Recognizing "Problematic Books"

Today during class we had Dr. Gangi visit our class and present various "problematic books" that are presented to children even still today. She discussed racism, bias, offensive genre, and more discriminating stories. We found most books were racist toward dark colored people and countries outside of Europe. Plots using  negative emotions, cannibalism, undesired portrays, and more toward lower economic countries. Also, many of the stories were sexist again women by depicting them as house workers and lacking knowledge. Although many of us know this is not the case few may believe it to be true due to our backgrounds and thus children have the potential of following that pattern.

Us as teachers must demonstrate various ways of thinking and encourage our students to avoid such thoughts. I believe making students aware of these problematic books early and discussing them could be potential for future corrections and understandings. Dr. Gangi provided proof of this through having our class do a reading theater, where we read fifth graders' responses to her discussion with them on such literature. The students were surprisingly insightful and knowledgeable on the situations. The students noted the racism, offensive wordings, incorrect facts, and more that made them upset. Many said that the books needed to be corrected or newer and better books should be created with proper ideas and facts. This demonstrates the potential for the future and the benefit of sharing and discussing these "Problematic Books" for corrections.