One of my first years of teaching, I had a student make a comment that has really stuck with me.  My fourth grade students were in book clubs to talk about books they were reading.  James was resistant.  Why, he wanted to know, did we need to talk about the books when the most important thing was how he would think about the book in the future.  He said something to the effect of, “next year something will happen, and I will remember the book and how it helps me understand this thing.”  Out of the mouths of babes. 

I have been thinking about his comment a lot recently for two reasons.

The first reason is personal. For about two months this spring, I traveled in Asia.  Part of my regular travel plan is always to read about the places I am visiting. I read non-fiction books about the places I visit and fiction that is written by authors from those places. I read books for adults and children. These books provide me with a window into the worlds of others. I gain a more nuanced understanding of the experiences of people around the world and build empathy for their lived experiences.  In all the books I read during this journey, a repeated theme was the impact of history on the current lives of people today. As I wandered through markets and streets and rode subways and trains, I wondered how they experienced the tumultuous times through which they have lived. From the 90 year old woman selling sweets in her market stall in Ho Chi Minh City (The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen) to the people my age I saw on the streets and subways of Seoul who lived through the uprisings in Korea against the dictatorship in the early 1980s (Human Acts by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith) and the history of 20^th century Korea through Mirinae Lee’s 8 Lives of a Century old Trickster.  These books opened me to thinking about the world in different ways. I keep going back to scenes from them as I go about my daily life.  Reading these books has made my life richer. As James suggested, the power of these reading experiences is that I keep thinking about them in my daily life.

The other reason is how reading and literacy are taught in schools. NYC schools are switching to a mandated literacy curriculum for K-5 students.  The teachers and schools I know in NYC make deliberate efforts to provide varied reading materials that allow students to build knowledge of the world and themselves.  This windows and mirrors approach to literacy teaching is aligned with current research on reading – it builds content knowledge, it allows readers to build empathy and understanding of others, and it helps them develop a self-identity as a learner and valued member of the community. The mandated curriculum will take away the teachers’ ability to help children find books that are meaningful to them, and it will limit the independent reading choices students have.  I worry about the children losing the chance to build meaningful reading lives – lives that are enriched by self-awareness and a strong sense of their own identities and respect for and knowledge of the wider world.

This past winter, I was delivering a donation of books to a school in a high poverty neighborhood. The books featured diverse characters by authors from diverse backgrounds. A group of fifth grade girls was helping me unbox the books and display them. The children’s eyes lit up. On the cover of one book was an illustration of a girl in a head scarf. One girl grabbed this book. I asked if she was Muslim and she nodded. I identified two other books that featured Muslim characters and handed them to her. Her response was a highlight of my year! She beamed, held the books close to her chest and said that she was so excited to read them. Kids (dare I say we all?) need to see their lives reflected in the books they read. They need to have choice and they need to have the time (and instructional support) to sit with these books and read them. Highly scripted curricula restricts the space teachers and children have for this critical work. The conversations I am having with professional colleagues is how to navigate the mandates with respect while also finding space to build mirrors and windows into the classrooms they serve.