social aptitude. Insist that Scholastic
Media stop making episodes with Tobey and also mention that you will not be
purchasing any more of Scholastic's educational books or products until you
see that they have removed this character from the WordGirl episodes.

In addition, please contact your local PBS station and ask that they stop
airing the WordGirl episodes that involve Tobey and remove them from their
website. Emphasize that the portrayal of Tobey as a socially deviant home
schooled student is a direct attack on home schooled students and their
families. If you happen to be a financial supporter of your local PBS
station, make sure to mention this fact to them and tell them that you
cannot support a station that airs such programming.

To find your local PBS station contact information, go to:
<http://www.pbs.org/stationfinder/index.html>

To contact Scholastic Media, write, fax, or call:

Deborah A. Forte
President, Scholastic Media
557 Broadway
New York, New York 10012
Direct line: 212-343-7880
FAX: 212-343-6766

To contact Scholastic Corporation's President, write, fax, or call:
Richard Robinson
Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer Scholastic
Corporation
557 Broadway
New York, NY 10012
Direct line: 212-343-6705
FAX: 212-343-6766

***** PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO OTHER HOMESCHOOLERS! *****




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Ren Allen

~~Scholastic's choice to portray this intelligent, yet socially inept
and deviant character as a home schooled student is a glaring attack
on home schooling and educational choice. Scholastic would not have
dared to portray this character as a racial minority or as a
homosexual, yet they feel at liberty to attack home schooled students
and indirectly their parents who they imply are making social misfits
out of their children by teaching them at home.~~

That's a bit of a stretch.

If the child in question had all those "deviant" qualities and was
public schooled, would public schooled parents be crying foul?

You can't choose to be a racial minority or homosexual, you CHOOSE to
homeschool so it's not the same. Yeah, we get the short end of the
stick sometimes but if we jump up and down about every time someone
portrays a homeschooler as inept, we aren't going to do much good.

It's not an attack, maybe a bit of ignorance but then maybe not. Maybe
the writers know some homeschoolers like that and are having fun with
it. We ARE social misfits.;)

Ren
learninginfreedom.com

Joyce Fetteroll

On Feb 16, 2007, at 7:15 PM, Ren Allen wrote:

> If the child in question had all those "deviant" qualities and was
> public schooled, would public schooled parents be crying foul?

There's a huge wide range of examples of public schooled kids so one
socially inept one or one brilliant one doesn't seem to represent
them all.

Same with white males. There's a huge range of representations of
white males from caring fathers to psychopaths that any
representation seems to be about that particular character rather
than saying anything about white males in general.

> You can't choose to be a racial minority or homosexual, you CHOOSE to
> homeschool so it's not the same.

I'm not sure what choice has to do with it. Because someone chooses a
philosophy or lifestyle, they have to accept stereotyping? That the
reason stereotyping isn't acceptable is because someone can't choose
to not be a race if they didn't like how they're treated?

> but if we jump up and down about every time someone
> portrays a homeschooler as inept, we aren't going to do much good.

I agree about the jumping up and down part. If someone responds in
anger the one they're railing at is likely to feel justified in
having portrayed them as unpleasant. Why would they want to create a
pleasing image of someone who is acting unpleasant?

Joyce

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