Many of the books banned from classrooms in the Tucson Unified School District were important books, even classics like Shakespeare's Tempest. One of our favorite blogs, American Indians in Children's Literature, is collecting responses from some of the authors whose books were banned and posting them on the blog. Unfortunately, Mr. Shakespeare cannot respond for himself. Debbie Reese, who runs the blog, promises to keep adding to the list as she finds them.
To read, "Authors Banned in Tucson Unified School District Respond," go to the website of American Indians in Children's Literature.
Showing posts with label "American Indians in Children's Literature". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "American Indians in Children's Literature". Show all posts
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Monday, January 17, 2011
The Mark Twain Controversy over Racially-Charged Language
Our readers are probably familiar with the current controversy over removing certain offensive words from Mark Twain's classics, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, to make the books more suitable for young people to read. Ever since New South Books, a publisher in Alabama, announced the upcoming release of its new edition, there has been a number of debates in the media, blogs, and online commentary between those who view the move as a form of censorship that sanitizes the past and corrupts the force of the novels and those who believe that removing certain offensive racial epitaphs makes the books more accessible to young students. While many have focused on the substitution of the word "nigger" with the word "slave," the new edition also substitutes "Injun" with the more acceptable "Indian."
One of our favorite websites, American Indians in Children's Literature, has provided an interesting analysis from a Native American perspective. The author, Debbie Reese, has given us permission to reprint the analysis for the readers of our blog.
An American Indian perspective on changing "Injun" to "Indian" in TOM SAWYER
by Debbie Reese
Monday, January 10, 2011
On January 3rd, Publisher's Weekly carried an article called Upcoming NewSouth 'Huck Finn' Eliminates the 'N' Word. The article says that NewSouth Books is planning to release a version of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in a single volume titled Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The article also says that the editor, Alan Gribben, replaced "nigger" with "slave" and "injun" with "Indian."
I've received several emails, asking what I think of the change.
One of our favorite websites, American Indians in Children's Literature, has provided an interesting analysis from a Native American perspective. The author, Debbie Reese, has given us permission to reprint the analysis for the readers of our blog.
An American Indian perspective on changing "Injun" to "Indian" in TOM SAWYER
by Debbie Reese
Monday, January 10, 2011
On January 3rd, Publisher's Weekly carried an article called Upcoming NewSouth 'Huck Finn' Eliminates the 'N' Word. The article says that NewSouth Books is planning to release a version of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in a single volume titled Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The article also says that the editor, Alan Gribben, replaced "nigger" with "slave" and "injun" with "Indian."
I've received several emails, asking what I think of the change.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
A Great Resource for Teachers
Several times, we have referred our readers to a very helpful website called, American Indians in Children’s Literature. Just in time for the fall semester, the website has put up several lists of Top Ten Book Recommendations for teachers in the elementary, middle schools, and high schools, who are looking for some authentic readings for their classrooms. There is also a link to an article, "Native Voices," by Debbie Reese from the School Library Journal where readers can find annotations.
The site is run by Debbie Reese, who provides helpful criteria for teachers to use in making selections. Be sure to check out her section on “Evaluate from an informed perspective.” You will find information on Guidelines for Evaluating American Indian websites, Resources for research projects, Tribally-owned Websites, Images of Indians in Children's Books.
A member of the Nambe Pueblo in northern New Mexico and former school teacher, Debbie Reese currently teaches in UIUC's American Indian Studies program.
Keep up the good work Debbie.
The site is run by Debbie Reese, who provides helpful criteria for teachers to use in making selections. Be sure to check out her section on “Evaluate from an informed perspective.” You will find information on Guidelines for Evaluating American Indian websites, Resources for research projects, Tribally-owned Websites, Images of Indians in Children's Books.
A member of the Nambe Pueblo in northern New Mexico and former school teacher, Debbie Reese currently teaches in UIUC's American Indian Studies program.
Keep up the good work Debbie.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
“American Indians in Children’s Literature” Blog
I have been following a very informative blog that would be helpful for teachers who are trying to understand the rich cultural lives of an increasingly diverse student population in our schools. Called, “American Indians in Children’s Literature,” it helps teachers to grow in their understanding, appreciation and discernment of Native American literature. It also corrects so many of our misconceptions. Actually it goes beyond just books and says its mission is to provide "critical perspectives of indigenous peoples in children's books, the school curriculum, popular culture, and society-at-large." As always, we try to bring our readers multiple perspectives on issues.
If you are aware of other resources that would expand our understanding of the cultural diversity of our students, please let us know in your comments to this blog and we will share them.
If you are aware of other resources that would expand our understanding of the cultural diversity of our students, please let us know in your comments to this blog and we will share them.
Monday, April 6, 2009
"American Indians in Children's Literature" Comments on a Recent Article in our Journal
This morning, I came across what looks like an interesting and informative blog called: "American Indians in Children's Literature." On the April 5th posting on the blog, Debbie Reese, a member of the Nambe Pueblo in northern New Mexico and a former school teacher who currently teaches in UIUC's American Indian Studies program, talks about an article that the Journal of Educational Controversy just published in its current issue. Our article was entitled, "Examining Images of Family in Commercial Reading Programs," and it was written by Judith Dunkerly and Frank Serafini. While generally favorable to the article, Debbie Reese raises some interesting questions about the author's account of Native American students in their study. We reproduce the post from her website below, so our readers can consider the concerns expressed and respond with their own thoughts.
Update: Our authors have notified us of an error in their article. The figure for Native American representation should be .9% and not 9%. We will make the correction in the article.
From the American Indians in Children's Literature Website:
Basal Readers
by Debbie Reese
Earlier today I read an article about a research study of basal readers (textbooks used to teach children how to read).
The researchers wanted to see how families are presented in the readers. Here's the citation. Click on the title to go right to the complete article.
