Posted on: 27/02/2020
Whether hiding behind the pages of a good book, comforted by the protection of fictional worlds and made-up characters, or empowered by undeniable information, books are equally our protectors and our secret weapons. They allow us to visit new places, walk in others’ shoes and become historians, scientists and explorers. In fact, every time we read something new, we will be changed just a little. For children experiencing things for the very first time, we know this is an essential part of their development.
For all of us, child or not, reading is a window to the world. We read to understand what life is like for others, to gain a sense of someone else’s reality, develop empathy and tolerance for others’ experiences and perhaps take a pre-emptive look at what may be to come for ourselves. Books also provide us with a lens through which to examine our own existence and make sense of the complications of life; without books we may never understand that having an imaginary friend is quite normal, being angry at your parents is ok, and even the closest of friendships are fraught with difficulty. This is a case of the more role models, the better.
As educators, our challenge comes in how to allow access to the best quality books for all children. Children need to see themselves in the books they read, whether reflected back in the faces they see on the page, through connecting with the varied histories of people from their own and other cultures or in relating to the underlying messages thrown up from between the lines. While we can go some way in choosing texts that are representative of the children in our classes, when faced with a class of 30, it can seem like an impossible task to personalise choices for every individual in the group. Which is why we believe that teaching through theme is key.
It’s true that the world is not filled with fairies, wizards, vampires and ghosts, nor is there a book out there to match every topic in the wider curriculum (as much as we would sometimes like to think there is!). But there are plenty of books out there with universal themes that children will relate to, even where characters, settings, content and narratives are not. Some characters and their stories mightmirror children’s experiences directly, however themes of ‘love’, ‘courage’ and ‘belonging’ will be transferrable and applicable to all. Adapted to different contexts, children will find their own meaning in ways that we could not possibly predict.
For literature to become truly personalised we must allow children to explore, to get under the skin of a text, to find points of resonance. If these are different to our own, that’s ok. At the point of writing, given the freedom to innovate on a story, children will naturally draw upon their own experiences to create characters and define the things that happen to them. A child’s story about a talking wardrobe may seem out of place in the collection of Grimm Tales it was inspired by, but so what? This is experience talking and an example of inspiration at its best.
There is a quote by Anais Nin that says, ‘we don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.’ One person’s reality is not another’s, especially if that ‘other’ is a child. So next time you are bamboozled by marking a pile of stories about flying clocks, Nikki Minaj and birthday parties, know that this is literature truly working its magic - allowing children the privilege of living life twice: once in reality and a second time to make sense - their sense - of the world.
Posted in: Curriculum
