I have so many questions:
Literacy starts at home. pic.twitter.com/8qNixx5Gxn
— U.S. Department of Education (@usedgov) March 19, 2026
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Clarissa's Blog 
These are characters from the classic American children’s book series “Curious George.”
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I know that. I’m a mommy, after all. We went through a curious George stage some years ago.
But it’s still funny.
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On the history of the Curious George books: https://www.bu.edu/writingprogram/journal/past-issues/issue-7/terhune/
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Link left by Good Enough Professor (forgot to log in)
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Jesus Lord.
Yes, Idiocracy is much stronger on the other side.
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I’m confused by what you object to here? Is that the message you think it’s silly to remind people that literacy begins at home? Or you don’t like that a man is reading to a monkey? If it’s the later, that’s from Curious George…a darling book series that started in the 1940s or so. It spun off to various cartoon and such. But the original book series is 6 books or so and tell the story of a mischievous little monkey named George and the little scrapes and accidents he gets himself into. He lives with “the man in the yellow hat” who is sort of a cross between a father and his owner.
It’s a very sweet and comforting little series of books that’s beautifully illustrated. Perfect for very young children. It similar in style (and from the same era) as the Madeline book series (one of my personal favorites.)
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This was posted by a government organization. What they post is always political. When “home” is a man reading to a monkey, it’s not the same as when it’s a man surrounded by four children who look like him. Given the issues we are all experiencing, a lonely dude who’s reading to a monkey in the complete absence of wife and children is very on the nose. And everybody would immediately notice this if it were a Dem WH posting a lonesome cat lady reading to her kitty.
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Many Republican voters think the Department of Education should be abolished (see the comments under this tweet), and of course many evangelicals think that evolutionary theory is an atheist plot. The content of this image may be a deliberate provocation of some kind. Maybe they are deliberately riling up the base (appropriate schooling means non-traditional families teaching their children about Darwinism??) in order to build political energy for the department’s abolition??
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I also was thinking that these people are begging to be abolished with their poster about an incel who single-handedly gave birth to a monkey.
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I assumed that the political angle to the post was the use of an illustration from a series that has provoked a lot of political ire.
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it is “non controversial”– i.e. mentions “home” (puts blame on parents not schools), but without appearing to endorse any particular family structure.
Sad in its own right, of course.
Have always wondered if these programs have any effect at all, beyond employment for graphic design/marketing grads. Literate parents don’t need the outreach, and illiterate parents are unlikely to experience conversion this way.
-ethyl
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