[aisle] Addressing Problematic Authors

[Nichole Folkman]

I'm glad you bring this up. I do not have any specific resources to offer,
but I do think it's really important to show authors as humans who have
faults and are often problematic. Children are good at sitting with
difficulties like understanding that someone can be a great writer and a
bad person. Kate Messner has been talking about similar issues on her
Twitter lately.

On Wed, Sep 23, 2020 at 4:21 PM John Heideman via AISLE <
aisle at list.railslibraries.info> wrote:

> I don't think an author's lifestyle or political views should matter.  The
> content of the book should matter.If we censure every author whose views or
> lifestyle we disagree with we won't have many books in our collection.
> Mr. Heideman ( Children's Librarian North Chicago Public Library)
>
> On Wed, Sep 23, 2020 at 3:49 PM Claire Greene via AISLE <
> aisle at list.railslibraries.info> wrote:
>
>> Hi, everyone!
>>
>> I'm trying to develop a playbook for teachers in my school to use to
>> address content written by problematic authors.
>>
>> My number one priority is finding substantive and meaningful ways to
>> represent diverse perspectives in the curriculum, but my question is about
>> addressing the use of works by problematic authors that are already written
>> into the curriculum.
>>
>> Specifically, our 6th grade LA curriculum includes work by Roald Dahl,
>> who many of you will be aware was involved in propagating many disturbing
>> racist ideas. While the content itself is not problematic, I think it's
>> hugely important to address the issue of his character in a clear and
>> concrete way.
>>
>> Does anyone have any specific lessons or resources that they have already
>> piloted with students around this theme?
>>
>> I have already perused the sources below, but I wanted to reach out to
>> you all as well.
>>
>> PBS Tools for Anti-Racist Teaching
>> <https://www.pbs.org/education/blog/tools-for-anti-racist-teaching>
>> Teaching Tolerance Guide for Discussing Difficult Topics with Students
>> <http://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/general/TT%20Difficult%20Conversations%20web.pdf>
>> and all of the resources included in this epic EdWeek Blog:
>> 15 Classroom Resources for Discussing Racism, Policing, and Protest
>> <https://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2020/06/15_classroom_resources_for_discussing_racism_policing_and_protest.html>
>>
>> Thank you for your insights!
>> --
>> Claire Greene
>> School Librarian
>> Northbrook Junior High School
>> cgreene at northbrook28.net
>>
>>
>>
>> *Empower Every Learner*
>>
>> MAILMAN_MIMEDEFANG
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> MAILMAN_MIMEDEFANG
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-- 
Thanks!
Nichole Folkman
K-12 Librarian/ STEAM Director

Co-chair of the Lincoln Teen Readers' Choice Award

Scholastic Bowl Coach
Antler/ Staglite Advisor

she/ her/ hers

Check out my projects at
https://www.donorschoose.org/Mrs.Folkman

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