Sunday, April 29, 2012

American Indian Books for kids

I discovered this very cool website this morning, American Indians in Children's Literature, after reading avery disturbing article about some happenings in Tucson, AZ where literature of Native peoples and Latino literature has been REMOVED from the school. Read the whole article from ALAN here.  Scroll down to the third panel.

Labels like "promoting communism" and "divisive" have been thrown around. Ethnic studies has been thrown out and banned.

Banned from being taught in the classroom are authors like  Joseph Bruchac, Cynthia Leitich Smith (both of whom are in the Girl Meets Boy anthology), Louise Erdrich, Sherman Alexie, Michael Dorris, and many more. Read them all on American Indians in Children's Literature.

They've made this bill law, and are taking it to the extreme:

According to the bill: Section 15-112. "Prohibited courses and classes; enforcement" states

A. A school district or charter school in this state shall not include in
 its program of instruction any courses or classes that include any of the following:
1) Promote the overthrow of the United States government.
2) Promote resentment toward a race or class of people.
3) Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.
4) Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as
individuals.
(HB 2281)

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