Feedback, please
This request is for parents and teachers.
In November I'll be at the annual conference of the National Council of Teachers of English. I'm on the Committee on Racism and Bias, and we'll be meeting at the conference. It might be nice to share with the rest of the committee "stories from the field." That is, stories from parents and teachers about positive/negative experiences with books by/about American Indians, or books that have Native characters.
This can be wide-ranging. A good book, a bad book, what you found when you tried to speak to a teacher or librarians about a book... How a child responded to a particular book...
Send me your comments and I'll share them. Send right to my email: (debreese@uiuc.edu).
Established in 2006 by Dr. Debbie Reese of Nambé Pueblo, American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) provides critical analysis of Indigenous peoples in children's and young adult books. Dr. Jean Mendoza joined AICL as a co-editor in 2016.
Debbie, ouchie, ouchie a bit, here! I have taught for many years, volunteer in main part, taught 2's and 3's in preschool as an "official" teacher. I have a weak immune system and other health problems and am totally unable now to pursue a teaching career, much as I love it, much as I am gifted for it. I also, due to the same health problems, hever had the choice of having or not having children. I have none. but I'm an auntie and an great-auntie many times over, and children still visit me even in my own home now. Also, children's books and literature are and always have been my personal favorite type of literature. I'm a heavy library user and friends with my librrians locally.
ReplyDeleteI hope I can still qualify somehow? Even though I don't fit in the parent/teacher box? To send my indepth response to "Brother Eagle, Sister Sky?" There's nothing I disagree with in the Oyate review, but there are specific additional problems with that book that were missed in that review, that are of grave concern, factually. Just a clue: Not a salmon, a raven, a whale, an otter or any shellfish either all very, very important species for the Suquamish tribe, "Chief" Seattle's tribe (and the tribe uses that name with quotes as I have typed) in that entire book... He wasn't a "Chief" either, BTW, but one of the hereditary leaders, elders of the tribe.
Children who are tribal members were playing in my street and at my front door...and I spent a lot of time with them, in the last two years, even with my busy home work schedule and my bad health, talking, listening, mainly, but, the book does upset me greatly. Mainly as to why it is so popular.
If you aren't intersted, and don't feel pressured either way, I am totally for free speech and thinking type of person, and it will not upset me personally, I'll send it on to Oyate just fill out their info on the book.