Sometimes, a personal connection can impede one’s ability to understand injustices and conflicts. For example, anything about the Israeli / Palestinian conflict can have a much different effect on many “outsiders” (often eyerolling about how they can fight each other seemingly forever even when it is both of their interests to make peace) compared to those who have some sort of connection (often an extreme level of distrust of anyone from the other side whom they see only as incorrigible oppressors or terrorists, and rejection of any narrative that does not fit the view of their side always good, other side always evil).
With respect to specific topics, civil rights and Holocaust related stuff was considered reasonably “safe”, since there was (until recently) a general consensus that white nationalism/racism/supremacism and Nazi-ism were the “bad guys”.
I would imagine the holocaust in Cambodia, or the Rape of Nanking, or the horrors of Stalinism would have been safe to discuss as well but didn’t fit the political agenda sufficiently.
One of the books I remember being assigned in a high school English course was (an English translation of) One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
@2VU0609 suggested “Perhaps a new foreword in each book putting the text into context with the time of publication would be a smart move for the publisher?”
I have a book (memoir) that actually has this noted in the forward: “Caitlin in particular was incensed by my use of politically incorrect allusions. Sorry, Caitlin, and anyone else I may offend - that’s the way we thought and spoke in the Thirties. In order to keep my memoir true to the time, I used the exact words and phrases that were accepted in my part of the world.”
So yes, a note in subsequent publications can and should be considered.
I think both the Holocaust and Civil rights are important topics to include for all American students, even recent immigrants, but I think there should be some acknowledgement of local demographics and salient history. My kids are the grandchildren of Displaced Persons who lived in camps in Germany for years during the 1940’s; my mother and my in laws all lost many relatives to death camps and gulags, or simply “disappearances”. But besides that history, I have been interested in learning more about why my Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese neighbors dislike each other SO much; why the Egyptian muslims in town don’t mix with the “Paki” muslims; how Pakistani and Indian students relate to each other, and the historical context…and how the Russian students (and their immigrant parents) feel about the fact that “Russia” is currently a dirty word…unfortunately, if we look to the school system for guidance, it won’t be forthcoming. We do get the Jewish Holidays and Chinese New Years off, but we will spend an entire month on black history month for the two black kids at each grade level. I wonder if they feel included, or awkward, about that?
Probably because most school systems in the US do not have the desire to wade into (particularly non-US) political conflicts that they do not have a lot of knowledge of, compared to parent groups who are strongly emotionally vested in a particular (often highly biased) narrative of the topic. Trying to present a neutral narrative on such a conflict may produce opposition from all sides of the issue.
True, I don’t know that it should be a regular curricular item, but I do think the summer reading lists should include options that consider local demographics, as these assignments can be chosen from a list. In our district there is one short list of “One of these” and a longer list of “any of these” or “books by this author”. We mostly study US history in school, early Europe
in middle school, and the holocaust sort of sneaks in there at the elementary school level, when WWII isn’t really covered until HS. A Diary of Anne Frank something like 4th grade. Meaning, why teach the Holocaust as an event divorced from all other world history? I was such a strong student in every area BUT history- it all seemed like a bunch of unrelated dates and events. I love (fairly accurate) historical fiction because finally, it makes sense to me. So I like the LIW books because they brought alive a period for me that I never would have grasped by slogging from “ Westward Expansion” to “Manifest Destiny”. I think there is a lot of value in such books, versus a contemporary person trying to write a fictional account of another time.
Diary of Anne Frank in 4th grade. We did somebody dies in every book in fourth grade, (The Cay, Bridge to Teribithia and a couple more I have forgotten,) but Anne Frank covers a lot of teenage angsty stuff. Our kids read her in 8th grade which seems more appropriate. They didn’t read LIW in school - I suspect because the material in Little House on the Prairie is problematic. My recollection is that they did Native American history, pilgrims and emigration and not much in between in elementary school!
