Thread by @goosenotter

I first taught The Diary of Anne Frank to 8th graders in the mid-2000s.

When I started the unit, I addressed the Holocaust as if the students had foundational knowledge. Imagine my surprise when a student asked me, “Wait, what are you talking about?”

There were several students in my class who had never heard of the Holocaust. At 13, they had never been taught about what actually happened. Instead, it was just a word they had heard without much knowledge.

That evening, I scrambled to find as much as I could to supplement, including a super helpful teaching aide that helped me deliver the necessary background knowledge the kids needed in order to comprehend this moment in history.

The next year, I was better prepared, and we did a whole pre-unit on the Holocaust before ever diving into the text.

I share this for a few reasons. Teaching kids about uncomfortable and tragic topics is necessary.

Under #INLegis HB 1134, I would not have had declared these supplemental materials that I desperately needed at the last moment. And under the clause of disseminating harmful material, I may not have even been able to teach this very powerful text to a group of kids who needed it

We have to teach history, the good, the bad, and the ugly because if we don’t, we’re doomed to repeat it.

We have to teach literature, because if we don’t see new perspectives, we’re doomed to never grow as humans.