Examining Images of Family in Commercial Reading Programs
Judith Dunkerly, M.Ed., Doctoral Student, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Dr. Frank Serafini, Ph.D., Arizona State University
Journal of Education Controversy, Volume 4, Number 1, Winter 2009
The study is definitely worth reading. Texts they studied are:
What stands out for me is the content related to American Indians. In the Findings section of the article, this is under "Ethnicity."
"Ethnic diversity within the basal anthologies more closely mirrored the face of American society statistically. Nineteen (40 percent) of the basal anthology selections depicted Caucasians. Characters of Hispanic and African American descent were portrayed in eleven selections (24 percent) and nine selections (20 percent), respectively. There were seven stories featuring Asian or Pacific Islanders, which made up the other 16 percent. Comparatively, the student population of the school district under study is 9 percent American Indian, 6.6 percent Asian, 28.8 percent Hispanic, 13.8 percent African American, and 49.9 percent Caucasian, figures that are closely aligned with state and national statistics (Population Reference Bureau, 2000).
"While the percentages of race representations in the basal anthologies do favor Caucasians, they are at least comparable to the statistical composition of both national and local populations. However, it is worth noting that while overall portrayals of different ethnicities are fairly representative, 45 percent of children under the age of five are minorities. Coupled with data showing that Hispanics continue to be the largest and fastest growing minority group at 42.7 million people followed closely by African Americans at 39.7 million (U.S. Population, 2006), the comparatively representative portrayal of minorities in basal anthologies will not be so in the near future, if both publishing and population trends continue along the current pattern."
I read that first paragraph several times. None of the stories portray American Indians.
The researchers say the diversity in the readers "more closely mirrored" national statistics. And, they say, the local school district (unnamed) is "9 percent American Indian."
Again, none of the selections in the readers reflect American Indian families.
American Indians are absent from the readers, but, American Indians are absent, too, from the researcher's discussion. They give us that statistic (9 percent) but don't comment on it. To be fair, Dunkerly and Serafini were not looking at Native representation. Perhaps they've written about that elsewhere, and for the purpose of this particular article, it seemed to them unnecessary to note the lack of Native people. I hope, in fact, that they've written about it somewhere, because Serafini teaches in Arizona.
Many stories in readers like the ones Dunkerly and Serafini used for their study are drawn from children's literature. In their discussion of socio-economic status, for example, the researchers refer to Cynthia Rylant's story, The Relatives Came. There's a lot of books like The Relatives Came that publishers can use to portray Native families. One terrific example is Cynthia Leitich Smith's Jingle Dancer. I should head over to UIUC's school collection to see what the basal readers we've got available look like.
Update: Our authors have notified us of an error in their article. The figure for Native American representation should be .9% and not 9%. We will make the correction in the article.
From the American Indians in Children's Literature Website:
Basal Readers
by Debbie Reese
Earlier today I read an article about a research study of basal readers (textbooks used to teach children how to read).
The researchers wanted to see how families are presented in the readers. Here's the citation. Click on the title to go right to the complete article.
Examining Images of Family in Commercial Reading Programs
Judith Dunkerly, M.Ed., Doctoral Student, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Dr. Frank Serafini, Ph.D., Arizona State University
Journal of Education Controversy, Volume 4, Number 1, Winter 2009
The study is definitely worth reading. Texts they studied are:
- Harcourt Trophies
- MacMillan-MacGraw Hill Readers
- Scott Foresman Reading
What stands out for me is the content related to American Indians. In the Findings section of the article, this is under "Ethnicity."
"Ethnic diversity within the basal anthologies more closely mirrored the face of American society statistically. Nineteen (40 percent) of the basal anthology selections depicted Caucasians. Characters of Hispanic and African American descent were portrayed in eleven selections (24 percent) and nine selections (20 percent), respectively. There were seven stories featuring Asian or Pacific Islanders, which made up the other 16 percent. Comparatively, the student population of the school district under study is 9 percent American Indian, 6.6 percent Asian, 28.8 percent Hispanic, 13.8 percent African American, and 49.9 percent Caucasian, figures that are closely aligned with state and national statistics (Population Reference Bureau, 2000).
"While the percentages of race representations in the basal anthologies do favor Caucasians, they are at least comparable to the statistical composition of both national and local populations. However, it is worth noting that while overall portrayals of different ethnicities are fairly representative, 45 percent of children under the age of five are minorities. Coupled with data showing that Hispanics continue to be the largest and fastest growing minority group at 42.7 million people followed closely by African Americans at 39.7 million (U.S. Population, 2006), the comparatively representative portrayal of minorities in basal anthologies will not be so in the near future, if both publishing and population trends continue along the current pattern."
I read that first paragraph several times. None of the stories portray American Indians.
The researchers say the diversity in the readers "more closely mirrored" national statistics. And, they say, the local school district (unnamed) is "9 percent American Indian."
Again, none of the selections in the readers reflect American Indian families.
American Indians are absent from the readers, but, American Indians are absent, too, from the researcher's discussion. They give us that statistic (9 percent) but don't comment on it. To be fair, Dunkerly and Serafini were not looking at Native representation. Perhaps they've written about that elsewhere, and for the purpose of this particular article, it seemed to them unnecessary to note the lack of Native people. I hope, in fact, that they've written about it somewhere, because Serafini teaches in Arizona.
Many stories in readers like the ones Dunkerly and Serafini used for their study are drawn from children's literature. In their discussion of socio-economic status, for example, the researchers refer to Cynthia Rylant's story, The Relatives Came. There's a lot of books like The Relatives Came that publishers can use to portray Native families. One terrific example is Cynthia Leitich Smith's Jingle Dancer. I should head over to UIUC's school collection to see what the basal readers we've got available look like.
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