I firmly believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and if we try to learn from the perspective of others, maybe we can begin to understand one another, even just a little bit. Or respect someone else’s thoughts without condoning or agreeing with them. However, as an educator directly impacted by some of the current legislation about banning books, I felt compelled to speak on behalf of teachers and students everywhere.
Two of the “hot button topics” currently being discussed in education are the types of books that should be available to students in school libraries and how to facilitate transgender students in our schools. There is a genuine concern that putting books on shelves in schools that discuss controversial topics such as race, genocide, human trafficking, drug use, and homosexuality might negatively impact students who choose to read those books. Do we honestly think banning books from classrooms will keep kids from reading them? If we have learned anything over the years, we should know that the minute we tell kids they cannot have something, they go find another means of getting it. Wouldn’t we rather have classroom books that represent our students and stories they can relate to? The idea of telling schools and teachers which books they can and cannot have in their classrooms is ludicrous. It also solidifies the notion that neither the government nor public officials respect teachers enough to trust their judgment about which books should be on the shelves in their classrooms. Is anyone familiar with Fahrenheit 451?
I taught a novel to my middle school class, in which the main characters were African Americans, as part of Black History Month. One of my students, who is mixed race, said on the first day of reading, “Finally, we have a book with someone like me in it.” I didn’t think much about it at the moment, but later, it hit me that most books in schools that are available to kids have a Caucasian main character. Even in a country where we were considered the “melting pot” for many different ethnicities and cultures, most books were about white kids. We live in an ever-changing world, and things are incredibly different from twenty or thirty years ago. Shouldn’t we provide students with tools and resources to help them navigate the world they are living in rather than outdated books that are totally unrelatable?
When it comes to protecting the rights of all students, lately, the rights of transgender students have come under fire. One of the biggest debates is whether or not schools should be required to contact the parents if a student is asked to be called by a different name or pronoun than their legal one. As someone who has had personal experience with this exact situation, I can tell you with absolute certainty that it is a very slippery slope we are discussing. While I completely agree that parents should know what is happening with their child at school if that parent is unsupportive of the child’s choices and could potentially put that child in danger, then should schools be placed in the situation to be the ones to tell the parents?
I was always under the assumption that schools were supposed to be a safe haven for kids, and when they are being abused at home, schools are the ones that make the DCS calls to keep them safe. So, by “outing” a student who may be transitioning without the support of their parents, am I truly doing what is in the best interest of my student? Or the best interest of the parent? Which one is more important? I don’t have answers, but I do know that whether people like it or not, there are transgender people out there–in schools, restaurants, and sports–shouldn’t we try to understand and support them the best we can rather than trying to create a “fear culture” around topics that the world needs to be more educated on?
Back to my initial statement that we don’t always have to agree with how others live their lives to create a more compassionate world, we must do a better job of being more tolerant of those different from us. We must teach our kids to be open-minded and accepting of people for who they are and not what they believe in. The world could use a little more love right now, and I will do my best to instill that in my children. For a better future. For a kinder, gentler world. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
