When I was a high school English teacher, I was constantly blown away by how willing and how eager my students were to grapple with the difficult topics and questions that arose from books we read. Young people are capable of far more than many adults often give them credit for.
Banning books that expose students to the atrocities and inequities of our world does not protect them. If anything, it leaves them less equipped to understand why our society looks the way that it does today. Teaching these histories honestly helps them make sense of who we are.
Whether it is slavery, the Holocaust, or the genocides of indigenous peoples across the world, literature can help us cultivate public memory so that it doesn't happen again. We should be expanding curriculum to include more of these books, and certainly not pulling them out.
There are ppl experiencing an existential threat to their sense of who they believe themselves to be bc more expansive stories about this country, and the world, are being told. They're trying to keep the ideas from being taught. But I know enough teachers to know it won't work.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
