Think Deeply!

Yesterday I blogged about the subjectivity of reading.  I'm still thinking about it.

Maybe part of that reflection had to do with the fact that I spoke to another teacher this week about summer school.  She said they'd read some amazing books, prescribed by the school board for summer school, but full of swearing that had been censored out of each book with thick black marker!  As if teen readers won't know what the blacked-out word is, won't hear it in their minds as their eyes float past it, and never, ever, encounter profanity in their daily lives.

Or maybe it is because I am now tucked away in Niagara-on-the-Lake for a three day workshop on Critical Literacy, which essentially boils down to thinking deeply about things before forming your own opinions.  Tonight, I share an example of why this is a super approach to life.

(Ahem).  WAAAYYY back in the beginning of June, the great Laurie Halse Anderson responded to a Wall Street Journal article that criticized Young Adult Fiction.  The title of the original article was:  * “Darkness Too Visible,” by Meghan Cox Gurdon. The subtitle is “Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity. Why is this considered a good idea?”

I've read both the original article, and Laurie's response.  I encourage YOU to do the same.   If you haven't read yesterday's post yet, you might want to look at that one, too.  And then I encourage you to be "critically literate", think deeply, and form your own well-supported opinion.