Breaking up with your favorite racist childhood classic books - The Washington Post

Breaking up with your favorite racist childhood classic books - The Washington Post

Breaking up with your favorite racist childhood classic books

Philip Nel is the author of “Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: The Hidden Racism of Children’s Literature and the Need for Diverse Books,” a 2017 book that helped launch a conversation about racism in children’s books that led to a recent decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises to stop publishing six of the prolific author’s books.

Nel, who is a professor of English at Kansas State University and director of the children’s literature program there, spoke with me about the book a few years ago. I republished the conversation here earlier this year when it was falsely reported that a Virginia school district had banned the books of Dr. Seuss, the pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel.

No, a Virginia school district didn’t ban Dr. Seuss books. Here’s what really happened.

Nel is back with this post, in which he discusses racism in children’s books and the way the issue has become politicized. At the heart of his piece is this:

“Why not break up with your favorite racist childhood classics? Maybe doing so will break your heart a little. But, to quote a line attributed to Rumi (but which is probably not him), ‘You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.’"

By Philip Nel

It is possible to cancel a culture. More than 300 Indigenous languages were once spoken in the United States. Only about 175 of those languages remain today. Colonization, genocide, forced assimilation have all been very effective at canceling cultures.

However, the “cancel culture” that animates professional grievance actors today refers to culture under no threat of cancellation. Dr. Seuss books. Muppets. Disney. White innocence. Because it’s hard to cancel a dominant culture. “Cancel culture” is a White supremacist fantasy that creates villains and then mobilizes anger against the villains it CONTINUE READING: Breaking up with your favorite racist childhood classic books - The Washington Post

What I Said About NCLB and Standardized Testing a Decade Ago | Diane Ravitch's blog

What I Said About NCLB and Standardized Testing a Decade Ago | Diane Ravitch's blog

What I Said About NCLB and Standardized Testing a Decade Ago

In 2011, I was interviewed by Terri Gross on “Fresh Air,” her NPR program. When my book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. When it was published, there was quite a lot of speculation about why I changed my views. Apparently, no one ever has a change of mind or heart. I have been consistent over the years in admitting that I was wrong when I supported charter schools, testing, and accountability. It was really hard for some people to accept the plain statement, “I was wrong.”

On the 10th anniversary of this interview, I post it now (I didn’t have a blog in 2011).

The book became a national bestseller, a first for me. (My next book, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement, was also a national bestseller).

I had a wonderful appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart about Death and Life. When I heard I was invited on his show, I had never heard of it. I watched the day before I appeared. Stewart interviewed Caroline CONTINUE READING: What I Said About NCLB and Standardized Testing a Decade Ago | Diane Ravitch's blog

Nancy Bailey: Why I Write About Students and Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Nancy Bailey: Why I Write About Students and Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Nancy Bailey: Why I Write About Students and Public Schools

Nancy Bailey is a retired teacher and a terrific blogger. She and I co-authored a book called EdSpeak and DoubleTalk: A Glossary to Decipher Hypocrisy and Save Public Schooling. We have never met in person but I asked her to help me revise a similar book that I published a decade earlier; it had become obsolete. Now it is the go-to book to understand education jargon and decipher hoaxes. It was a joy to work with her. Nancy wrote this post for me while I was out of commission having surgery.

Why I Write About Students and Public Schools

Democratic Public Schools

Ensuring that the public has access to good public schools after Covid-19 is more critical than ever. We cannot go back to continuous high-stakes testing and schools that punish teachers and students, especially our youngest learners. Schools should also not be allowed to continue to collect unregulated data through online CONTINUE READING: Nancy Bailey: Why I Write About Students and Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: The Book Love Foundation

CURMUDGUCATION: The Book Love Foundation

The Book Love Foundation

 Penny Kittle teaches freshman composition at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire and has logged a few decades in public school as a reading teacher and literacy coach. She's picked up some NCTE awards, written some books, and generally done pretty well professionally. But for my money, one of the coolest things she has done starts with this story:

I stood in a most perfect bookstore in the Memphis airport one evening smelling the strong scent of Bar-B-Q that permeates the place as I waited for my flight.
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Under maple bookshelves lit softly by spotlights, I came upon a collection of animal books, not just The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein and A Dog’s Purpose by Bruce Cameron, but Cassius: The True Story of a Courageous Police Dog by Gordon Thorburn, which explores the scenting capabilities of police dogs that help solve crimes.

