The Doubts

At the beginning of the week, I talked with one group of sixers about an article by a teacher I know. In her piece, she wrote about reading books about racism, war, and oppression to her K - 2 multi age class. Many sixers felt the books were inappropriate and several expressed doubts that the littles enjoyed this type of literacy work. This being Banned Book week, I followed up our conversation with a slide show about banned books. The sixers were appalled and disgruntled by the idea that so many books they loved had been challenged. In my smarmiest voice, I said, "But I thought you told me just yesterday that many books should be kept away from little kids? Littles might get upset and we need to protect them from scary ideas! Didn't most of you say that?"
They stared at me snarkily until one sixer broke the silence with, "Touche."

I'm enjoying these peeps.