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Books in Translation
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From: Madge M. Klais <mklais>
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 12:06:55 -0600
After lurking on this listserv for some time, I would like to emerge and address Mr. Aronson's most recent comment about "how much we allow books that come from very different times and places to be different and how much we judge them as if they were written by or for modern American teenagers". I am a practicing public school librarian, but I am also an historian of the Middle Ages. As an historian, librarian, and teacher, I have often been confronted with the dilemma of how to make primary sources accessible to students at all levels. This is a particularly difficult problem for primary sources in translation.
I have concluded that it simply is not always possible to make primary sources easy reading or initially inviting and remain true to the times and places that produced them (as well as the author's experience). There are some books and documents that students must work hard to understand and appreciate, but that does not mean that we should "doctor" them or avoid publishing them or shelving them in our libraries. Students can achieve great satisfaction out of mastering a difficult text, but mastery in most cases will depend on the guidance of a teacher who brings the text alive in the classroom or, at the very least, the enthusiastic book-talking of a librarian. If we only present books that seem to have been written "by or for modern American teenagers", we are doing our students and history a great disservice.
Mr. Aronson's question brings us back to the discussion that was launched regarding the publication of fictional diaries such as the Coretta Scott King Honor Book, "I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly". Perhaps such works can draw students into an appreciation of history, but they are no substitute for the real thing.
Madge Klais Madge Hildebrandt Klais Program Support Teacher Library Technology and Communication Madison Metropolitan School District 545 W. Dayton St. Madison, WI 5370367 Phone: (608)266H65 Fax: (608)26735
Received on Tue 10 Mar 1998 12:06:55 PM CST
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 12:06:55 -0600
After lurking on this listserv for some time, I would like to emerge and address Mr. Aronson's most recent comment about "how much we allow books that come from very different times and places to be different and how much we judge them as if they were written by or for modern American teenagers". I am a practicing public school librarian, but I am also an historian of the Middle Ages. As an historian, librarian, and teacher, I have often been confronted with the dilemma of how to make primary sources accessible to students at all levels. This is a particularly difficult problem for primary sources in translation.
I have concluded that it simply is not always possible to make primary sources easy reading or initially inviting and remain true to the times and places that produced them (as well as the author's experience). There are some books and documents that students must work hard to understand and appreciate, but that does not mean that we should "doctor" them or avoid publishing them or shelving them in our libraries. Students can achieve great satisfaction out of mastering a difficult text, but mastery in most cases will depend on the guidance of a teacher who brings the text alive in the classroom or, at the very least, the enthusiastic book-talking of a librarian. If we only present books that seem to have been written "by or for modern American teenagers", we are doing our students and history a great disservice.
Mr. Aronson's question brings us back to the discussion that was launched regarding the publication of fictional diaries such as the Coretta Scott King Honor Book, "I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly". Perhaps such works can draw students into an appreciation of history, but they are no substitute for the real thing.
Madge Klais Madge Hildebrandt Klais Program Support Teacher Library Technology and Communication Madison Metropolitan School District 545 W. Dayton St. Madison, WI 5370367 Phone: (608)266H65 Fax: (608)26735
Received on Tue 10 Mar 1998 12:06:55 PM CST