There were books about training birds, the history of zoos, and endangered species. I could imagine current students who would enjoy each title. This was an intriguing collection placed directly across from classics recommended by those who work in the store. There was a shelf of new fiction, one of psychology and self-discovery, and a section for business books. The store went on and on. You know: a book for anyone who might wander through this place. It’s hard not to pick lovely books up, hard not to stuff my suitcase even fuller. (I did, in fact.)
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But I also twirled around the room for a moment and imagined clearing out the center shelves in CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: The Book Love Foundation

Beverly Cleary, Age 104 | Live Long and Prosper

Beverly Cleary, Age 104 | Live Long and Prosper

Beverly Cleary, Age 104

THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF MY READING INSTRUCTION

I taught third grade in the 1970s and 1980s. At that time the “teach to the test” trend hadn’t infiltrated America’s public school classrooms. We gave a standardized test, but it didn’t determine who went to fourth grade, didn’t enter into my evaluation, and didn’t have anything to do with how much money the school got. In fact, “teaching to the test” was considered bad pedagogy and limiting to the scope of the everyday classroom experience. We were, therefore, pressured NOT to “teach to the test.”

At that time in my teaching career, I considered my daily read aloud the most important part of my reading instruction.

If we had a fire drill, assembly, tornado drill, or any other interruption to the day, the only thing that I made sure I finished for that day was the daily read-aloud. I would do as much of the rest of the curriculum as I could, of course, but read aloud was sacrosanct. It was the one part of the day that I made a conscious effort never to miss. What are the benefits of reading aloud that make it so important? In his classic, Read-Aloud Handbook, Jim Trelease lists these five reasons for reading aloud…

1. it builds vocabulary
2. it conditions the child’s brain to associate reading with pleasure
3. it creates background knowledge
4. it provides a reading role model
5. it plants the desire to read

I was convinced then, and I still believe, that children who are read to, feel good about reading. Children who feel good about reading are motivated to read to CONTINUE READING: Beverly Cleary, Age 104 | Live Long and Prosper

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Chose Monday: Books and Understanding

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Chose Monday: Books and Understanding

Donors Chose Monday: Books and Understanding

 Donors Choose lets you set up filters, so that you can focus on what you choose. The most obvious is a geographic one that allows you to find classrooms in your area looking for help. But you can also set for the types of classrooms and the types of resources, as well as setting (as I usually do) for rural schools.

So one of the classrooms chosen for this week is Ms. McCord's at Allegheny-Clarion Valley Elementary School in Foxburg PA (a cool little town to visit if you're ever in the neighborhood). She's teaching third graders, and she'd like to expand the library for both reading and developing some human-being skills

With your support, I can help my students build character and spread kindness that will reach beyond the walls of my classroom. With purposeful teaching of social-emotional lessons with associated literacy, I am hoping that my students will grow both academically and emotionally.

Mrs. Fanning in Cordova, South Carolina, is looking for similar help. She's another teacher of rural poor students who is looking for some social and emotional learning to go with the literacy

There are many wonderful books available today that can help our students understand and state their feelings and I want them to be able to relate to characters in books that might be feeling like they are.

These books will be read aloud to students who are face to face for learning as well as students who remain virtual. While reading these books, we will be able to discuss our feelings as well as learn ways to be kind to others.

As always, I invite you to contribute to these classrooms, or search for others on Donors Choose, or donate to a local classroom. Stimulus money may trickle down to classrooms, but it's not going to get there this week. If you can share, that's a great thing.

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Chose Monday: Books and Understanding

Check Out this Fine New Book on Social Justice Unionism: “Teachers Unions and Social Justice” | janresseger

Check Out this Fine New Book on Social Justice Unionism: “Teachers Unions and Social Justice” | janresseger

Check Out this Fine New Book on Social Justice Unionism: “Teachers Unions and Social Justice”

Rethinking Schools just published an excellent new handbook, Teachers Unions and Social Justice: Organizing for the Schools and Communities our Students Deserve.  I call it a handbook because it was written as a guide for teachers union social justice advocacy and organizing. But it is also a handbook for activists, writers, and bloggers strategizing to confront the recent collapse of public education funding, the alarming growth of school privatization at public expense, and the message, spread for too long, that holding schools accountable according to business principles is more important than educating children.

         The beloved former president of the Chicago Teachers Union and a pioneer in social justice unionism, Karen Lewis died on Monday.  Please read this wonderful tribute to Karen Lewis by Chicago education journalist Sarah Karp.

