CCBC-Net Archives
Hurting Children
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Perry Nodelman <perry.nodelman>
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1999 18:44:40 -0500
The world is often a bad place.
The bad things in it will hurt children no matter how hard adults try to prevent it from doing so.
Trying to protect children from being hurt by knowledge of the bad things in the world is likely to hurt them more in the long run. "Innocent" people protected from badness do bad things because they don't understand how bad the bad things are. Children allowed to be hurt by hurtful information about the world they live in are more likely to be able to cope with the hurt and gain mastery over it-? good and encourage others to be good.
Children who thoughtlessly identify with Laura Ingalls' thoughtless bigotry are bad readers. They need to learn to read better, for their own good and the good of others.
Children who are hurt by Laura Ingalls' thoughtless bigotry are also bad readers, and also need to learn to read better, for their own good.
To keep books we disapprove from children because we think the children will be bad readers of those books is an insult to the children, and a failure to accept our own responsibility to help them to be better readers.
Better readers might well be hurt by hurtful books. They should be. But in the very fact of their hurting they will understand how those books lie about the world, dismiss the lies, and encourage other readers to see past them also.
The Little House books are not historically inaccurate. They hurt so much simply because they do accurately represent how, not so long ago, Americans of European backgrounds allowed themselves to think about the aboriginal Americans they were so happily killing off and displacing. To hide this ugly but very real truth from contemporary children is to promote a dangerous lie about history. "Good" people like Laura often live by ugly lies about those they choose to see as other than themselves. Laura's thoughtless acceptance of her parents' and community's bigotry is a truth wise children need to know, for their own good and for the good of others, no matter how much knowing it hurts them.
Yrs.,
Perry Nodelman perry.nodelman at uwinnipeg.ca http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~nodelman
Received on Fri 15 Oct 1999 06:44:40 PM CDT
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1999 18:44:40 -0500
The world is often a bad place.
The bad things in it will hurt children no matter how hard adults try to prevent it from doing so.
Trying to protect children from being hurt by knowledge of the bad things in the world is likely to hurt them more in the long run. "Innocent" people protected from badness do bad things because they don't understand how bad the bad things are. Children allowed to be hurt by hurtful information about the world they live in are more likely to be able to cope with the hurt and gain mastery over it-? good and encourage others to be good.
Children who thoughtlessly identify with Laura Ingalls' thoughtless bigotry are bad readers. They need to learn to read better, for their own good and the good of others.
Children who are hurt by Laura Ingalls' thoughtless bigotry are also bad readers, and also need to learn to read better, for their own good.
To keep books we disapprove from children because we think the children will be bad readers of those books is an insult to the children, and a failure to accept our own responsibility to help them to be better readers.
Better readers might well be hurt by hurtful books. They should be. But in the very fact of their hurting they will understand how those books lie about the world, dismiss the lies, and encourage other readers to see past them also.
The Little House books are not historically inaccurate. They hurt so much simply because they do accurately represent how, not so long ago, Americans of European backgrounds allowed themselves to think about the aboriginal Americans they were so happily killing off and displacing. To hide this ugly but very real truth from contemporary children is to promote a dangerous lie about history. "Good" people like Laura often live by ugly lies about those they choose to see as other than themselves. Laura's thoughtless acceptance of her parents' and community's bigotry is a truth wise children need to know, for their own good and for the good of others, no matter how much knowing it hurts them.
Yrs.,
Perry Nodelman perry.nodelman at uwinnipeg.ca http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~nodelman
Received on Fri 15 Oct 1999 06:44:40 PM CDT
