Comments on: Creative Freedoms and the Not Now Book

By: Testing the Ice « The Bottom of Heaven

Testing the Ice « The Bottom of Heaven — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:27:17 +0000

[...] once considered the implications of “Creative Freedoms and the Not Now Book” and the choices parents and teachers must make when it comes to introducing controversial material [...]

By: Holly

Holly — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:49:20 +0000

I had no idea that Michigan had done this (we moved to NOLA from Ann Arbor 5 years ago… liberal little people’s republic of AA). My guess is that the folks in AA are falling over themselves in disgust.

I have a hard time with any limit on access to books, even to children. What is more important, I think, is the quality of the teacher: does the teacher have the skills, perspective, and no-how to appropriately shape the students’ reading of the text? Can they put it in context and help the students think through the difficult issues within? I worry about this more than WHAT a child may read.

By: Cold Spaghetti » Blog Archive » May Just Posts: Ga Gona Mathata

Cold Spaghetti » Blog Archive » May Just Posts: Ga Gona Mathata — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:53:34 +0000

[...] Claudia at The Bottom of Heaven with Creative Freedoms and the Not Now Book [...]

By: Edi

Edi — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:17:32 +0000

In working with teachers, I’m amazed that so few, including Language Arts teachers, understand that there is young adult literature which is a bit more appropriate for young readers. Most want the students to read what they’ve read, whether recently or in high school. Many teachers think that teens will enjoy the same books that they too enjoy. Thus the selection of Morrison for middle schools. Many don’t want or don’t have time to read or look for books that librarians might recommend. Parents would blush if the simply picked many of the best selled YA books! Schools with large Latino and African American populations often have to resort to adult urban/hip-hop lit to get students to read. And, this stuff is never challenged. But, Morrison, Twain, Cormier… are routinely challenged.
We want parents involved in education. We have to get them in on the planning stages! When it comes to choosing books, we need to make it more of a community effort with parents, teachers and librarians/media specialists. Pick themes, suggest several books for teachers to select from. Decide as a community the issues to approach with students, and decide when it will be most appropriate to do so.

By: May Just Posts « collecting tokens

May Just Posts « collecting tokens — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:43:57 +0000

[...] Claudia at The Bottom of Heaven with Creative Freedoms and the Not Now Book [...]

By: Claudia

Claudia — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:05:42 +0000

Oh my goodness!!!! Thanks so much for posting this GirlGriot! Here’s the link to the Morrison interview, I’m going to listen to it tonight: http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/05/toni-morrison-2

And I most certainly share your ambivalence. I remember reading the first page of The Color Purple and slamming it shut like it was on fire. But clearly it is a moment that stuck with me and I like the way you argue for the fact that you put the book away, knowing yourself that you weren’t quite ready. That shows real maturity, and I hope to teach those kinds of attitudes to my daughter.

By: GirlGriot

GirlGriot — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:49:57 +0000

I'm all for the not now category! I wish my own parents had had that idea when I was a kid. Might have kept me from trying to read Wright's Uncle Tom's Children when I was 11 and being so completely traumatized after the first story that I put the book back on our shelf with the spine facing the wall so that I wouldn't even have to see that the book was there! At the same time, I'm eternally grateful to my parents for being open to us reading any and everything. Our family trips to the library were bi-weekly habit, and we all went to whatever sections we wanted without our parents looking over our shoulders at our choices. The idea of someone telling me I couldn't read a book was unimaginable to me. Clearly, I'm ambivalent about the not now category. I read books as a kid that I was definitely too young to fully understand. But I've come back to them as an adult and I've found that my early impressions remain valid and important, even as my grown-up brain sees and understands so much more. Maybe part of the key is raising children to be thinkers and then trusting them to think well (for example, my knowing that I needed to put the Wright book away, that it wasn't the book for me at that time). And certainly another, equally important part is making sure they have access to many, many different kinds of books -- genres, authors, cultures -- so that they have a real opportunity to find the things that speak to them. I went back to Uncle Tom's Children as a grad student. It still upset me, still hurt my heart, still made me cry ... but I was older and had learned many more things by the time I sat in that Master's class, and I was able to read the book with an understanding beyond my 11-year-old visceral emotional response. (Did you hear Morrison interviewed on NPR this weekend about the new book? She talked about the banning of Song of Solomon among other things.)

By: jo

jo — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:14:54 +0000

Or does this get us into the sticky territory of mandatory curricula?

it does get us into the sticky territory of mandatory curricula.

By: Claudia

Claudia — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:04:49 +0000

Good points, fayezie – this is what I was trying to get at with my reference to reading The Color Purple before my own parents thought it appropriate. I appreciate you sharing your own experience, too. Sometimes that early exposure can mean the difference in developing empathy for others and coping with unexpected hardship.

By: Claudia

Claudia — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:59:49 +0000

Hey, jo! Thank you for explaining those terms, that's almost worth knowing that you haven't yet read Song of Solomon! Ha ha. But I agree with you about irrevocable, blanket decisions. Now, does this mean, however, that you don't think that the school's decision was a form of "educating" because it was an institutional/ideological one and not targeted to their student's needs? Or does this get us into the sticky territory of mandatory curricula?