Read The Books, Read Banned Books

 

This week more books have been banned as we saw when the headline: "Tennessee school board bans Holocaust graphic novel ‘Maus’" crossed our social media feeds.

As The Skim put it in today's email:

Across the country, schools are banning books about topics like race, LGBTQ, and gender. Think: “The Hate U Give,” “George,” “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You,” and more. They’re being pulled from school bookshelves in states like Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. One Pennsylvania school board tried to ban a long list of anti-racism books. Now, a Tennessee school board is banning “Maus” — a Pultizer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust — for profanity and an image of a nude woman.

Often the excuse given is such books make students uncomfortable but in reality rarely is it the students who are uncomfortable. It typically is the adults who are uncomfortable and think these topics are too challenging for their kids. And it is often students who take up the drums and protest they are not being allowed to learn about these topics. 

Note:

• People come in all genders and sexualities (so children also come in all genders and sexualities)
• People come in all races and ethnicities (so children also come in all races and ethnicities)
• People have been mean, racist, sexist, homophobic etc. throughout time so students need to wrestle with these truths

Here is a blog post I wrote for Banned Book Week back in September: Banned Books Week 2021 

While it is not banned book week it might be wise to commit to reading at least one banned book during February and a good place to start might be "Maus." Reading hard books, Reading challenging books, Reading books that make us see the world differently, is important.