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Re: Professional Responsibility
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From: bookmarch_at_aol.com
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2010 08:30:52 -0400 (EDT)
The Claudette Colvin issue points out another side of the professional resp onsibility question -- which I hope to discuss more next month when we cons ider nonfiction: as authors we have to decide what to put into our books. W e do not control what happened in the past (if we are writing about history ). Of course we make judgments based on our intended readership. But that r eadership is not so clearly defined -- either in their ages or in their sen sibilities. While the mother who wanted the book moved comes across as a th ougtful, concerned, parent, her wish for clear boundaries between age group s just does not fit the messiness of human behavior and changing cultural n orms as they cross the indistinct borderlines of what is or is not appropri ate for kids today. To one parent, say, an upper elementary book that explo res Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemmings would be inappropriate for her child, for another a book on Jefferson which failed to delve into that relationship would be harmful mythol ogy. More on this, I hope, in the nonf iction strand.
Marc Aronson
Received on Mon 27 Sep 2010 08:30:52 AM CDT
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2010 08:30:52 -0400 (EDT)
The Claudette Colvin issue points out another side of the professional resp onsibility question -- which I hope to discuss more next month when we cons ider nonfiction: as authors we have to decide what to put into our books. W e do not control what happened in the past (if we are writing about history ). Of course we make judgments based on our intended readership. But that r eadership is not so clearly defined -- either in their ages or in their sen sibilities. While the mother who wanted the book moved comes across as a th ougtful, concerned, parent, her wish for clear boundaries between age group s just does not fit the messiness of human behavior and changing cultural n orms as they cross the indistinct borderlines of what is or is not appropri ate for kids today. To one parent, say, an upper elementary book that explo res Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemmings would be inappropriate for her child, for another a book on Jefferson which failed to delve into that relationship would be harmful mythol ogy. More on this, I hope, in the nonf iction strand.
Marc Aronson
Received on Mon 27 Sep 2010 08:30:52 AM CDT
