Magazines

So every year I do a writing activity where we use magazines to make a collage of different types of topic sentences.  I love this activity for many different reasons.  This year I asked parents to send in any old magazines that they wouldn't mind having us cut up.  BUT I also strongly emphasized that I needed them to be BORING and APPROPRIATE magazines, so if they could please flip through them and remove anything inappropriate.  Well either parents forgot, or we have completely different views of what is appropriate.  I of course pre-screened the fronts of the magazines and quickly thumbed through the rest.  Here's some of the gems I found on just the front and back covers!

OK...first of all, words like infidelity and intimacy are kind of a red flag for me...

I don't want to see a picture of people getting all up on each other, do you really want your kids seeing that?

RED FLAG - Shouldn't Howard Stern's picture plastered on the front cover make you at least think, "hmmm maybe not the best magazine for kids"?

How do you think a bunch of 6th graders are going to respond to the word SEX?  Really, come on!

And the kicker of them all that I did NOT find on my own, but a student found tucked as an ad in a magazine, was a picture of topless woman just using her fingers to cover her nipples.  LOVELY.  That led to quite the discussion of what's appropriate and what's not.