Reading a Little House book again, especially this one, reminds me now that there are some offensive terms used. I know this is, as I have said before, a glimpse into our past. It is, for the author I think, a romanticized version of this past. I know this but the glimpse we also get is into the language and mindset of a society that hopefully has moved on and gotten better.
My question to you adults is, how did you read the words of the song Pa sang about the "Dark..."??? I can't even write the word. Did you have a conversation about this with your kids or did you just skip it?
Our class has just read again, Freedom Summer, which is about the summer of 1964, one I remember well, unfortunately! It was, however, an important moment in our history and this book shines a light on it. It is told through the words of a white boy in the South whose best friend is a black boy. As a teacher of 6,7,and 8 year olds, the challenge of reading this kind of provocative book is nudging but not cramming ideas and thoughts into these little minds. It is letting them take what they can from the content as simply as they need to but leaving the door open for more complex thinking about a difficult time when American life changed for the better!
This Little House book looks different to me this time around because it is in this context and blowing off the attitudes underlying the words is more difficult when I think of all of you reading it too! Perhaps as always we must try to accept Laura as a product of the time within which she lived and remember that the "good old days" are not always just that!
Mary Ann
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