Context MATTERS...

I just read that in July of 2018 the Association of or Library Service to Children, which annually gives out the "Laura Ingalls Wilder Award" every year announced they are removing her name from the award for reasons of political correctness. Because her work "includes expressions of stereotypical attitudes inconsistent with ALSC's core vales for inclusiveness, integrity and respect and responsiveness"... 

I honestly hold all of those things in the highest respect. But they and others who do this miss the point and more importantly the opportunity to teach how culture and society have change. Wilder spoke through the window-pane of the era and which she lived. She grew up on the frontier and was representing that as honestly;y as possible. The specific comment that was noted for this banishment is she wrote about her family was going to move to Kansas "....There were no people there, only Indians". This is the passage that was found offensive. A comment she HERSELF corrected and APOLOGIZED for in her own time, going so far to say: "It was a stupid blunder of mine. Of course Indians are people and I did not imply they were not. It's obvious her family was moving to an area not yet ofver-run with settlers which she wrote that she meant just that.

I understand we as a society do not in any way want to encourage or promote intolerance but I believe history is most important when it is accurate and taken in CONTEXT of the time period. That could easily been pointed out to children along with the fact that the Wilder herself caught the error, took responsibility and then corrected it.

I often think we are teaching our young in a protected womb and that when they get to actually living in the real world they have a very narrow, naive and unrealistic idea of what to expect.

That is my rant for the day...