Not sure whether this should be Cafe Society or IMHO, or even Great Debates.
Last week I took my third-graders to the library. One student, a voracious reader, asked me to recommend a book: he likes adventure stories, he said, where characters travel.
He rejected my first several recommendations because he’d already read them. Then I noticed we were standing by an adaptation of Peter Pan, and before I thought about it, I said, “Oh, this book is excellent!”
Then I thought about the Indian tribe in the book called the Pickaninnies. The student in question is African American. And I got a really weird look on my face and started flipping through the adaptation trying to figure out if they adapted that racial slur out of the book, while he looked at me questioningly.
So, my question: how would you handle that situation?
I ended up resorting to as much honesty as I could. We’ve talked a bit about segregation in class, so I reminded him of that, asked if he knew what I meant by “racism.” He did, and I told him that the original book had some very creative, interesting parts, but also some pretty racist parts, and that if he decided to read it, he might find himself wondering what was wrong with the author that he’d say such things.
The kid decided to get a different book. And I’m not sure if I handled the situation well. I’m especially interested in hearing the perspectives of parents of nonwhite kids.
