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affirmation and pluralism
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From: Barthelmess, Thom <tbarthelmess_at_dom.edu>
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2014 20:51:37 +0000
I, too, am so thankful for the candor and grace of this discussion. They remind me that these are complex and thorny issues and that, no matter how clearly we see our own individual perspectives, the fuller picture is gray with ambiguity and paradox. They remind me, too, how much we care about the young people we serve, and about one another.
Books are powerful things. In this thread alone we have heard eloquent testimonials about their ability to lift up and to cut down. I hasten to add that reading, too, is a powerful enterprise. And I worry that we might be compromising the power of reading by succumbing to the power of books.
Intellectual freedom is not an abstract, ivory tower value. It lives on the ground and has real, concrete meaning. For it says that reading is the purview of the reader and no one else. When we steer children away from books and messages we find problematic, however well-intentioned we are, we assert a higher authority with the capacity and the right to determine what is and is not appropriate. I find that message, that someone else is watching and judging, to be far more deleterious than the negative content itself.
I have faith in the value of intercultural understanding, enough faith to believe that it can and will prevail, even, perhaps especially, if children encounter everything the world has in store, not just the affirmative parts. After all, these messages we find offensive are expressions of ideas that already exist. Yes, they sting. I don't mean to minimize the hurt they inflict. But to shelter children from them seems to fundamentally underestimate their ability to see a bigger picture. And if we want adults to think critically, shouldn't we respect children with complex, contradictory material and support their digestion of it?
The answer is not the expurgation of the problematic but the proliferation of the diverse. More information is better. We absolutely need more books that express more diversity in more ways. And to get there, we must trust children to want them. Trust kids to read beyond the identities we presume for them. Trust boys to read books with pink covers. Trust gay kids to read about dragons. Trust biracial kids to read cookbooks. Trust kids to make their own choices. Young people are looking to us for cues. We (being the people who, in whatever capacity, facilitate the union of the child and the book) define the culture of reading, every day, in the hundreds of recommendations we make, in displays, booktalks, storytimes, dystopian read-alikes, summer reading lists, one-on-one conversation, etc. Imagine if all of us attended to diversity and inclusion across the board. If every time we said "here's a sampling to choose from" we offered kids some real variety. If we focused not on the singular message of the individual title but the resonant pluralism of the aggregate. It wouldn't be a magic bullet. But you can't convince me that it wouldn't fundamentally improve the diversity of the literary landscape.
Oh, and the only way to trust young people is to trust them.
Thom
Thom Barthelmess Curator, Butler Children's Literature Center Dominican University GSLIS 7900 W Division St River Forest, IL 60305 708.524.6861 www.butlerspantry.org<http://www.butlerspantry.org>
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2014 20:51:37 +0000
I, too, am so thankful for the candor and grace of this discussion. They remind me that these are complex and thorny issues and that, no matter how clearly we see our own individual perspectives, the fuller picture is gray with ambiguity and paradox. They remind me, too, how much we care about the young people we serve, and about one another.
Books are powerful things. In this thread alone we have heard eloquent testimonials about their ability to lift up and to cut down. I hasten to add that reading, too, is a powerful enterprise. And I worry that we might be compromising the power of reading by succumbing to the power of books.
Intellectual freedom is not an abstract, ivory tower value. It lives on the ground and has real, concrete meaning. For it says that reading is the purview of the reader and no one else. When we steer children away from books and messages we find problematic, however well-intentioned we are, we assert a higher authority with the capacity and the right to determine what is and is not appropriate. I find that message, that someone else is watching and judging, to be far more deleterious than the negative content itself.
I have faith in the value of intercultural understanding, enough faith to believe that it can and will prevail, even, perhaps especially, if children encounter everything the world has in store, not just the affirmative parts. After all, these messages we find offensive are expressions of ideas that already exist. Yes, they sting. I don't mean to minimize the hurt they inflict. But to shelter children from them seems to fundamentally underestimate their ability to see a bigger picture. And if we want adults to think critically, shouldn't we respect children with complex, contradictory material and support their digestion of it?
The answer is not the expurgation of the problematic but the proliferation of the diverse. More information is better. We absolutely need more books that express more diversity in more ways. And to get there, we must trust children to want them. Trust kids to read beyond the identities we presume for them. Trust boys to read books with pink covers. Trust gay kids to read about dragons. Trust biracial kids to read cookbooks. Trust kids to make their own choices. Young people are looking to us for cues. We (being the people who, in whatever capacity, facilitate the union of the child and the book) define the culture of reading, every day, in the hundreds of recommendations we make, in displays, booktalks, storytimes, dystopian read-alikes, summer reading lists, one-on-one conversation, etc. Imagine if all of us attended to diversity and inclusion across the board. If every time we said "here's a sampling to choose from" we offered kids some real variety. If we focused not on the singular message of the individual title but the resonant pluralism of the aggregate. It wouldn't be a magic bullet. But you can't convince me that it wouldn't fundamentally improve the diversity of the literary landscape.
Oh, and the only way to trust young people is to trust them.
Thom
Thom Barthelmess Curator, Butler Children's Literature Center Dominican University GSLIS 7900 W Division St River Forest, IL 60305 708.524.6861 www.butlerspantry.org<http://www.butlerspantry.org>
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Received on Tue 11 Feb 2014 02:52:04 PM CST
