School Daze

My poor little boy! It has not been his day at all. 1st I get a text message from the Manny saying that my son told another boy who has dark skin that he is his slave. My son explained to me that he learned all about it during Martin Luther King day and of course we are now in Black History month. I was floored and of course I had lots of explaining to do. Currently he is working on his apology letter to this other little boy and I am hoping I do not get a phone call from an outraged parent. Keeping fingers crossed.

To top it off the teacher sent home this lovely note:
Just to let you know that ---- stuck up his middle finger twice today. I have talked with him about it. Please sign.
WHAT? - How is this possible? My son has no idea what that means. We monitor his entire life. The only place we are not around is at school.
His explanation: Mom, I was showing Michelle the measurements of how long Cat Woman's claws are! He illustrates this by showing me the distance using his middle fingers. He is crying and hugging me. He has no idea why this is bad.
What gets me is that his teacher assumes he knows what that means instead of asking him. He's in the first grade for crying out loud. Guess it's just my mommy bias point of view.