Rethinking Schools - Politics of Children's Literature

    "Rethinking Popular Culture and Media" is a collection of chapters that aim to challenge the information we have been putting in front of children in schools. These insightful chapters were put together by Elizabeth Marshall and Ozlem Sensoy in 2016. 

    When I was looking through the different chapters, one specifically caught my eye. "Politics of Children's Literature" by Herbert Kohl. When I read the title I was expecting to read about the filtration of information in children's books. This is what was discussed but with a very familiar story. The story of Rosa Parks.

    Kohl outlines the classic story that all children are told when it comes to Rosa Parks and how she refused to give up her seat to a white man. In Kohl's outline, he challenges the classic narrative with what actually transpired and what is kept from children's literature. Herbert Kohl presents the classic story of Rosa Parks that students are frequently told in classrooms below:

    Kohl goes into debunking this common narrative. Here are some highlights below:

1. Rosa Parks was a poor, tired seamstress.

Rosa Parks spent much of her life devoted to community work in Montgomery. She became the first woman in Montgomery to join the NAACP and was the secretary for years. She worked with the youth division and took them on a trip to the Freedom Train, a nonsegregated federal event, much to the frustration of the "political and social establishment" of the time. Working as a seamstress was "secondary" to the work she did in the community. The idea that Parks was a seamstress misrepresents and minimizes her true mission in life to achieve freedom.

2. One day on her way home from work Rosa was tired and sat down at the front of the bus...As the bus got crowded she was asked to give up her seat to a European American man and she refused. The bus driver told her she had to go to the back of the bus, and she still refused to move. It was a hot day, she was tired and angry, and she became very stubborn. The driver called the policeman who arrested Rosa.

African Americans were never allowed to sit in the front of the bus and Rosa Parks did not sit in the front. She sat in the front of the "colored" section of the bus and did not, at first, intend to break any segregation laws. When recounting this story years later in Voices of Freedom by Henry Hampton and Steve Fayer, she recounts when the police came to arrest her and asked, "Why don't you stand up?" Parks responded, "Why do you push us around?" The police responded, "I do not know, but the law is the law and you're under arrest." Having to admit this kind of behavior to young children in school can be embarrassing and some educators think it is best to just avoid. In addition, continuing to use words like "tired and angry" makes the reader think this is a personal issue rather than fighting a social issue.

3. When other African Americans in Montgomery heard this, they became angry too, so they decided to refuse to ride the buses until everyone was allowed to ride together.

The story of Rosa Parks leads readers to believe that this is the first instance of African Americans refusing to give up a seat on the bus. However, Kohl notes that in the three months leading up to the incident, three other African Americans were arrested for refusing to give up their seats. However, E. D Nixon, the NAACP chapter president in Montgomery, were continuously looking into these people's backgrounds to see who was strong enough and respected enough to handle this publicity. Therefore, the boycott was not so much spontaneous as it was waiting to happen,

    The common children's story about Rosa Parks continues to perpetuate the idea that racism no longer exists and it all happened quickly (the boycott took 381 days before change was made). With everything going on today, the issue of racism is far from concluded. When a children's book implies that this marked the end, it is incomplete and dangerous. The idea that we allowed this kind of legalized segregation to persist in the South can be a "sore spot" for many states and educators who wish to keep the conversation positive and sheltered. 

Marshall, Elizabeth, and Sensoy Özlem. Rethinking Popular Culture and Media. Rethinking Schools, 2016.