Horton Hears Who

Sigh… well if it isn’t enough to be attacked for being Catholic, here’s one for being a homeschooler!

Got this in my e-mail:
Just thought you’d like to know about this…This review is by Mary Drake, wife of Catholic writer Tim Drake who writes for many solid Catholic newspapers, such as the Catholic Register. Tim and Mary have 8 children and homeschool. This email was sent to all the Catholic homeschoolers in the St. Cloud, MN area:

Hi everyone, I just wanted to send a quick email about the new kid’s movie “Horton Hears a Who”. We got a free pass to it and brought our kids to it Friday night and were disappointed with it’s portrayal of homeschooling. (They added a lot that wasn’t in the book) I just thought we’d let you know what’s in it so you can make an informed decision before seeing it. The main “evil” character is the kangaroo – a narrow-minded, controlling homeschooling mom who wants to destroy Horton and his new found friends because of it’s threat to the way things are in their jungle society. Horton is a teacher of jungle kids – fun and silly.

Her son asks sadly from her pouch “Mom, why can’t I play with the other kids?” and she explains to the other moms that she “Pouch-schools” and is portrayed as a narrow-minded, cold, controlling fanatic who is constantly telling her son to “go to his room” as she shoves his head down into her pouch and tells him continually that whatever is happening doesn’t concern him. She goes to a vulture to have Horton and his little world of friends destroyed when discussing what to do for payment, the vulture wants her son in exchange for doing what she asks. Her son is frightened and looks to her for protection – she shuts him up and tells him “I’m thinking about it…” It is very clear that her motives throughout the film were not done out of love for her child, but out of a desperate need to control ideas and keep the authority/tradition of her world from being threatened. My husband and I both felt that it was far from subtle against homeschooling – the negative stereotypes of
homeschoolers were sprinkled throughout. I don’t know what’s better – to boycott it or see it and write a letter to the movie producers. I wanted to write this because I would have liked to have known what was in it before seeing it. Sorry this isn’t as “quick” as I planned just thought I’d give some examples. God bless you all in your
last few months of the school year. Mary Drake

Bummer.

Additional bummer is that apparently Dr. Seuss believed a person is a person no matter how small...unless that person was a human fetus.

I think I’ll be skipping this movie.

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