Kids Gym Schoolhouse owner Laura Johnson knew a positive evaluation of her preschool’s program was necessary to earn a distinguished four-star rating from the state. But she didn’t expect one evaluator to deduct points based on the presence of “violent” toys. …

The offending toys in this case: nine green plastic Army men. …

Anna Carter, supervisor of the N.C. Division of Child Development’s Policy and Program Unit, said authors of the Environmental Rating System consider toy soldiers inappropriate because they represent a violent theme.

— Wilmington Morning Star, Nov. 15, 2001

December 27, 2001

Teapot Preschool
Shirley Eugest, Director
Wilmington, NC

Dear Ms. Eugest,

The probation agreement you signed with the Greater Wilmington Instructional Network for Child Health (GWINCH) in lieu of your unsatisfactory November evaluation stipulates that your facility will be subject to unannounced reviews of its recreational stimulants (hereafter, “toys”) and surrounding recreational environment by a state-appointed Area Recreational Stimulant Evaluator (ARSE). In accordance with this agreement, I conducted an evaluation of the Teapot Preschool on Dec. 26, 2001.

I note with satisfaction that the offending toys have been removed since the last state-appointed ARSE conducted an evaluation. Toy Army men with guns teach nothing but violence and hatred. Furthermore, all of the toy soldiers were exactly alike, and children need toys that stimulate an appreciation of diversity. If, hypothetically, the network were to allow toy soldiers in a preschool, we would stipulate that they are sufficiently diverse. So their removal from Teapot was a small victory for diversity and peace.

Nevertheless, I still find that Teapot continues to force children to engage in violent, hateful, and insufficiently diverse play, including what I witnessed yesterday:

• Boys engaging in violent play with Barbie dolls.
In my short visit to Teapot, I saw boys using dolls to kick other dolls, making dolls “karate-chop” other dolls and children, even pointing the dolls’ arms straight out and making “PRKSH, PRKSH” noises clearly imitative of gunfire. Also, I overheard one boy make one Barbie say to another, “We don’t need guns, Osama, we have bombs,” and then drop a football on her. At one time I thought I would cheer the day I saw boys abandoning their scripted gender roles and playing with Barbie dolls, but this senselessly violent “playing,” cultural insensitivity, and sexist disregard for any latent pedagogical purposes of the Barbie dolls and the girls who apparently desired to play with them made my hair stand on end.

• Barbie dolls.
They’re still too thin to be role-model toys for young girls. “You got to be thin to get you a Ken” is a horrible message. And after today’s spectacle, it strikes this ARSE that more proportionate dolls would not lend themselves as easily for use as toy-soldier stand-ins. Worse, it seems the Barbies’ thin-is-in gender coding was reinforced by the boys’ sudden interest in playing with them, meaning the girls got the sexism loud and clear without even the negligible benefit of playing with the dolls. Sadly, the girls did not seek to join the boys nor to reclaim a gender-male toy but instead chose to occupy themselves with a game of “Tag.”

• Girls playing “Tag.”
I am aghast that this monstrous, so-called game is still allowed in civilized countries. Do we know nothing about child psychology? A young child, especially a young girl, has enough crushing self-esteem issues to deal with than to be burdened with the additional social stigma of being cruelly labeled “It” and then callously ostracized by her laughing, fleeing peers. Why couldn’t a facilitator care enough to lead them in a rousing game of “We’re All Okay,” “Duck Duck Quack” or “I Win, You Win, We All Win, Let’s Play Again?”

It is therefore with great disappointment and, I might add, exasperation that I must direct Teapot Preschool to close immediately. This day care poses a very real threat to the children of the Greater Wilmington area. All children attending Teapot will be bused immediately to the safer, state-approved educational environment at Inner City Druggie Den Preschool and Daycare.

Appalled,

Tim Pest

Area Recreational Stimulants Evaluator
Greater Wilmington Instructional Network for Child Health