On Mutual Aid and the High Cost of Literacy
Recently, one of my students asked me if the district bought all the books in our school library. I told her yes, but she was skeptical. I then told her that the rugs, the bean bag chairs, the decorations, pens, pencils and occasional snacks, the industrial kettle and neon signs were donated or purchased from donated funds. She nodded her head. This was the answer she was looking for. In schools like mine, where the students are low income and or Black and Brown there’s an expectation of paucity.
I read a short post on Bluesky where a UK reader in the #booksky community was aghast that a school was fundraising after the LA fires. She expected the state to quickly and cleanly replace everything, but even if the state replaces the building the things inside the building are often considered incidental. Too often low income schools lack books. I’ve worked in places where I had to write grants every year to keep the stacks filled with high quality and relevant books. That new Kaylynn Bayron fantasy? Donated. That new Tiffany D. Jackson thriller? Grants.
It takes work to keep a school stocked with books that delight them and the honest truth is that a lot of people just don’t want to do the work or the people who would do the work have been downsized or chased out of the profession altogether by bored community members who have taken up the charge to ban books as a way to make themselves feel like they’re part of some sort of segregationist movement.
If we’re just talking about schools, here are some of the barriers I see when trying to get quality diverse books into the hands of students.
No $$ for new books - Library funding is often the first to be slashed in school districts
No librarians - A certified librarian will be aware of new books and be able to create a reading program. Sadly, librarians have gone the way of counselors and nurses in many districts.
Segregationist policies - Anti-CRT bills of 2021-2022 have come into law and some teachers and librarians are afraid of Blk/Brwn faces on covers altogether
A lack of teaching materials - You can’t teach what you don’t have question sets, vocabulary lists, etc. for.
The easy way will always be the most popular and too often what’s in the “book room” will be chosen before anything innovative. But there are easy ways to help. Check out Donor’s Choose to see if your home school has projects you can fund, get with friends and donate a class set of books to the school, see when the next school board meeting is and pop in. Yes, it will be boring, but you’ll be plugged in when and if budgets are discussed.
While you’re here:
I'm raising coins to get 🧤gloves and ☕ cocoa for my students for upcoming cold days. Donations are doubled today if you can help out!
Doubling Code: LEVELUP