Eid Mubarak and Happy Thanksgiving!
I have so much to be thankful for . . . loved ones, my work, amazing colleagues, wonderful companion animals, a vibrant city, a peaceful home, and a warm, soft bed. Let me always remember lovingly those who do not.
11/26/09
11/13/09
On credibility
In this article on Locus Magazine’s website, Doctorow (the author of Little Brother) discusses why young adult novels should have sex (or drinking, or drug use, or mild anarchy . . . ). His argument is simple and elegant: because teens already do these things. Doctorow posits that if YA fiction only portrays rule-bending, authority-defying, sex-drugs-and-rock-and-roll-having behavior as having immediate and dire consequences, then it will lose its credibility. After all, real life certainly does not work that way. In fact, a little rebellion can be a good thing, as we test our boundaries, form our personal ethics, and develop our identities. There is a certain amount of trial and error involved in growing up.
We champion literature because, as C.S.Lewis said, “In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself.” Experience by proxy allows us to leap the confines of our daily existence. It allows us to empathize with the stranger, to understand those we may never meet. It broadens our world-view and opens our mind. If we’d rather teens learn and “experience” the more unsavory aspects of adult life through literature than through action, it’s vitally important that that literature honestly reflect reality. Teens might read what rings false, but they certainly will not connect to it. Furthermore, a literature devoid of reality, full of schmaltzy cautionary tales may well push our children to dangerous behaviors, as they seek to separate fact from myth through their own experience. If reading about risky behaviors (which they know exist) will keep kids from engaging in them, or overindulging in them, then by all means - bring on the prose!
We champion literature because, as C.S.Lewis said, “In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself.” Experience by proxy allows us to leap the confines of our daily existence. It allows us to empathize with the stranger, to understand those we may never meet. It broadens our world-view and opens our mind. If we’d rather teens learn and “experience” the more unsavory aspects of adult life through literature than through action, it’s vitally important that that literature honestly reflect reality. Teens might read what rings false, but they certainly will not connect to it. Furthermore, a literature devoid of reality, full of schmaltzy cautionary tales may well push our children to dangerous behaviors, as they seek to separate fact from myth through their own experience. If reading about risky behaviors (which they know exist) will keep kids from engaging in them, or overindulging in them, then by all means - bring on the prose!
11/2/09
Luv Ya Bunches
My first reaction to the news that Scholastic had agreed to sell a “cleaned up” version of Myracle’s Luv Ya Bunches was, “Hmmmm, how cleaned up is it?” I didn’t honestly think that Myracle would cave to absurd hetero-normative pressures, but I was suddenly unsure. Thankfully, the gay parents of one character were left in, and the word crap was taken out. Fair trade? Myracle thinks so. The book is still unavailable at elementary schools, however. And Scholastic has yet to actually admit to any mis-judgement or to apologize for its bigotry. On a brighter note, Scholastic has “committed to a review process that considers all books equally regardless of their inclusion of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) characters and same-sex parents.” Well, it’s about time.
The books that children read inform their world-view. The characters and events they encounter help to shape their idea of how the world is and how it should be. What a shame to actively eliminate an entire population from children’s literature. To deny the children, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren of same-sex couples the experience of seeing their reality reflected back at them is unforgivable. Equally atrocious is denying this reality to children who know no homosexual people. Narrowing our children’s horizons creates narrow adults.
When a powerhouse like Scholastic demands that same-sex partners be removed from books aimed at the upper-elementary/preeteen set, they are upholding the hateful position that there is a right and wrong kind of love - a right and wrong kind of family. Or that homosexuality is fine, but only for older kids, and somehow harmful to children. Memo to Scholastic: Homosexuality =/= pedophilia. Let’s move into the twenty-first century together.
The books that children read inform their world-view. The characters and events they encounter help to shape their idea of how the world is and how it should be. What a shame to actively eliminate an entire population from children’s literature. To deny the children, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren of same-sex couples the experience of seeing their reality reflected back at them is unforgivable. Equally atrocious is denying this reality to children who know no homosexual people. Narrowing our children’s horizons creates narrow adults.
When a powerhouse like Scholastic demands that same-sex partners be removed from books aimed at the upper-elementary/preeteen set, they are upholding the hateful position that there is a right and wrong kind of love - a right and wrong kind of family. Or that homosexuality is fine, but only for older kids, and somehow harmful to children. Memo to Scholastic: Homosexuality =/= pedophilia. Let’s move into the twenty-first century together.
10/16/09
For their own good . . .
