Re: conversations about difficult topics and bigoted views in children’s books—
First of all, my kids are young (preschool age), so ask me in 20 years whether this “is working”, haha. But what I’m currently doing is a multi-pronged approach.
- Some books, the juice is just not worth the squeeze, meaning whatever benefit we might get is not worth the amount or severity of objectionable content, so I will just avoid those titles altogether.
- Some books are read-alouds where it’s easy to edit on the fly or insert a quick explanation of why I don’t agree with the author or their character.
- Some books and topics I try to preload with more well-rounded perspectives. For example, before we started reading Little House, we read a number of books with more accurate history of Native people in the American Midwest.
Like I say, I don’t know how well this approach is “working” and I likely draw the lines in different places than others. But hopefully this is helpful to someone.
I’m very late to read and comment on this post but I find the discussion on removing problematic language fascinating. I simply don’t believe that there is anyone who doesn’t, at some point change the language of the books they are reading to their children. Words like fat, ugly, stupid, in books for young children, add nothing to the story and nothing is lost by simply omitting them. Children are sponges and if they hear you (reading Roald Dahl) describe someone as ‘enormously fat’ so will they!
Even when I read Dear Zoo, I change some of the he’s to she’s for balance!
This isn’t censorship, it’s just moderating language in the way I do every time I talk to children. Censorship happens at a government level, not in private homes and classrooms or even within publishers.
I’m a primary school teacher and again, this is what we do at school. Yes we have conversations around unacceptable language and outdated attitudes, but if you’re reading a book aloud in the last five minutes of a Friday in July, you take the path of least resistance and skip a word.
Interestingly, we’ve actually been asked by parents to stop stocking David Williams books in the school library as the content (and the author, frankly) contain such odious messages. I agree with them but it can be hard for schools to find a balance.
Re: conversations about difficult topics and bigoted views in children’s books—
First of all, my kids are young (preschool age), so ask me in 20 years whether this “is working”, haha. But what I’m currently doing is a multi-pronged approach.
- Some books, the juice is just not worth the squeeze, meaning whatever benefit we might get is not worth the amount or severity of objectionable content, so I will just avoid those titles altogether.
- Some books are read-alouds where it’s easy to edit on the fly or insert a quick explanation of why I don’t agree with the author or their character.
- Some books and topics I try to preload with more well-rounded perspectives. For example, before we started reading Little House, we read a number of books with more accurate history of Native people in the American Midwest.
Like I say, I don’t know how well this approach is “working” and I likely draw the lines in different places than others. But hopefully this is helpful to someone.
I’m very late to read and comment on this post but I find the discussion on removing problematic language fascinating. I simply don’t believe that there is anyone who doesn’t, at some point change the language of the books they are reading to their children. Words like fat, ugly, stupid, in books for young children, add nothing to the story and nothing is lost by simply omitting them. Children are sponges and if they hear you (reading Roald Dahl) describe someone as ‘enormously fat’ so will they!
Even when I read Dear Zoo, I change some of the he’s to she’s for balance!
This isn’t censorship, it’s just moderating language in the way I do every time I talk to children. Censorship happens at a government level, not in private homes and classrooms or even within publishers.
I’m a primary school teacher and again, this is what we do at school. Yes we have conversations around unacceptable language and outdated attitudes, but if you’re reading a book aloud in the last five minutes of a Friday in July, you take the path of least resistance and skip a word.
Interestingly, we’ve actually been asked by parents to stop stocking David Williams books in the school library as the content (and the author, frankly) contain such odious messages. I agree with them but it can be hard for schools to find a balance.