From: Monica R. Edinger <edinger>
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 05:59:48 +0000

I hope that my occasional too-long posts about my experiences with certain books in my classroom are not perceived as going too far away from the books themselves. And I certainly hope that they are not ever perceived as insulting to authors.

Yesterday I was introduced to a book by Ralph Keyes called The Courage to Write which reinforced my admiration for those who write for a living. The idea of laying yourself out so publicly is, in my view, incredibly brave. And writing books for children seems much harder to me than writing about the books (which is what I do a bit). I salute all you courageous writers for children!

What I do feel I can offer this community is a close-up view of how certain children's books are read, discussed, thought about, and used in one school and in one classroom. How one teacher thinks about books, watches children interact with them, and tries to figure out what that means.

I teach in the rather rarified environment of a New York City private school. I am fortunate in having a great deal of latitude in what I teach; my students are eager to learn and their parents are very respectful of my work. My classes are relatively small, no more than twenty children at a time. Yet my classes are still microcosms of any 4th grade. There are children with learning issues, focusing issues, diversity issues, family troubles, illness, and more. I've been teaching for over twenty-five years in many different types of schools: Sierra Leone Prep, a K-2 public school on 122nd Street in New York City, defunct progressive schools, small schools, large school, etc. And I myself went to far too many schools myself as a child in Germany, Switzerland, Michigan, Missouri, Alabama, California, New York. They were private, progressive, traditional, conservative, liberal, English speaking and not. I enjoy working directly with children, bringing wonderful books to them, interacting with them as they learn. I say this only because I think my experience is reflected in how I teach, how I respond to literature for children, and how I respond to discussion about literature for children.

When I relate my worries and thoughts about specific books and how I suspect my students might react to them my intention is not to question the author about his or her book. It is to provide those who read and hear me with a view into what actual happens when books are used by educators in classrooms and what happens in classrooms with children and books. This is, I repeat, only one viewpoint. I am generally unable to read most children's books without a tiny piece of my thinking about how my students will respond to the book. If I go further and take the book to my students or decide not to, I hope my thinking about why or why not I do so is consider a worthwhile part of our conversations about books.

I hope this is not seen as too prickly a post. I don't intend it to be. I have been so delighted to get to know face to face many of the ccbcnet community even though I'm "only a teacher." And I have especially enjoyed getting to know other classroom teachers since the success or not of children learning to appreciate literature really is up to the teacher more than anyone else. Parents and librarians are important, but it is the classroom teacher with whom children are with many hours each day who most strongly influences their appreciation of books (at least, so I think.)

So, authors and friends-of-authors: please do not ever take my posts as insulting of the works themselves. And I do hope that we teachers continue to be welcome to relate our classroom stories as they relate to the books under discussion.


Monica

Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at yahoo.com
Received on Wed 31 Jan 2001 11:59:48 PM CST