However, even then there is the possibility of triggering a backlash if the summer reading book conflicts with some strongly held beliefs, or mentions things that some people would prefer to leave unsaid (e.g. backlash against The Kite Runner for weaving in inter-ethnic relations and racism between different ethnic groups in Afghanistan).
Most school districts probably don’t want to fight any more of these kinds of political battles than they have to with typical US history/literature/etc. content that some disagree with (e.g. main cause of the Civil War).
45 years ago in my high school we were free to discuss pretty much anything, and to argue about anything. Now, there really is too much felling of entitlement to hear only things that everyone is supposed to agree with.
Agreed, sorghum, and it makes me sad. 45 years ago we had spirited debates in middle and high school about abortion, gay rights, legalization of drugs. Today my daughter’s school won’t touch any controversial subject for fear of offending someone. There is much less debate, sadly.
I am trying to remember how the westward expansion is taught in schools these days. Does it look at all sides or just the settlers perspective? My own history classes were long ago and my APUSH class was pretty much a joke in terms of learning any real history. I will ask my kids, but just wondering.
I remember having arguments about the issues of the day back in HS, but my recollection is having them with friends and family and not in class. My kid’s schools allowed students to write about and discuss some of those issues. But I’m not sure that it makes sense to discuss the very controversial issues in class. Legalization of pot or global warming, for example, can be argued with data (although there are those that don’t believe in data). However, current policies and abortion seem like topics on which debate is not really possible as the positions held are not based on debatable premises.
I’m a black teen who read (and loved) all the Little House books, Pippi Longstocking, Tom Sawyer, etc. as a youngster. I was assigned many of them for school. Even at a young age, I was very aware of the racist behaviors towards blacks, native Americans, and others. I wasn’t offended at all because we read a lot of African American/minority history and I was accustomed to reading stereotypes and graphic racial slurs. I don’t see why we can’t understand the context of previous inappropriate behaviors while still enjoying the quality literature.
I’m reading James Michener’s book about South Africa, “The Covenant,” right now. He does an amazing job of pulling together the country’s long history into a coherent narrative. But I imagine this book gets the stink-eye, too, for the way it portrays indigenous people and the settlers’ attitudes towards them.
@mom2and - As an elementary school curriculum director for a district in suburban New York, I can tell you that a major part of every social studies topic is understanding that there are multiple perspectives and learning how to read and interpret both primary and secondary sources. Broad understandings like perspective and bias are central to studying social studies. Check it out on engageny.org (under the Common Core pull down menu, go to social studies, then click on NYS K-12 Social Studies Framework, then click on either NYS K-8 March ‘16 or 9-12 Feb ‘17 Social Studies Framework) or your state’s equivalent site.
Social studies is taught very differently today from when today’s parents were kids— and even when the parents were kids, multiple perspectives were taught more than they were in the grandparents’ day.
Honestly. I can not remember the last time I heard or read someone say. “Wow. That’s a good point maybe I should consider revisiting my view”
Nope. Everyone entrenched in a world view and the debate is only to convince others to that perspective.
Lively and quality debate is pretty much dead.
In this case. I have learned that liw books aren’t that great from a literary perspective. Not a lit expert so I say ok. That makes some sense. But not why the change is being made.
Oh well. It’s agree or move to the other side of the room these days. And it’s not good news at all.
@privatebanker , exactly what have you contributed to this discussion that allows you to be so dismissive of everyone else? You have said, “What about Twain, what about Huck Finn?” four or five times, but that’s not even an argument, just a slogan, since you don’t even give the courtesy of saying what you think is relevant about Twain. As it happens, I don’t think there are any children’s book prizes named for Mark Twain currently.
I have been reading this thread, and I have seen people honestly taking others’ opinions into account, in both directions. There have been thoughtful posts on both sides of the issue, whether that issue is taking Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name off a prize, or whether the treatment of Native Americans in her books is worthy of censure (not censorship – something no one has supported).
Re Mark Twain: I posted earlier that Huck Finn has been removed from school libraries and reading lists in some schools. Worse than taking an author’s name off a prize, in my view.