And Tango Makes Three: Bring it Into the Elementary Classrooms

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“And all the children who came to the zoo could see Tango and her two fathers playing in the penguin house…” (Richardson). This scene comes from the children’s book, And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. This excerpt briefly tells that the theme of this story is about an unorthodox family structure that consists of a homosexual couple. Richard and Parnell use this picture book aimed for four to eight year olds to simply describe the real love story of two penguins, Silo and Roy, who can be found in New York’s Central Park Zoo. “Roy and Silo are both boys. However, they did everything together,” like a couple would do and they, “didn’t spend much time with the girl penguins.” When mating season came, they built a nest and tried to hatch an egg, but obviously, that was impossible. The zookeeper noticed this and brought Silo and Roy an egg from another couple that would not be able to take care of both the eggs they had. Eventually, Silo and Roy hatch a beautiful chick which the zookeeper named Tango; this created their little happy family.
This story does not only describe the life choices of the penguins, but also the true-life events that occur with humans. Many individuals in our modern world are homosexual and just like any other couple, they start families. This story is harmless, since it is only portraying what goes on in the real world. However, for this same reason, much controversy is behind this book, so much that it is banned in many schools and libraries. This issue with And Tango Makes Three arises from the fact that the main theme, which is alternative families, involves homosexuality. Many parents believe that exposing their kids to this type of information will confuse them or somehow harm t...

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Martino, Wayne, and Wendy Cumming-Potvin. "They Didn't Have 'Out There' Gay Parents--They Just Looked Like "Normal" Regular Parents": Investigating Teachers' Approaches To Addressing Same-Sex Parenting And Non-Normative Sexuality In The Elementary School Classroom." Curriculum Inquiry 41.4 (2011): 480-501. ERIC. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
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