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Ringel

     While reading Ringel’s article, “How Banning Books Marginalizes Children,” a quote really struck me: “More broadly, keeping books about certain types of children or experiences out of libraries or putting them on separate shelves perpetuates a troubling vision of a sheltered American childhood that in fact has rarely existed” (Ringel 4-5). By telling American children that their experiences and lives are not valid or appropriate, we run the risk of making them even more excluded than they already feel. Keeping the books that deal with relevant life experiences out of libraries and on separate shelves is troubling. Even as a twenty-year-old, when I look in the LGBTQ+ section of Barnes and Noble, I barely feel safe around my family. They question why I am even looking in that section to begin with, telling me that it is a sin to read these types of books and that they will "turn me gay." The fact that it is separated allows for more marginalization and could possibly o...
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CRT Dialogue Prep

 1. The first main takeaway I have from the course is that literature has traditionally been published and marketed to serve white, wealthy protestant consumers. Seeing children's literature and the publishing industry as a conservative force is a new view for me, but one that makes sense from a historical standpoint. When we look at which books are banned, we must consider who it is benefitting and who it is disadvantaging.  2. The second main takeaway I have from this course is that we should not shy away from what makes us uncomfortable (Khanna). Our discomfort is rooted in something that can be dissected and examined. To expand on my first point, by paying attention to what makes those with the most social power/status uncomfortable we can get at the root of a lot of social issues. This can be accomplished through literature.  
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Takeaways & Article

 On March 22, 2022, the Washington Posted published an article titled,  Schools nationwide are quietly removing books from their libraries (the link is included at the bottom of my blog--it's a great read). This article imminently caught my attention, and as I read the piece, I noticed how it highlighted and confirmed a lot of our points from class discussions. One main takeaway from class is that representation is essential in a child's psychological growth and wellbeing; Natanson writes that Psychologists, academics, and librarians "see value in introducing children to books that contain challenging material, including of the sexual kind, provided it is done with appropriate context, care, and tact" (5). Natanson makes a point of introducing how professionals see that the books being censored are positive novels for young individuals to read. However, parents who are often not professionals in this field are the ones arguing for the censorship of books. The article ...
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