It’s important that children learn the less ons of history. Otherwise, we are doomed to repeat it. But also, children should not be hearing the phrase “happy slave” from Scholastic.

Scholastic has caused controversy with A Birthday Cake for George Washington. The book is about Delia and her father Hercules, who serves as the personal cook to Washington. It’s the President’s birthday, and Hercules needs help finding sugar to make a birthday cake for him. It all sounds very cute, until you remember that these were real people, and they weren’t being paid to make that cake – they were slaves.

Atlanta based mother and teacher Kia Morgan Smith is leading the charge against the book, describing it as “revisionist history” that depicts the slaves as being nice, happy, and content with their situations. She said, “The problem with creating these kinds of books is that they are trying to water down a very traumatic time in our history, and when you do that you create a climate for denial from other races and cultures to think being enslaved was an OK thing… it’s very irresponsible and a missed opportunity to give our children the ability to understand one another truthfully…”

Read the Full Article: Moms are furious with this ‘happy slave’ book for children