Immediately report staff member's invitation to 14-year-old

Q. My child is 14, and a school worker, not a teacher, invited him to his house at night to watch a football game. He didn't want to tell me because he said I would overreact and get this person in trouble when he is harmless.

I don't want my son responsible for getting him to lose his job. He might not share things with me if he knows I will abuse this, don't you think? Could we be causing someone to get his job taken or will they simply look into this to make sure this man knows not to do it again?

Q. Do not hesitate on things like this. You are the parent, and adults take care of children. Report this to the principal. Neither of you are responsible for any consequences to this other person. Your child knows this was wrong and this is why he shared it with you.

What you do now as the parent is up to you. It would not be abusing your son's trust to make sure this adult is not harming kids. This is something the school needs to handle. If he loses his job, it is because he should not be around children.

Q. Is there a required curriculum for teaching Martin Luther King Jr.? How much detail is a first-grade teacher required to go into for him? I think this topic is far outside the reach of students to understand or need to hear, yet my child's teacher told me she was required to teach it. How true is this?

A. When our nation takes a day to recognize someone as important as Martin Luther King Jr., I think it is important to teach our children why we do this. Even in first grade, we begin to learn the significance of patriotic songs and national holidays. In Dr. King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, he references the song, "America," which young first-graders learn to sing. They form a connection to history when they realize this and it makes history come alive for them.

Part of being educated is learning to recognize and hold facts of shared historical importance. It is important to know who Dr. King was and why we celebrate him. Teachers usually present the information in ways the children can understand it, and some of that history may be too startling for young children even though it did happen.

Different districts and even different schools have different requirements for the depth we go into teaching anything, but usually the discretion is left to the teacher. The topic, who Dr. King was, is something most of us are required to teach.

Contact the writer at goasktheteacher@yahoo.com.

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