Ellen Hopkins, the author of Glass, along with Crank an account of meth addiction, was barred from lecturing at a middle school, after some parents objected to her book. Since its middle-school appropriateness was under review, school officials decided that her visit itself was inappropriate. Honestly, that seems fine, especially when one reads the book’s reviews. While they are all very positive, the editorial reviews for the book place it firmly in the high school realm with School Library Journal recommending the book for grades 9 and up, Publishers Weekly for ages 14 and up, and VOYA for “older teens.” Yet, Hopkins was not allowed to move her talk to the high school, where no parent had objected to her work, and where she’d find a ready, willing, and appropriate audience.
It always amazes me when parents of teens speak honestly and passionately about protecting their children from the horrors of the world by sealing them in, all too temporary and illusory, rose-colored bubbles. When we ignore issues such as drug addiction, sexual assault, school and street violence, racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia, we do not protect our children from them - we, instead, leave them very vulnerable to them. All too often, instead of educating and preparing our children to face a world full of hazards, adults end up pretending these issues don’t exist, or exist only for other kids in other places. It’s naive at best and incredible destructive at worst. Here we have an eloquent writer and speaker, willing to tackle some of these tough issues and she is turned away because some parents are afraid to admit that their little ones may be getting into drugs, sex, alcohol, you name it. Instead of facing that fear, they are ducking their heads into the sand.
It always amazes me when parents of teens speak honestly and passionately about protecting their children from the horrors of the world by sealing them in, all too temporary and illusory, rose-colored bubbles. When we ignore issues such as drug addiction, sexual assault, school and street violence, racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia, we do not protect our children from them - we, instead, leave them very vulnerable to them. All too often, instead of educating and preparing our children to face a world full of hazards, adults end up pretending these issues don’t exist, or exist only for other kids in other places. It’s naive at best and incredible destructive at worst. Here we have an eloquent writer and speaker, willing to tackle some of these tough issues and she is turned away because some parents are afraid to admit that their little ones may be getting into drugs, sex, alcohol, you name it. Instead of facing that fear, they are ducking their heads into the sand.
10/2/09
Give a Damn!
I don't give a damn about my bad reputation!
But I do give a damn about animals! That's why I'm walking to benefit Farm Sanctuary on Sunday. You can donate to this awesome organization that rescues, rehabilitates, and gives loving retirement homes to all sorts of farm animals at my donation page.
And remember, Joan Jett gives a damn about animals, too!
But I do give a damn about animals! That's why I'm walking to benefit Farm Sanctuary on Sunday. You can donate to this awesome organization that rescues, rehabilitates, and gives loving retirement homes to all sorts of farm animals at my donation page.
And remember, Joan Jett gives a damn about animals, too!
Speaking Freely
Before reading Buschman’s article in the online version of Academe, I hadn’t given much thought to the ways freedom of speech, academic freedom, and intellectual freedom interact - or to the ways they manifest themselves in our public libraries and our school library media centers. I certainly never knew that ALA,
It strikes me as particularly absurd that librarians, who work so hard to ensure free access to all information and ideas, have so little protection for the expression of their own ideas, if I am understanding this correctly.
Clearly, there needs to be a certain amount of local authority in matters of free speech and staff management. After all, each community is different (and operates under its own codes of conduct) and their libraries vary accordingly. However, it seem to me that a certain baseline standard for freedom of speech in the workplace should be set and enforced by ALA.
The article does not address school librarians specifically, though many of the same issues apply. As teachers, we must be careful not to allow our biases to interfere with our work, or to indoctrinate, rather that educate. But we must also feel secure enough to stand up to bias and injustice where we find it, and to speak for the truth. In New York City, we are quite lucky to be supported by a strong union (one reason I am a staunch union advocate), I fear our colleagues in other school districts do not fare so well. Without a supportive administration (and especially with a hostile one) freedom of speech in the library media center becomes an issue of job security and efficacy. I hope that ALA considers giving its policy more bite, and backing up its members with legal force.
officially states that it might help defend librarians if their employment rights are denied in the process of defending intellectual freedom (for example, in opposing local censorship) but not when they exercise intellectual freedom within the workplace . . . This view is further articulated in the ALA’s explanatory “Questions and Answers on Speech in the Workplace”: librarians have ethical obligations to question policies “detrimental to the public interest or to the profession,” but the ALA cautions that it “does not at this time provide mediation, financial aid, or legal aid in response to” workplace disputes, which are subject to local employment policy, nor does the ALA investigate and publicize abuse as does the [American Association of University Professors.]
It strikes me as particularly absurd that librarians, who work so hard to ensure free access to all information and ideas, have so little protection for the expression of their own ideas, if I am understanding this correctly.
Clearly, there needs to be a certain amount of local authority in matters of free speech and staff management. After all, each community is different (and operates under its own codes of conduct) and their libraries vary accordingly. However, it seem to me that a certain baseline standard for freedom of speech in the workplace should be set and enforced by ALA.
