Learn to Include Project

The most effective letters in a campaign are personal letters telling of your own experiences. And an issue dealing with families and schools is exactly the sort of issue that particularly needs personal stories. Mr Stoner has said that he has received complaints from families about these books. The best response is to tell the government and the Department of Education why these books are important to you.

Your letter doesn't have to be long or clever, just tell your own story in your own words.

To help you write these letters, we have made a few suggestions below about what sorts of things you might like to cover in addition to saying who you are and why you care about this issue. These are just ideas. You can ignore them or use them as a starting point but change them to want you want to say.

You can post or email your letter, whichever is convenient but posting is probably preferable as there is no substitute for a hand written letter (assuming your writing is legible!) or typed hard copy letter. Just think how you feel when you get a REAL letter in the post as opposed to an email.

Points you might like to consider including are:

1. The books are currently available for schools to choose whether they use them or not. Each school can determine what is appropriate for their student population. Banning the books would mean that the books were not available to anybody.
2. Bullying at school is an issue for all parents. Kids are bullied for all sorts of reasons but sometimes it is because they or their families are seen as “different”. These books enable kids to enjoy reading about children whose lives and families may be a bit different to their own and to perhaps see that they are not so different after all.
3. There are all different types of families in Australia . Kids will encounter all these different families at school, in their neighbourhood or in their community. It has been suggested these books are too old or not suitable for younger children of 5 or 6 but even the smallest children meet other families and some will be different to their own. It makes sense that these children also read about all sorts of families.
4. These books are not about sex or sex education, they are the stories about one little girl and her particular family.
5. The main reason the books should continue to be available is that Brenna and other kids like her need to be able to go to school without fear and receive education without discrimination. These books help make that happen. They shouldn't be banned because some adults don't like homosexuality or disapprove of Brenna's mothers when they can help kids.

Examples of some short letters may be:

Dear ……,

I have a six year old daughter named Jane. This year she started  kindergarten at Smith Street School in Smallville. When my partner Mary and I were deciding which school we should send her to, we were naturally worried about how she would be treated by the teachers and other children because she had lesbian parents. We knew anti discrimination legislation in NSW was there to protect her, but worried that this would not stop bullying in the playground. We went and had a talk to the principal of the school before she started and were pleased to find that he was very aware of different family structures and assured us that Jane was not the only child of same sex parents in the school. He showed us the books that Mr Stoner has now called to be banned and explained that as there were a few children like Jane that the school had decided to have these books available for use in the classroom. Jane has had one of them read to her class and told us that all her class enjoyed them very much. She told us that some other kids even came and said to her that is was just like her family which made her feel pretty special. I'm pleased to say that she has settled in to school well and has lots of friends.

The books helped just that bit and we would like our school to be able to continue to choose to use them.

Dear…….,

I have lesbian parents. I am now in high school, but when I was in primary school I was afraid of telling other kids that I had two mums. I wasn't sure what would happen if they found out. I wasn't sure how to bring it up. I wish I had these books available at my school so that other kids could have known about my type of family before I had to tell them about me. It might have made my time in primary school a lot easier.