It’s October 18th and the news is awful: an ongoing war in Ukraine, emerging violence and humanitarian crisis in Israel and Gaza, almost daily reports of climate disasters around the world that result in death and destruction, more deaths in the US from drug overdose and suicide. News that is unspeakably sad and tragic in its everydayness. But the story that brought me to tears this morning was a piece in the New York Times covering the decision by Scholastic Books to create for book fairs in elementary schools a “…separate section for titles that deal with race, gender and sexuality – a response to dozens of state laws that restrict how those subjects are discussed in schools.” These books are in the category named, “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice.” “Those organizing book fairs can include — or exclude — that set of books.”
I was the Scholastic Book Mom for many years as my three youngest children went through our neighborhood elementary school. The Book Fair was one of the highlights of the year for my kids and for many kids and families. For my husband and me, white parents raising two white girls and two black boys, the books about “different” kids and families and about people who had stood up for human rights were critical resources for us. We went straight for the “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice” section at the Fair. I know that was true for many families because I was the Mom who ordered books throughout the year; parents very much appreciated books that helped them educate – and get educated – about all kinds of people and families written in language that was age-appropriate and at emotional/cognitive levels that matched children’s grade levels. Scholastic books were affordable, too, so most children and families could participate in the learning and fun. I recently went to a Fair with my grandson in a neighborhood school in Ohio and the excitement was still in the air.
These books are so critical to opening the eyes of kids and parents to people and experiences outside of their own lived realities. The idea that they will now be separated and possibly just not ordered for the Fair makes me very sad. I know it is so cliché, but the children really are our future. In elementary school, children are open to so many ideas and are willing to embrace the excitement of stories well-told, empathizing with the struggles and triumphs of people who otherwise have little in common with them. That empathy, planted early in the hearts and minds of young and eager students, may later translate into ways of being as adults that can transform our world in lots of positive ways. This scheme to withhold those opportunities for learning and growth, in knowledge, understanding, and compassion, from elementary school students is, to me, the saddest news of the day.