Here's an interview with a Seuss biographer: http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2009-03/Questions.html. I recognized that Seuss had some definite political leanings but I never thought it an issue while reading his books both as a kid and to my own children. I think that "Green Eggs and Ham" was my favorite--I had it memorized for a couple of years there.
Though they're not very politically correct, my favorites to read to my kids were the B'rer Rabbit stories. Great fun, especially when attempted with dialect which used to delight my children. Wonderful stories, too.
I once got into an argument with one of my children's grade school teachers over a book my daughter brought home regarding Columbus and the negative effect of Europeans on the native population. The pictures were lovely, showing beautiful images of the native population against the jungle backdrop. But, the ones depicting the Europeans showed rat like faces (see Rivera, Diego) with menacing scowls. I pointed out that the photos were stereotyping racial groups, something that the school should avoid. Since this was stereotyping from what they viewed in a reverse standpoint, they just couldn't see what the problem was.
Education is an interesting business.
No comments:
Post a Comment