The editors  have assembled more than 60 short compelling articles and stories by union activists and many of the nation’s prominent advocates for education justice, all telling the story of organized teachers confronting the blindness of the privatizers and the business-accountablity hawks. There is a 2012 interview with the great Karen Lewis, whose loss we mourn this week. And we hear from teachers union justice champions including Jesse Hagopian in Seattle; Jackson Potter and Michelle Gunderson in Chicago; Mary Cathryn Ricker in St. Paul; David Levine in Cincinnati; Eleni Schirmer in North Carolina, Arlene Inouye in Los Angeles; and Michael Charney in Cleveland.

The editors, Michael Charney, Jesse Hagopian, and Bob Peterson, introduce the collection of writings: “More than two decades ago in the first edition of this book, Transforming Teacher Unions: Fighting for Better Schools and Social Justice, we promoted a vision of social justice teacher unionism. We argued that such a vision was essential to improving our schools, transforming our unions, and building a more just society. Since then much has happened. Public schools, the entire public sector, and the basic notion of the ‘common good’ have come under severe attack. Wealth inequality has reached an unsustainable level. The scourge of white supremacy has been intensified by rampant xenophobia… But within our schools CONTINUE READING: Check Out this Fine New Book on Social Justice Unionism: “Teachers Unions and Social Justice” | janresseger

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Chose Monday: Books. Just Books.

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Chose Monday: Books. Just Books.

Donors Chose Monday: Books. Just Books.

Researchers actually took a look at teacher fundraising via Donors Chose and other micro-philanthropy sites. Some of the patterns that emerged are not exactly surprising--the site is used for "triage and not extras," and more prevalent in states where funding of schools is less than optimal. 

As I've said before, Donors Choose shouldn't be a thing. The need it meets shouldn't exist, and stories about how Teacher Pat had a project funded are not feel-good stories--they're a sign that funding for education in this country is a mess. 

That said, we can either ignore the problem because it shouldn't exist, or we can try to pitch in. I am not a fan of enabling bad management, but in retirement I keep looking for ways to support not just the profession, but the people working in it. So I continue with this weekly (or bi-weekly or however often I get back to it) choice to find a Donors Chose  project and support it, and invite you to join me. If not on the featured project, then on one of your own choice, or a contribution to a local classroom. 

This time, I'm contributing to Mrs. Ploss and her first grade classroom at Elk Valley Elementary School in Lake City, PA. Mrs. Ploss is looking for books and Scholastic magazine. I can't think of anything any better than getting reading materials into first graders' hands.

Also, Mrs. Small at Shaver Elementary School in Portland, OR is trying to build a classroom library that reflects the diversity of her students. What can I say? I love the books.

And speaking of books for kids-- I've written about and you've probably heard about the Imagination Library, a project of Dolly Parton. It puts a book a month in the hands of families of littles across the country and internationally as well. It's one of the great modern educational philanthropies, and you can contribute to their work directly--just follow this link. 

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Chose Monday: Books. Just Books.

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Monday: Give This Book

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Monday: Give This Book

Donors Choose Monday: Give This Book

Ms. Evans-Klopp is at Andrew T. Morrow in Central Islip, NY in a high-poverty neighborhood and trying to work through open-yet-restricted building work, and she'd like a class set of Give This Book a Title by Jarrett Lerner to give her third graders some excitement and a little creative break.

You can help with even a small donation. And as always, I encourage you to lend a hand to someone, somewhere. I do these posts to make it easy, but if you know of a local need, now is the time to step up and help. Every little bit helps.

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Monday: Give This Book

Books of 2020 | Teacher in a strange land

Books of 2020 | Teacher in a strange land

Books of 2020

One of my favorite things to do with my largely unstructured pandemic days and nights is read, then talk with people about books. Online. I’m always looking for new titles, recommendations of someone’s old favorite—and also thumbs-down reviews, especially when they’re about books everyone seems to be reading or praising (lookin’ at you, Bridgertons).

I’ve never been good about choosing my 10 favorite anything as the year turns over. But I did do a lot of intentional reading in 2020 (meaning I had to order library books online and wait three months for them to become available for curbside pickup—or purchase them). While some of these are new titles, some are recommendations from friends that I finally got around to.

