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Re: sexuality and books in the curriculum
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From: Rosanne Parry <rosanneparry_at_comcast.net>
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 10:29:22 -0700
I think summer reading is a huge part of why this title was so problematic. For my girl, the nausea and nightmares eventually subsided but her friend who had been looking for a way out of danger stopped looking and sank into a depression. They have good counselors at the school and if she'd been in the warm and welcoming environment of her high school I think she might have found the help and advocacy she needed. This all happened more than a decade ago and when I see this girl now, out of work and on permanent disability, I can't help wondering what would have happened if she'd read Speak instead or some other more empowering story.
The high schools in the district who kept the Allende title did move it into the school year and the ones who didn't chose another of Allende's books in which her more positive themes are more accessible. But to me the more important part is that they were willing to consider the needs of their students who were past or ongoing victims of sexual violence. The willingness to help them access resources can be life saving and is a vital part of promoting life long literacy. A large swath of the adult population never reads literature again after high school and I bet at least some of them were people who found their school reading a traumatic and alienating experience.
Rosanne
On Mar 10, 2014, at 6:09 AM, Monica Edinger wrote:
> I hope this isn't wandering too off-topic, but this issue with assigned summer reading for school is something I've seen firsthand. That is, to assign a really terrific book that has challenging content that needs to be unpacked with a teacher in a classroom, not for a young person to read completely on his or her own during the summer. At my middle school new teachers came to a curriculum and, not wanting to teach a particular book during the school year, moved it to summer reading. The problem was that this book had some challenging material that absolutely needed to be discussed in class. When students encountered it on their own they were troubled and their parents, not having read the book, were not able to help, disturbed by what little they saw, and then complained. Since the teachers had no commitment to the book, it ended up being dropped. It is a shame because it is a wonderful book (okay, it was Roll of Thunder Hear Me Cry), but the teachers didn't "own" it, didn't seem to care for it, and so that was that.
>
> 600 West 111th Street Apt 2A
> New York NY 10025
> educating alice
> _at_medinger on twitter
> My Huffington Post Blog
>
Rosanne Parry
Written in Stone, 2013 Second Fiddle, 2011 Heart of a Shepherd, 2009 www.rosanneparry.com
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Received on Mon 10 Mar 2014 12:30:17 PM CDT
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 10:29:22 -0700
I think summer reading is a huge part of why this title was so problematic. For my girl, the nausea and nightmares eventually subsided but her friend who had been looking for a way out of danger stopped looking and sank into a depression. They have good counselors at the school and if she'd been in the warm and welcoming environment of her high school I think she might have found the help and advocacy she needed. This all happened more than a decade ago and when I see this girl now, out of work and on permanent disability, I can't help wondering what would have happened if she'd read Speak instead or some other more empowering story.
The high schools in the district who kept the Allende title did move it into the school year and the ones who didn't chose another of Allende's books in which her more positive themes are more accessible. But to me the more important part is that they were willing to consider the needs of their students who were past or ongoing victims of sexual violence. The willingness to help them access resources can be life saving and is a vital part of promoting life long literacy. A large swath of the adult population never reads literature again after high school and I bet at least some of them were people who found their school reading a traumatic and alienating experience.
Rosanne
On Mar 10, 2014, at 6:09 AM, Monica Edinger wrote:
> I hope this isn't wandering too off-topic, but this issue with assigned summer reading for school is something I've seen firsthand. That is, to assign a really terrific book that has challenging content that needs to be unpacked with a teacher in a classroom, not for a young person to read completely on his or her own during the summer. At my middle school new teachers came to a curriculum and, not wanting to teach a particular book during the school year, moved it to summer reading. The problem was that this book had some challenging material that absolutely needed to be discussed in class. When students encountered it on their own they were troubled and their parents, not having read the book, were not able to help, disturbed by what little they saw, and then complained. Since the teachers had no commitment to the book, it ended up being dropped. It is a shame because it is a wonderful book (okay, it was Roll of Thunder Hear Me Cry), but the teachers didn't "own" it, didn't seem to care for it, and so that was that.
>
> 600 West 111th Street Apt 2A
> New York NY 10025
> educating alice
> _at_medinger on twitter
> My Huffington Post Blog
>
Rosanne Parry
Written in Stone, 2013 Second Fiddle, 2011 Heart of a Shepherd, 2009 www.rosanneparry.com
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Received on Mon 10 Mar 2014 12:30:17 PM CDT
