Dear LREI Community,
When speaking with our students about their experiences of last Friday’s Climate Strike the most frequent comments went something like this… “It was amazing to be in a place with so many kids,” or, “It was inspiring to realize this was planned by kids,” or, “It’s amazing this was all started by one kid.” YES!
The power of youthful idealism, of youthful passion, of youthful energy – that is what we saw around the world last week. I don’t think that any of the young people who marched on Friday in New York or elsewhere expected immediate, lasting change. They did plan on and succeeded in delivering a message to the adults of the world. They wielded a large lever, nudging this humongous issue a little farther along, helping it to gain momentum.
This demonstration of the strength of youth made me think of all of the ways we as adults seek to control and to take away the agency of children. A common adult move is to restrict access to the world of ideas, to filter information, often in the guise of keeping children safe. I can understand this to some degree, but also worry that we do this more for “us” than for “them,” timely thoughts in the middle of Banned Books Week – an observance devoted to pushing back on the restriction of writing and ideas. I encourage you to explore the Banned Books Week website. You may well find family favorites or books you consider to be “classics” on the lists of banned and challenged books. More than just exploring the list, read a banned book, share it with your children, talk about the themes and words that are so scary to some that they choose to hide these works from the children for whom they were created. What is it about the ideas between the covers of these books that worry us? What would happen if a child were to read them, or hear them? What would happen if a child were inspired by them? What would happen if a child learned from them? What would happen if a child disagreed with them or was scared by them?
We have these conversations with our students throughout the school year as we continue to honestly share ideas and possibilities. While we may speak in different ways to children of different ages, we will not hide the truth, nor will we shrink from challenging conversations. We want to be pushed by the children as they struggle to understand the world, to grapple with hard ideas and, slowly but surely, as they take ownership of the ideas and of the communities, inheriting our successes and our failures.
“Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.” — Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak
“You’re bound to get idears if you go thinkin’ about stuff.” – from The Grapes of Wrath,” John Steinbeck.