It was a good year for fiction. I have been trying to read books around the issue of racism (an earlier review of several of those books here), and found the fiction just as instructive as the non-fiction. Salvage the Bones (Jesmyn Ward). The Night Watchman (Louise Erdrich). The Nickel Boys (Colson Whitehead). All powerful reading. More about fiction, later.

Non-fiction fell into three categories—that big bucket of reading about bias and prejudice, “school stuff” and (unfortunately) books about Donald Trump. The only CONTINUE READING: Books of 2020 | Teacher in a strange land

Nancy MacLean: How the Koch Network Fosters Disinformation | Diane Ravitch's blog

Nancy MacLean: How the Koch Network Fosters Disinformation | Diane Ravitch's blog

Nancy MacLean: How the Koch Network Fosters Disinformation

If you have not read Duke Professor Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains, you should. I reviewed it for the New York Review of Books here. It describes in great detail how the Koch brothers created an academic foundation for their extremist libertarian views. In this paper, MacLean goes into new detail about the workings of the Koch network and its efforts to undermine democracy. The Koch network knows that it does not have popular support so it has developed ways to “work around” the will of the majority. Currently, its major project is to block any effort to confront climate change.

The paper is titled “Since We Are Greatly Outnumbered: Why and How the Koch Network Uses Disinformation to Thwart Democracy.” The essay appears in a publication called The Disinformation Age, published by Cambridge University Press.

Thanks to “Unkoch My Campus” for bringing this paper to a large audience.

Nancy MacLean: How the Koch Network Fosters Disinformation | Diane Ravitch's blog

Book Launch Event on 12/2 at 5:00 pm ET for “Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice”–Register NOW! – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Book Launch Event on 12/2 at 5:00 pm ET for “Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice”–Register Today! – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Book Launch Event on 12/2 at 5:00 pm ET for “Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice”–Register NOW!

Dear readers,

I am writing to invite you to the book launch event for the new book I co-edited with Denisha Jones, Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice! 

I could hardly be any more excited to join Denisha Jones and Brian Jones, the Associate Director of Education at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, for our book event on Wednesday, December 2nd at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. You can Register for the event here. There will be time for Q and A, so bring your questions.

This book was the product of a lot of amazing educators, students, and parents in the Black Lives Matter at School movement around the country and we will be holding future book events with these other authors! I’m especially grateful to the educators in Philadelphia who helped launch the BLM at School movement on a national level and tell their story beautifully in the book.

Opal Tometi (co-founder of Black Lives Matter) wrote a powerful foreword, telling the story of her own experiences in school as a student and as a teacher, linking the broader BLM movement to education, and generalizing the lessons from the Black Lives Matter at School movement. 

I’m truly humbled by the great feedback initial feedback we are getting for the book. The Washington Post just ran a great review of the book, including excerpts from two chapters of the book. Ibram X. Kendi (National Book Award-winning and #1 New York Times Bestselling Author) said of our book, “’Black Lives Matter at School’ is an essential resource for all those seeking to build an antiracist school system.” You can check out the new video trailer for the book to learn more.

See you at the book launch!

-Jesse Hagopian

Book Launch Event on 12/2 at 5:00 pm ET for “Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice”–Register Today! – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Russ on Reading: Picture Books for Older Children? Of Course

Russ on Reading: Picture Books for Older Children? Of Course

Picture Books for Older Children? Of Course

One of the ways that teachers are meeting the challenge of online instruction is through picture books and the read aloud. This is a good idea in many ways, but are picture books appropriate for older students, say fifth grade and up? The answer is YES, OF COURSE. The reasons are many, but I wish to highlight just one of those reasons today. Picture books make a great introduction to many, many complex ideas. They can help to build needed background knowledge for new topics, introduce content specific vocabulary with illustrations to assist the learning, and may serve to engage students in a topic of study that they may not have even known they were interested in prior to the picture book read aloud.

Year ago I noticed my colleague, Peggy Burke, had a copy of a comic book titled, Your Brain and You on her desk. I asked her why she had a comic on her desk and she told me that she was reading it because she had signed up for a seminar titled something like, New Discoveries about the Functions of the Brain for Educators, at Harvard University. Peggy said she really didn't have much current background knowledge on the brain, so before attending the seminar she thought that this picture book could give her some the of the basic anatomy and vocabulary related to the topic. 

And so it is with many picture books, they provide outstanding introductions to a wide variety of topics. I have found Gail Gibbons books particularly effective for just this purpose. Her book, The Monarch CONTINUE READING: Russ on Reading: Picture Books for Older Children? Of Course