Victoria Jackson Freaks Out Over Tiny Cartoony Genitals

Oh, boy, campers, looks like V-Jack is on a tear again! This time, she has discovered that there are a lot of books in public schools (archive link) that she disagrees with! Just try and decipher this paragraph, which is not from a public school textbook, but from the blog of Victoria Jackson, which is a woman, that, wants to fix the schools so they are, better and more good, too:

The current textbooks being used in public schools today, that your children are reading, memorizing and being tested on, are inaccurate, revisionist, anti-American, racist, climate change propaganda based on fake science, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, pro-Islam, Marxist, globalist, pro-Socialism/Communism, pro-homosexuality, pro-abortion, and sexually explicit. Below is a list of examples and… who wrote the Pearson Publishing textbooks, that TN schools are now using. (Related story, as of Dec. 2013, Pearson Foundation fined millions for violating laws. Story here. )

That sure was a cogent argument for why children need a better education than Victoria Jackson received, wouldn't you all agree?

We're just sorry to see that she's dragged poor Diane Ravitch into her strange argument, because even though she links to a story on Ravitch's blog, that story has absolutely nothing to do with the list of rightwing worries at the beginning of that paragraph -- and in fact, Ravitch's book  Reign of Error  argues forcefully against the for-profit charter and private schools that Christianists have been pushing for (We're not sure whether Jackson has taken a position on vouchers/charters, however).

Anyway, much of Jackson's post is dedicated to trashing  It's Perfectly Normal , an innocuous little sex-ed book for upper elementary-aged kids, which Jackson describes as "sexually explicit" and "Homosexuality is Normal propaganda." It's the source of that terrifying image above, which shows what different types of bodies look likewhen nekkid. [Note: Amazon linky (Wonkette gets a cut!) updated to current, 2021 edition of the book — Dok] 

And as it turns out, Jackson also told a few fibs -- which she has now removed from her blog, without a correction or any note about the revision -- about the book, such as claiming that the book is used in classrooms and suggesting that the book is somehow connected to Common Core. Needless to say, the post launched a lot of angry calls to Tennessee schools, which then had to explain that, no, actually, they are not teaching fourth graders out of this book.

Williamson County Director of Schools Mike Looney (no relation) issued a statement Thursday, explaining that

“This accusation is simply not true," Looney said. “Some people are spreading false information claiming that Williamson County Schools uses the book “It's Perfectly Normal." These individuals appear to be maliciously maligning WCS for personal or political gain. This book is not a part of the school district's curriculum and is not in any of our school libraries. Students have no access to this book through Williamson County Schools. False claims such as these interfere with the work of the district."

Which, of course means little, since you know how liberals deny their crimes, and why is he calling Victoria Jackson a liar? In any case, now her blog simply claims that It's Perfectly Normal is "on the approved reading list for 4th grade classrooms," which we are no more inclined to think is true than her now-removed claim that it's actually being used in classes (incidentally, the publisher's recommendation is for ages ten and up). Needless to say, trolls from V-Jack's and other rigfhtwing sites have flooded into the Amazon comments. 

What really irritates us is that It's Perfectly Normal is indeed a perfectly fine resource for parents to use as a follow-up to "the talk." It's simple, honest, and acknowledges that sex can be uncomfortable to talk about, and it takes a very matter-of-fact approach to the topic. We got Kid Zoom a copy when he was in 6th grade, and it's the kind of book that a lot of us probably wish we'd had when we were kids. And if anyone thinks the drawings in this little book are salacious, that says far more about the person who's offended than it does about the book. But yes -- it does have some terrifying messages, such as that masturbation and homosexuality are normal and that sexuality is nothing to be ashamed of. It says that choices about sex are a matter of individual morality, and that people in different religious traditions have different beliefs about sex. Pretty shocking propaganda, huh?

While we were working on this post, we asked Kid if he thought he'd been warped by the book. "Mostly it just made me think naked people looked boring," he replied. He's either reasonable well-adjusted, or so thoroughly indoctrinated that he simply doesn't realize how dirty and sinful the human body is.

Oh, and one other lie -- at best, the result of sloppy editing -- that's still on Jackson's website: Smack dab in the middle of a montage of photos she took of It's Perfectly Normal, Jackson throws in a photo of an email complaining about a completely different book -- she labels it "pornographic excerpt from Cristina García's novel "Dreaming in Cuban" -- implying that somehow this passage is part of It's Perfectly Normal. Because apparently if Jackson's readers are willing to believe that 4th graders are reading the book in class, they'll probably believe that a graphic passage from a wholly different novel is in there somewhere.

There's more -- the rest of Jackson's blog post is a copypasta'd list of "LIES and PROPAGANDA" in passages from several different textbooks, presented without context. For instance, a single section heading -- "American Democracy Now" -- sets off a paragraph-long rant explaining that we are not a democracy but Constitutional Republic, as if the informal use of "democracy" in that heading had denied the existence of the Constitution or something. The other examples are equally absurd, and not worth discussing.

The really important thing to remember, of course, is that the public schools are full of dangerous pro-communist indoctrination and lies, says a woman who can't seem to get simple facts straight on her website. V-Jack, you have a brilliant career as a county commissioner ahead of you.

[ Victoria Jackson / It's Perfectly Normal ]

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