The article does not address school librarians specifically, though many of the same issues apply. As teachers, we must be careful not to allow our biases to interfere with our work, or to indoctrinate, rather that educate. But we must also feel secure enough to stand up to bias and injustice where we find it, and to speak for the truth. In New York City, we are quite lucky to be supported by a strong union (one reason I am a staunch union advocate), I fear our colleagues in other school districts do not fare so well. Without a supportive administration (and especially with a hostile one) freedom of speech in the library media center becomes an issue of job security and efficacy. I hope that ALA considers giving its policy more bite, and backing up its members with legal force.
9/13/09
Play it Again, Sam
Ahhhhh the Youth of Today. A mess, aren't they? They prefer texting to talking, online to outside, MySpace to the library. They are distracted, unorganized, lazy, and disrespectful. They can't form a complete thought, never mind a complete sentence. They abuse language and ignore the rules of grammar and discourse. They have no stamina or deep interest in anything. They are so fixated on social networking and their cell phones that they aren't learning how to cope and communicate in the real world. They are coddled and spoiled. Yet they are exposed to more danger than ever before.
Sound familiar? If not, then you probably never talk to anyone who works with kids - teens in specific. I hear variations on this lament nearly daily, from colleagues, grad students, friends, my own mouth. As someone who rides the digital native/digital immigrant line I can see where everyone is coming from. Afterall, it's the same place they've been coming from for 2800 years:
At one point everything is new and with new technologies and new ideas come changes - sometimes cosmetic, sometimes fundamental - to the ways we interact, learn, express ourselves, and navigate the world. Priorities shift, new information changes old ways of thinking, concepts of what is rude, healthy, or safe reflect these changes. All of which can be very uncomfortable to the old guard. Especially to those whose ideas of right and wrong are firmly entrenched in the Truths they were taught.
The internet has had a profound impact on our culture. It has changed the way we participate, socialize, and organize. It has shifted the seats of power and influence, and our perceptions of public and private. As Danah Boyd, of UC Berkeley, wrote in her excellent paper, Why Youth Heart Social Network Sites:
As people who work with teens, it is important that we try to keep up, admit it when we haven't, and learn instead of judge. New is not bad, old is not good (and neither is the reverse true), and the Youth of Today are destroying the world, just like they always have.
Sound familiar? If not, then you probably never talk to anyone who works with kids - teens in specific. I hear variations on this lament nearly daily, from colleagues, grad students, friends, my own mouth. As someone who rides the digital native/digital immigrant line I can see where everyone is coming from. Afterall, it's the same place they've been coming from for 2800 years:
I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words.We thought it was the Youth of Today that were the downfall of civilization and culture. Turns out it was the Youth of Twenty-Eight Hundred Years Ago that started it all. Today's kids running around on the internet, playing in the street, talking back in text-speak . . . just the latest in a long history of Youth vs Establishment.
When I was a boy, we were taught to be discrete and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint.
--- Hesiod, Eighth Century B.C.
At one point everything is new and with new technologies and new ideas come changes - sometimes cosmetic, sometimes fundamental - to the ways we interact, learn, express ourselves, and navigate the world. Priorities shift, new information changes old ways of thinking, concepts of what is rude, healthy, or safe reflect these changes. All of which can be very uncomfortable to the old guard. Especially to those whose ideas of right and wrong are firmly entrenched in the Truths they were taught.
The internet has had a profound impact on our culture. It has changed the way we participate, socialize, and organize. It has shifted the seats of power and influence, and our perceptions of public and private. As Danah Boyd, of UC Berkeley, wrote in her excellent paper, Why Youth Heart Social Network Sites:
In today’s society, there is a push towards privacy. It is assumed that people are public individuals who deserve the right to privacy rather than the other way around. With an elevated and idealized view of privacy, we often forget the reasons that enslaved peoples desperately wished for access to public life. By allowing us to have a collective experience with people who are both like and unlike us, public life validates the reality that we are experiencing. We are doing our youth a disservice if we believe that we can protect them from the world by limiting their access to public life. They must enter that arena, make mistakes, and learn from them. Our role as adults is not to be their policemen, but to be their guide.The new isn't necessarily bad, but it is different. What makes a good friend may not change - a person who listens and hears you, who stands up for you and with you, who is trustworthy, kind and with whom you have fun. But the ways these characteristics manifest themselves may change drastically with new ways of communicating and new social networks. Sometimes to the point of not being recognizable to people not immersed in the new technologies.
As people who work with teens, it is important that we try to keep up, admit it when we haven't, and learn instead of judge. New is not bad, old is not good (and neither is the reverse true), and the Youth of Today are destroying the world, just like they always have.
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