Take Back the Media
The media is often named as one of the problems in today’s society. It is constantly sending us a message of what we should consider to be good, cool, and normal. Unfortunately, children also receive these messages. The television, radio, billboards, and even magazines they see at the grocery store send children a message about the world that is completely out of our control. But there is one aspect of the media that children consume over which we have influence- their books. Reading to children is not only an academic issue but a social justice one as well. When children are forced to receive the message that “normal” is thin, white, well-off, able-bodied men, we have the power to show them that there are many other ways to be “normal,” too.
Teaching is inherently political. That means that we as teachers have tremendous power to change the world. That also means that to waste that world healing power is to be purposefully negligent. If children are read books about characters who are all white, mostly male, and from a comfortable socio-economic class, they will think that that is what the world is supposed to look like. They will grow up to become CEOs who sit down to a board meeting with a staff of people who are all white, predominately male, and from a comfortable socio-economic background, and see nothing wrong with it. But if our children are read books with a diverse cast of characters -characters who wear hijabs, characters whose parents ride the bus, characters of every gender identity and every skin color, then when they sit at that board meeting and see only well-off white men, they will know that something is wrong. Because these children will expect to find the diversity that was represented in their books also represented in their lives. And when they don’t see it, they will fight to change it. And they won’t be fighting a revolutionary fight, but will merely be fighting to return the world to what they see as normal.
If your class is filled with children who never see themselves in the media, then you have the power, the responsibility, to create for them a media in which they are present. After all, as educators know, showing has more power than telling. If your class is filled with children who fit today’s media stereotype, then it is your responsibility to show them that the community they inhabit is not the only community there is. By creating for them a media that showcases all people, even those who are different from them, they will learn that their classroom is not a microcosm of all society. They will learn that all experiences are as valid and worthy as their own. This, more than anything else, prepares them for their future.
Hatred grows out of fear, and fear often comes from the unknown. By introducing children to all kinds of people and experiences, you are empowering them to be unafraid, and later, to embrace love and understanding instead of hate. Introduce your children to Julian, from Julian is a Mermaid. That way when they see someone dressed in a gender-nonconforming way, they will feel a connection to that person instead of confusion. Introduce them to Ginny from The Pirate of Kindergarten so that when they encounter someone wearing an eyepatch, they will know he is not a bad guy. Introduce them to Asiya in The Proudest Blue, so when they see someone wearing a hijab, they will know it is beautiful. Books bestow upon educators the power to prepare children to encounter people who are different from them without fear or disgust.
It is challenging to build children up when the media is subtly, sneakily, and often subconsciously tearing them down. But the idea of media is transformed when parents and educators take control over it. By providing children with a diverse bookshelf, you are gifting them an aspect of the media that will build them up instead of tearing them down. A message of love instead of hate. A place that encourages learning instead of fear. After all, being an educator gives one not only the opportunity to change a child’s life but the opportunity to change the world as well.